Sponsored by the American Cancer Soceity: MIKE-E Brings AfroFlow to NDSU

Hip hop and spoken word artist MIKE-E will bring his exciting lyric-rich, rhythmic AfroFlow tour to NDSU on Thursday, February 12 at a free concert in the Great Plains Ballroom in the Memorial Union. Across that stage, MIKE-E and his fellow tourmates: singer Kenny Watson, DJ Invisible, and percussionist Sowande Keita will not only present an evening of music and song, but a message. Two messages, actually.

Sponsored by the American Cancer Society, the AfroFlow tour will continue to raise awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco use and the prevention and treatment of all types of cancers, not just those caused by smoking.

“I was writing poems about the history and roots of tobacco long before the American Cancer Society approached me,” MIKE-E said in an interview this week. “Some forward-thinking people out of North Carolina approached me. I performed for them and I developed a larger concept, which they liked.”

MIKE-E isn’t doing this just to have a charity sponsor as many artists have begun to acquire as a PC way to sell CDs. “Selling CDs might be fifth on the list of priorities when we do the AfroFlow tour,” MIKE-E said.

“We really have to embrace the mission. Beyond performances, all the artists on the tour are very gracious. We go to American Cancer Society Hope Lodges. We go to hospitals. We go to kids’ cancer units. We’ve been to middle schools, high schools, elementary schools, churches, night clubs.” All bringing this message of prevention and hope for a cure.

For MIKE-E, especially, this isn’t just an intellectual exercise in altruism. “I feel blessed and honored to work with the American Cancer Society because I have lost friends and family to cancer, and I have friends and family who are cancer survivors,” he explained. “I did a PSA with my aunt who is a cancer survivor and who is also a heart transplant survivor as a result of the chemo.” Currently, his own father is battling cancer. “He has radiation treatments in the morning and then is working to help promote this tour.”

And the commitment of the American Cancer Society has been phenomenal, MIKE-E says. “There is a boldness when you put nearly a dozen African-Americans on a bus, call it AfroFlow, and send it to the heart of tobacco country! It was very forward thinking. We’re proud of that, and we’re proud to be working directly with them.”

The second mission that MIKE-E and the AfroFlow tour is doing is presenting a visual and musical spectrum of African roots. He himself was born in Ethiopia and came to the US when he was about three. He grew up in northern Virginia and is now based in Detroit. “When we say AfroFlow, people expect to see kente cloth and things that people have come to see as Afro-centric,” MIKE-E explained. “Walking and talking a certain way doesn’t heighten or diminish one’s African heritage. Sometimes, people are surprised because it’s an interesting mix from what they expect. You know, Chuck Berry is AfroFlow. BB King is AfroFlow. Jimi Hendrix is AfroFlow. That’s the way we see it.”

For MIKE-E, the AfroFlow mix of singers, spoken word, drums, and a DJ artist is based on an ancient tradition of drummers and griots (silent “t”) who traveled all across Africa. Today, AfroFlow represents a small portion of the African diaspora with Sowande Keita West African drumming and MIKE-E’s Ethiopian roots.

DJ Invisible represents the modern and Kenny Watson, who is comfortable singing nearly every genre of music available today from gospel to soul to R&B to opera. “It all represents the artistry that came out of the diaspora. At the beginning, you had the griots and the drummer who traveled together. In modern hip hop times, you have the rapper and the DJ. There’s an interesting dynamic there.”
AfroFlow offers a lot of inner awareness but also promises to present a great show. And it’s free.