For Freedoms presents AMERICA(!) THE BEAUTIFUL(?)

For Freedoms presents

AMERICA(!) THE BEAUTIFUL(?)

A Night of Jazz, Blues, Hip-Hop, and Poetry 

With Artists: aja monet, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Xiuhtezcatl, and Kai the Universe

Click here for tickets!

Jazz, soul, hip-hop, and poetry combine for an eye-opening exploration of belonging, freedom, and civic life.

For Freedoms is thrilled to present AMERICA(!) THE BEAUTIFUL(?), an immersive evening of performance and civic imagination. Happening on Saturday, October 3, at 8pm (doors at 6:30pm) at The Ford in Los Angeles, this gathering brings together a constellation of artists working at the intersection of artistic expression and collective action. We invite you to gather with us in a shared exploration of freedom and belonging through live music, rhythm, poetry, and beats.

The experience begins with a live DJ set by artist-storyteller Kai the Universe, setting the tone for the evening with fresh beats. Next up is Xochimilca recording artist and activist Xiuhtezcatl who treats ancestral knowledge as a catalyst for solidarity, resistance, and hope. His music pulses with urgency and possibility, grounding in rhythm and purpose while calling listeners into deeper connection. Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s sermon-like performance will take time to reflect on the force of gathering and togetherness in America today. The night culminates with surrealist blues poet aja monet, joined by a live band blending jazz and soul with poems that move between tenderness and power, fragility, and insurgency. Together, these artists will transform the stage into a space of reckoning, asking: for whom America the beautiful?

This gathering is the debut of a six-city roadshow series unfolding under AMERICA, THE BEAUTIFUL, a nationwide movement organized by For Freedoms and Future Currents. Each event is anchored in one of six American questions, developed with Marc Bamuthi Joseph, creating regionally rooted in activations that contribute to a larger national dialogue about democracy and belonging. The series will travel across the country, weaving together local voices and creative practices into a shared story of who we are and who we are becoming. 

Produced in partnership with The Ford as part of its FordLab Producers Program Series, the evening is supported with promotional support from Future Currents, Fall of Freedom, and LAist.