BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange Theater Artist in Residence and 2006 AUDELCO-VIV Award-winner Baraka de Soleil and his company D  UNDERBELLY present "Koool-Aid Luv Odyssey", a multimedia performance collage that combines theater, movement, video and a live DJ.

"Koool-aid" is a vibrant collage of afros, saturated colors, raucous testifying and ambient and reggae-rock soundscapes. It comes across as a rock spectacle that reflects the likes of Jimi Hendrix, James Brown and Rick James.

“'Koool-aid' is about riding inside of a fixation," says Baraka, "jonesing for it, being satiated by it, and then being overwhelmed by it until it dries you up. We search for comfort in places that sometimes destroy us, or make us addicted or comatose.”

"Koool-aid Luv Odyssey" is being performed by Baraka de Soleil, Sunder Ashni, Francine Sheffield, and Daniel Givens, and will feature special guest performers.

Koool-Aid Luv Odyssey was created through a residency at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange with major funding from:

• NYSCA Dance Rehearsal Space program

• Theater and SLP. Scherman Foundation

• Lila Acheson Wallace New Theater Fund of the NY Community Trust

• ART/NY, The Mellon Foundation

• NY Times Foundation

• Mertz-Gilmore Foundation

Interview with Baraka de Soleil by BAX Executive Director Marya Warshaw.

Reviews from past performances of Koool-Aid Luv Odyssey:

 

"Listening to de Soleil speak...is like sliding into the flow of a poetry jam."
Baltimore CityPaper