Baba Brinkman traces the roots of faith from tribal animism to radical Islam to Justin Bieber thanking god at the MTV Teen Choice Awards in his latest show, The Rap Guide to Religion. The show fires up the Waterfront Theatre stage on Granville Island, for one night only, to kick off the Fringe’s new project, Theatre Wire. Brinkman is all set to tell the many-centuries old, (and long), tale of religion, through the young and innovative language of rap. Old meets new, conservative meets crazy liberal, and stoic composure meets extreme exposure. The theatrical fusion we have all been waiting for is finally here!
The award winning rapper and playwright first performed The (Rap) Canterbury Tales at the Vancouver Fringe Festival in 2003. In 2004 he took it to the Edinburgh Fringe where it was a smash success. Since then, Baba Brinkman has been rapping about wilderness, human nature, business, medicine, and evolution in albums and on stage. He is a playwright, a rap artist, an actor, a writer and a treeplanter. Brinkman has released ten rap albums since 2004 with titles fraught with controversy like The Rap Guide to Evolution, Canterbury Tales Remixed, The Rap Guide to Human Nature and Lit-Hop. Every project that Brinkman has been a part of has asked daring questions. No topic is off-bounds!
“We love it when artists who started at the Fringe stay connected to us after they’ve become known internationally,” Fringe Executive Director David Jordan says. “We’re thrilled to be presenting Baba. It’s exciting to see such an intellectual topic presented in a unique style.”
While creating The Rap Guide to Evolution to honour Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday, Baba read about the evolutionary origins of religion. He concluded that religion is an instinct and this could be a point of reconciliation between believers and non-believers. Thus The Rap Guide to Religion was born. He sent his lyrics to evolutionary religious studies scholars for fact-checking so he could continue to call himself the only “peer-reviewed rapper.”
The Rap Guide to Religion heads to Vancouver to stir up some heated debates. The show received critical acclaim after a seven month run at the Soho Playhouse off-Broadway in New York and is now hungry for some Van city love:
★ ★ ★ ★ “Brinkman’s confidence and delight in wordplay make it a pleasure to sit back and go with his flow.” —Time Out New York
“This isn’t some fly-by-night rapsploitation novelty … it’s clear Brinkman has his act together.” —Village Voice
One night only on July 23, 2015 at the Waterfront Theatre. Admission: $25, Tickets and Info: TheatreWire.com
Don’t miss it!
-Vancouver Fringe Festival