Close Ups: Ursula Rucker & Jacqueline Constance

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2022 AT 7PM

Freedom on the tip of their tongues. Poet and visionary Ursula Rucker, and singer/songwriter/beatmaker Jacqueline Constance share an arresting improvisational meditation on growth, love, and resistance. Created through layers of vocal looping, beat-boxing, and call and response, these masterful artists let you get up close and personal to their stories, their hurts, and their hopes for the future.

Viewer note: This episode uses strong language to reflect strong feelings.

WATCH EPISODE HERE:

Poet, recording artist, songwriter, activist and revolutionary Ma’at Mama, Ursula Rucker is a certified veteran of the global music and poetry scene. A skilled writer and dynamic performer, Rucker’s rich and textured voice is one of the world’s great, living instruments.  Born and raised in Philadelphia, Rucker has released five wide-ranging albums and built an equally impressive catalogue as a collaborator, working with everyone from The Roots to DJ King Britt side-project Firefly, 4Hero, Jazzanova, Louie Vega and Doodlbug of Digable Planets.  Rucker currently has over 300 tracks on the

Beatport charts and was selected as a Top vocalist of 2020 by the popular Dance music site Traxsource. Today, Rucker enjoys an influential standing as a respected poet and vocalist. Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program features two portraits of Rucker — the 2013 building-sized commission by artist Jetsonorama titled “You Go Girl”, and a new mural in Rucker’s home neighborhood of Germantown unveiled in August 2021. Recent accomplishments include being a 2018 recipient of the prestigious fellowship award from The Pew Center for Arts & Change, and a 2020 sold-out release of big/small poems for pockets, a chapbook of haikus.

Philly based singer/songwriter, Jacqueline Constance blends her R&B and Hip Hop command into a swirling emotional stew. With a warm, yet strident voice she creates daring and fiery stories in sound.

Not one to wait for a musician to make her magic happen, Jacqueline also produces some of her own material. Armed with just a mic, her digital sampling, foot pedal and a small mixer, Jacqueline turns breaths, sighs and words into funky orchestral pastures for her lyrics to frolic through.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Jacqueline is inspired by jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald, which is apparent in her vocal nuances and soulful timbre. Her songs speak to those who are creating their own lane by adding lasting melodies to their own life story. Garnering the attention from acts such as Bj the Chicago Kid, Phonte and Zo from The Foreign Exchange, Questlove, Anderson Paak, St Beauty, King Britt and many others, she has created a pathway for herself unlike anything that has been seen or heard before.

About Close Ups:

Legendary poet and visionary Ursula Rucker curates the second season of Close Ups, a series of hour-long performances and conversations created and hosted by Intercultural Journeys. Running from October through March, Close Ups: Scars and Emblems elevates a new group of Philadelphia artists. Spanning generations and genres, each episode—a moving combination of performance and conversation with Ursula Rucker—offers the viewer an intimate look into the creative practice of these powerhouse artists.  Be immersed in these shape-shifting stories of hurt and hope, told through poetry, dance, music and indelible imagery.

We're so grateful to our friends at Bartram’s Gardens and Germantown Espresso Bar for the generous use of their beautiful spaces to film the Close Ups series.