World Renowned Beatboxers Convene for Workshop

With eyes closed, it would seem that a DJ, drums, a turntable, and a mixer equipped the basement of “Arts @ 29 Garden”—a University space for collaboration and experimentation of art-making among faculty, students and visiting artists—on Friday afternoon.

Yet all of these sounds were created by one man’s mouth as beatboxing enthusiasts convened for a workshop and performance, titled "The Art of Beatboxing," that featured renowned beatboxers from around the world and was sponsored by the Office for the Arts.

“Beatboxing is a relatively new form of music and performance and a very underrepresented and underappreciated art form that sprang from hip-hop culture and sort of faded out,” said Devon M. Guinn ’17, a student coordinator for the event. “So we’re trying to raise awareness for how unbelievably talented many beatboxers are and how great it is.”

The workshop kicked off with a question and answer session with a panel of professionals, including World Beatbox Association co-founder Chesney Snow, executive producer of documentary “American Beatboxer” Rich McKeown, current beatbox world champion Alem, two-time Grand Beatbox Battle champion Dharni, and swissbeatbox.com creator Pepouni.

Following the panel discussion, Dharni and Alem taught the audience beatboxing basics in an interactive workshop and performed together before opening it up to audience participation. The event concluded with a screening of the pilot of “American Beatboxer: the Docu-Series.”

Throughout the event, participants said that a key element in beatboxing is a love of the craft.

“It’s all about passion,” Pepouni said. “It’s such a big door opener. You can do so many things with beatboxing when passion kicks in. Once you’re in that world, you can’t get out.”

The event organizers said they hoped the workshop would raise the profile of beatboxing as an art form.

“You wouldn’t see an ad for taking beatbox lessons, you’d see an ad for taking piano lessons, but beatboxing is like any other instrument,” Guinn said. “You can hone it and do amazing shows.”

Other attendees echoed Guinn’s sentiment.