Friday, April 5, 2024

3:00 - 4:30 p.m.

Archives & Special Collections Instruction Room, 340 Hillman Library

Free and open to the public.

Join Liberato Kani, a Peruvian hip-hop artist, and Frzy, a Pittsburgh hip-hop artist, as they sit down with Dr. Zuly Inirio of Pitt’s Center for Ethnic Studies Research to discuss how cultural identity, language, and activism impact their artistry.

Liberato Kani is a Peruvian Quechua rapper and composer. His music fuses the global rap/hip hop genre with the Andean, Amazonian, and Afro-Peruvian culture sounds in the Quechua language. He has performed globally, including in Berlin (Germany) and on an international tour in 2018 in Cuba, Chile, Spain, and the United States. He has also given concerts in his country, such as the Gran Teatro Nacional, and at important events like the International Festival of Social Innovation (FIIS), Jammin Peru, and the Lima International Book Fair (FIL). Besides making music, he is also a high school teacher who graduated from the Education program at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Enrique Guzman y Valle University (La Cantuta). As a teacher, he has worked giving multiple workshops in Quechua for children and young people in Lima and beyond. In 2016, he released his first album Rimay Pueblo which contains some of his most essential hits, including Kaykunapi and Harawi. Among his main presentations happened at the “International Year of Indigenous Languages 2019” organized by UNESCO in Guatemala and at the AfueraFest of the Gran Teatro Nacional in Lima (2020). Currently, Liberato Kani performs in different cultural and educational spaces and gives talks as part of his social commitment to fight for a Quechua-speaking people and for a multilingual Peru. He just released his new album called Pawaspay.

Harvey “Frzy” Daniels headlined a historic, one-night concert with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at Heinz Hall on November 8, 2023, the world premiere of an orchestration of the nationally known rapper’s new album, Success.  He was honored in City Paper’s People of the Year issue as Musician of the Year 2023 for “taking his craft to new audiences and new heights.” In 2018 Frzy became an Emmy Award winner for his collaboration with WQED on his hip-hop version of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor.” That year the City of Pittsburgh was inspired to officially declare January 11 as “Frzy Day.” Since then, Frzy has become a 2020 Guinness World Record holder for longest freestyle rap at 31 hours, a Smiley Face Cookie at Eat ‘N Park, and has had a mural created in his likeness by famous muralist, Jeremy Raymer. Frzy is a member of the Recording Academy (which bestows the annual GRAMMY Awards) and was elected a Governor of the Board for the Philadelphia Chapter of the Recording Academy. Frzy also serves on the Board of Directors of The Lindsay Theater, all this while being the face of Steve Madden’s “Self Made” Campaign. He has helped to raise more than one million dollars for charities and in May 2023 helped to increase diversity and inclusion awareness via the successful “Books to Bars” campaign with the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

Hosted by the University of Pittsburgh Library System, in partnership with the City of Asylum, Center for Latin American Studies, Less-Commonly-Taught Languages Center, Department of Linguistics, Department of Music, Department of Anthropology, Dietrich School Undergraduate Dean’s Office, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies Adriana Helbig, Dietrich School Diversity Funds, Residence Life, Student Affairs, Latin American Graduate Organization of Students, Center for Ethnic Studies Research, The Department of Languages, Cultures and Applied Linguistics (CMU), The Humanities Scholars Program (CMU), The Hospitality Initiative of the Center for the Arts in Society (CMU).

Interested in more? Attend Quechua in Resistance: An Evening of Peruvian Hip Hop with Rapper Liberato Kani on Thursday, April 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the Frick Fine Arts Building, University of Pittsburgh. RSVP here.

Hillman Library is located at 3960 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Metered on-street parking is available on various streets surrounding the library. Parking is also available at Soldiers & Sailors Parking Garage (.2 miles from the library). Hillman is also accessible by public transportation. See the Pittsburgh Regional Transit website for planning your trip. 

The entrance to the library is located at the Forbes Avenue address, accessed by a ramp leading from street level to the First Floor plaza. Sidewalks around the library are closed as part of library renovation; follow signs to library entrance.

Please email uls-events@pitt.edu with any questions or accessibility accommodation requests.