[dramatic synthesizer music]
- Kiran Vedula: Music has always allowed me a way of meeting people.
It's always allowed me a way of having confidence in myself
and helping people have joy.
[mellow synth music]
My name is Kiran Vedula.
I'm a musician, producer, and educator based in Milwaukee,
and I'm also the founder of Flutes at Dawn.
One, two, three, four.
[mellow groove music]
We are a community-based performing arts nonprofit.
We're focused on music, dance, and digital media.
And the key word with Flutes at Dawn's mission
is 'cross-cultural understanding.'
My show that's coming up, Hip-Hop DNA, is all about that.
* Too cold and that sucks, my bounce *
- Kiran Vedula: Hip-Hop DNA is a tribute
to the music we call hip-hop.
And the music we call hip-hop
is made up of drum breaks, samples,
and this lineage of traditional rhythms
that's now found its form in all these beats and everything.
[heels tapping]
It's tracing those connections,
and it's a tribute to the music as a whole
and to the pioneers and the artists.
* I'm infinite
- Kiran Vedula: I feel like Hip-Hop DNA
is kind of like one of the flagships.
It's not just a show now.
It's almost like a brand and entity in and of itself.
[mellow percussive music]
We were able to do 12 weeks
of Hip-Hop DNA workshops over the summer.
And then, the most advanced students
will actually get to be part of the performance, too.
* So next on the mic is, oh, my girl *
* Come on, girl, sing that song *
- Kiran Vedula: Even when I first started working with kids,
it wasn't my words or who I was.
It was the music that connected me to them.
* Whip your hair, whip your hair *
- I'm always looking up
for someone to inspire me and help me,
and I'm always looking down to somebody to mentor and help.
I think that's also part of my culture as an Indian,
and literally, a boy like me, when I was nine or 10,
I would actually go to live with my teacher,
my guru, or my mentor.
I mean, you know, there's this whole process.
So, education and mentorship, I think,
is just in my blood, too.
[upbeat percussive music]
Welcome to the stage.
It's Brooklyn.
- Band: Woo
- Brooklyn: * And I said a hip-hop, hippity, hippity *
* Let's hip hip-hop, you don't stop the rockin' *
- I've just had so much success with that
and so much fulfillment.
And again, that youthful energy always feeds back
into my music, too.
And it helps me stay young.
It helps me stay fresh
without, you know, trying to be young myself.
[Kiran laughing]
I guess I would answer the question,
what does music mean to me,
with the answer of, like, what has it done for me?
These songs are meditations for me to open my heart
to get out of my own way.
Sometimes, I see people that I haven't seen in a while.
It's like, "Hey, man, you still doing music?"
I'm like, "I don't know what else I could ever do."
Like, I don't even know
how to do anything else at this point.
* Living my life like it's golden, golden, golden *
- Luckily, music has led me to have
all these other opportunities to speak in front of people,
or write, or study in different ways, and teach,
not only just being on stage.
So, it's just been beautiful backbone.
Thank you very much.
We'll see y'all again. [audience clapping]