Ayodele Nzinga, the Poet Laureate of Oakland and the director of the play “Pac and Biggie Are Dead” by Biko Eisen-Martin, which is running at BAM House in Oakland through June 30, 2024, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky
Ayodele Nzinga, known as “Wordslinger,” is the lead curator of BAM House (formerly the Flight Deck and Piano Fight Oakland), YBCA Creative Corps fellow, director of BAMD Fest, an international biennial arts festival in 2025, and creator and director of Lower Bottom Playaz, Inc. She has written a book of poetry, “Incandescent,” and is also an actor and playwright.
“Pac and Biggie Are Dead” focuses on two deceased rap artists who were central to the art form, Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. in a place that might be heaven as they ponder their past and their present, in a non-linear work that attempts to put their art in the context of the African American experience.