Bianca Mikahn
Mind's Eye
Bianca Mikahn is a poet, musician, and art activist. Her work with organizations like Flobots.org are based around original concepts and themes that contribute to social justice. Both her own since of personal justice, and justice in a society where art is revolutionary.
“I started using activism without even realizing I was doing it. The different challenges I experienced in
my life as brown and wild and everything I am, I was always writing to get myself over some specific pain
or confusion about the world and it felt important to me,” she says.
Using poetry and music to further her movement, Mikahn took in partnerships with Flobots.org and others like Art From Ashes and the youth-centered “Check Your Head” with Mental Health of America to enhance her artivism. Combining the power of poetry and song is a notion Bianca has honed throughout her years as a musician and songwriter.
The current Mercury Café Slam Master, Mikahn competed on the Mercury Café team in 2006, the year the team brought home first place. Utilizing her skills as a teacher and facilitator, Bianca co-coached the Slam Nuba poetry team in 2008, the team breaking the top ten under her tutelage.
Mikahn is heavily sought after by organizations that reach out to youth through artistic measures like Flobots.org, to build curriculum that is creativity and balanced mental health based. At the time of building partnerships and collaborations with non-profits, Mikahn continued her work as an MC. Working with Paradox for many of her formative years as a rapper, Bianca used the time to sharpen her writing skills and rhyme execution. Eventually becoming the sole driving force behind her sound (with production help from Mercury Sauce and former band member, Acezi), Bianca released her solo debut album, Left Fist Evolution.
“Left Fist Evolution was really the culmination of me learning about knowledge of self and personal
justice that I sought after. It was really the blow-up. How can society have justice if I don’t feel like I do?
The writing featured on Left Fist Evolution was the culmination of her work as a mental health advocate, activist and artist, and the result was an honest, vulnerable endeavor. Mikahn used her knowledge and passion for the microphone to detail the transcendence through her struggles. As an accomplished musician Bianca Mikahn combines art, activism, music and poetry to be a voice for change in a society where the voice of women MCs is often diminished.
The debut is heady and absolutely personal. Mikahn readily talks about the challenges she faced with coming out of a depression while writing the album, the work itself was her therapy.
“Now that I’m on the other side of the things that were disgustingly tough, I know now that things are
awesome. The new album will be calmer. Not in emotion, but in delivery. This art is my personal belief.”
Bianca continues her work with flobots.org, creating innovative new strategies for carrying for the music in her message of balance and thoughtful wellness. She is also working on a new album, tentatively titled, The Breathrough.
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