Bay Area Solidarity Summer (BASS) is an activist summer camp for progressive South Asian youth, ages 18–23, which teaches political organizing skills with an emphasis on the arts. On May 11, a benefit show for BASS at Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland brings a roster of solid indie and experimental talent hailing from various South Asian diasporas.
WiseChild, a producer of lo-fi hip-hop beats in the vein of Madlib and J.Dilla, tops the bill. He recently collaborated with Rupi Kaur, the wildly popular millennial poet, to score five of her spoken word pieces on her recent tour. Kohinoorgasm joins him; prior to relocating to L.A., she made waves in Oakland’s experimental music scene with her charmingly minimalist pop album Titalee, where she sings in both Hindi and English.
Richmond singer and rapper Pallavi rounds out the bill with her moody electronic R&B, along with Oakland’s Ruby Mountain, whose electronic pop channels humans’ connections to the cosmos. Expect an eclectic evening of genre-bending music for a good cause.