CyberCypher NYC/Berlin

What happens when a global pandemic throws your plans overboard? For the past 11 years, young artists from both sides of the Atlantic have been meeting in NYC and Berlin. Not wanting to sit this year out and driven by an enormous desire to further their transatlantic exchange, they decide to take it virtual: CyberCypher NYC/Berlin is born. In hip hop and rap culture, cypher stands for an informal gathering of artists (musicians, beatboxers and dancers) for the purpose of improvising together. And now, these young artists from Brooklyn and Kreuzberg, the Bronx and Neukölln are inviting you to follow them as they get to know each other virtually, create lyrics, make songs and shoot videos. Follow their challenges with new mediums, ask questions and see human relationships blossom accross cultural boundaries, despite all difficulties.

CyberCypher Show

Watch Gangway Beatz and the Hip Hop Re:Education Project celebrate young artists from the USA and Germany: Music video screenings, interviews with project participants and, of course, that BronxBerlinConnection energy that has rocked stages, classrooms and subway platforms for a decade plus!

YOUR TURN: GET INVOLVED

What would you like to know?

The Berlin and New York groups are ready to go. Now it`s your turn: Are there any questions you`d like to the participating artists? Commentary? Encouraging words? You can ask anything: Life in Germany, German language, artistic trajectory, creative process, pandemic life etc. Submit your questions here. The groups will chose a few to answer at their next meeting and we will post their answers here as well.

First meeting: Introductions

Artist portraits: Berlin group

E-nnaoui Youssef

Youssef (producer, dancer), 26 years old, from Morocco by way of Charlottenburg (Berlin). Artist name: E-nnaoui Youssef.

Fariz

Kevin (songwriter, rap artist), 23 years old, from Schöneberg (Berlin). Artist name: Fariz.

Jahpazz

Gottfried (MC), 30 years old, from Neukölln (Berlin). Artist name: Jahpazz.

Jerzey

George Dröhmert (rap artist, singer, songwriter, teacher), 26 years old from Berlin. Artist name: Jerzey.

Johannah

Johannah (singer & songwriter), 23 years old, from Berlin.

Lennard

Lennard Fleischmann (social worker, beatmaker), 24 years old, from Neukölln (Berlin).

Malika

Malika Schuh (singer, writer, dancer), 23 years old, from Wedding (Berlin).

Max Bill

Max (rap artist), 22 years old, from Berlin. Artist name: Max Bill.

Mayesta

Esther Mayombo (singer & songwriter), 22 years old, from Berlin. Artist name: Mayesta.

Samo Wayne

Sammy Yakoub (mixing engineer, songwriter, rap artist), 26 years old, from Berlin. Artist name: Samo Wayne.

T Bizzy

Tolga (MC), 24 years old, from Kreuzberg. Artist name: T Bizzy.

Valentina

Valentina (dancer, video- and photographer), 22 years old.

Artist portraits: New York group

Anes

Anes Ahmed (multidisciplinary writer, visual artist, producer, filmmaker), 21 years old, from Brooklyn.

Ava Elizabeth

Ava Elizabeth Novak (film and theatre maker), 21 years old, from Ridgewood, Queens & Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Bah Black

Basheam Harrell-Reid (MC, lyricist, poet), 24 years old, from Hylin Houses, Brooklyn. Artist name: Bah Black.

Gi-Ge

Gi-Ge Gordon (visual artist), 17 years old, from East Flatbush, Brooklyn.

Miky

Miky Hustles (MC, audio engineer, mentor), 29 years old, from Borough Park, Brooklyn.

Onesimus

Kenny Goubran (dancer, performer, MC, musician), 21 years old, from Lower East Side, Manhattan. Artist name: Onesimus.

Quick

Tatiana Harrison (choreographer, song writer, vocalist, painter), 24 years old, from South Bronx and the Lower East Side. Artist name: Quick.

Tuanminh

Tuanminh Do (musician, writer, dancer, illustrator), 21 years old, from the Lower East Side, Manhattan (also representing Warszawa and Hà Nội).

Project organizers

© Olad Aden Olad Aden is an African-German-American street social worker, photographer and videographer based in Berlin, Germany. He has been working with youth in a Berlin detention facility (Zwischen Welten) and facilitating cultural exchanges between young people from Berlin and New York (BronxBerlinConnection). His projects include Translating Hip Hop (Manila /Bogota/Beirut/Nairobi/Berlin); SPOKEN WOR:L:DS, a literature/rap project (Berlin/Nairobi) and DExZA & Be-troit (Detroit/Berlin), a performance exchange program.

© Farbeon Fabian “Farbeon” Saucedo is a world-renowned hip hop artist and activist based in Brooklyn, New York. Farbeon champions a community-based approach to the creative process and has inspired young and old for nearly 20 years throughout the United States and abroad: in Germany, Indonesia, Iraq, Eritrea, and Thailand. He is the founding director of the Hip Hop Re:Education Project, a creative youth development organization that engages young artists in the hip hop elements.

This project is organized in collaboration with Gangway e.V., Hip Hop Re: Education Project and the Goethe-Institut New York.

Contact us

Questions?
Contact us at teacherservice-newyork@goethe.de.