At the BCA, #HellaBlack returns and is bigger than ever

Last spring, poet and artist Amanda Shea found herself cleaning up her teenage son's room. As she picked up items from the floor and organized, she started to think back to her own childhood. "I was triggered heavily," Shea says. "It was like I was watching my childhood replay of my mom throwing away my toys when I didn't clean my room properly or just berating me and screaming at me for not doing it."

Then, she felt the overwhelming urge to write. She penned a poem in just a few minutes. In that time, she felt like a conduit for something larger than herself and it made her think about the purpose of art in general. "How many other people create from a space where they feel something speaking through them, whether it's God, the ancestors, the universe? And how does it... intertwine within their art?"

The practice of creation is sacred in many ways, says Shea. So when the Boston Center of the Arts reached out to her to curate their event, #HellaBlack Mixtape Vol. 6, she had an idea of what the theme for the night would be. "Spirituality" was a close contender for a theme but Shea chose "sacred." "Our art is extremely sacred," she points out. "I wanted to challenge [the idea] of what it means to create, not just for our own selves but for our audiences too."

#HellaBlack was created in 2019 by Lyndsay Allyn Cox to provide a space for Black artists to showcase their work in an unapologetic way. On April 8, #HellaBlack returns but in a new location. This year, it'll be at the BCA's Cyclorama — which holds around 300 people, double the occupancy of the Plaza Theatre, the event's previous location.

It's an important step towards growing the event, says Michaila Cowie, the associate director of theatre arts at the BCA. All past iterations of #HellaBlack have sold out, demonstrating the deep need and desire to see nuanced and complex Black artistry. "A lot of artists don't necessarily know that they have the access to the Cyclorama," says Cowie. "So this is our way of giving access to artists to this space but also getting audience members to come in here and experience art."

Applications to perform at #HellaBlack doubled from the previous year. It was hard for Shea to narrow down which artists would take the stage. Ultimately, she chose an intergenerational mix of seven artists and two youth artists. "It was really important for me to incorporate people that have been doing the work but may have never been in a position to be seen at this level," she says. "[The featured artists] do different things, different mediums that don't usually get booked for spaces like this."

One of them is rapper, actress and author Capella Auriga. Her delivery style and the content of her lyrics have drawn comparisons to other artists like Lauryn Hill and Noname but Auriga has crafted her own sound since she started making music in 2017. "As I learn, I teach," she says. "I do that through my music. Whether that's me spitting about the way I pray, or the way I meditate, or the tools that I'm learning."

Auriga says #HellaBlack is more than just a gig or performance. "I realized that this is an opportunity for me to share a space with women who align with me and who have everything to bring and are intentional about energy. It's a spiritual experience." Other performers for the night include poet and playwright Letta Neely and drag artist Killah Croc.

As an event, #HellaBlack disrupts some of the overarching, prevalent narratives about Boston, including the idea that the city is devoid of people of color. To have it in the South End, an area of Boston that was once heavily populated by immigrants and residents of color and has since been gentrified, makes a statement about the city and who belongs here. "Us being here and performing in this space, it's a reminder," says Auriga. "This is our land. It was built on our backs."

Black and brown people in Boston experience high levels of displacement along with other inequities in areas like income and healthcare. It makes it hard for Black artists in particular to not only stay in Boston, but to thrive here as well — Shea intimately knows this. "On every level of what freedom means... there are still so many gaps and we're still very much a marginalized people in the city of Boston."

Having an event like #HellaBlack, where nuanced Black artistry is centered and celebrated, goes beyond just providing a physical space. "The goal is to create that inspiration for other institutions to implement not only programming but further opportunities of longevity and consistency for artists who identify as Black and brown," says Shea. "We are not monoliths."

With the theme being "sacred," the idea is that the night proves therapeutic in some way to those who attend. Shea points out that calling the event a "safe space" isn't necessarily accurate because what is a trigger for some may be a balm for others.  "What I can guarantee is that you will be moved, that you will feel something," she says. "I think we're in a space of vulnerability... the community needs to see this, especially with everything that's going on in our social climate."

#HellaBlack Vol 6: Sacred takes place at BCA Cyclorama on Monday, April 8, from 7 - 9 pm.