Palermo Beats ‘n’ Roots

A continuation of the collaboration begun in 2024 with the In Medias Res association, which for 2026 proposes activities of creative workshops and a final evening open to the public with the objective of building a musical and poetic map of Palermo that is recounted from the ground up through rap lyrics, original beats and live performances. The project begins with the “Word in Progress” workshop for urban writing and storytelling that envisions walks through the neighborhoods of the participants to gather impressions, images and interviews from which rap lyrics will be developed that combine memory and vision in a collective narrative. The project continues with “Soundergroud”, a musical production, arrangement and recording workshop. Starting with the texts and sounds gathered during “Word in Progress”, the participants will work on creating original musical bases using the sounds, noises and voices of the city and integrating that with instruments played live along with three professional musicians, chosen from new students at the Conservatory and the local music scene. The workshop will guide the youths in building beats, arranging the lyrics and recording the voices, transforming Palermo into a real living musical score. The third training section is composed of an intensive master class of two days with a known artist from the local or national rap scene. All activities will take place in Mind House and culminate in an evening of rap music open to the public during which the participants will present their original tracks accompanied by a live band and the well known guest artist. This final event will give back to the city its own voices transformed into music, words and shared performance.