Baba Brinkman's RAP GUIDE TO CLIMATE CHAOS Makes U.S. Debut at SoHo Playhouse Tonight

NYC-based Canadian playwright and "peer reviewed rapper" Baba Brinkman ("Astonishing and brilliant" - NY Times) is gearing up for the U.S debut of RAP GUIDE TO CLIMATE CHAOS at the SoHo Playhouse in downtown Manhattan, under the direction of Darren Lee Cole, Artistic Director. Cole, who has worked with Brinkman on various past shows, is thrilled to produce RAP GUIDE TO CLIMATE CHAOS at the SoHo Playhouse, after it received rave reviews at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

In CLIMATE CHAOS, Brinkman breaks down the politics, economics, and science of global warming, following its surprising twists from the carbon cycle to the global energy economy. He dismisses climate deniers in a battle-rap remix of Notorious BIG's classic track "What's Beef", concluding: "There's a debate, but it's not against the few who doubt it. / The debate is what to do about it." Brinkman gives the debate much-needed levity by weaving together the voices of scientists, activists, contrarians, and even the Pope, creating a character-driven hip-hop soundtrack that communicates the reality of climate change for audiences of all ages and political persuasions.

Brinkman hails from a climate-conscious family. His dad runs a company that has planted more than a billion trees, drawing down carbon from the atmosphere, and his mom is a politician who wrote her master's thesis on climate change in 1992. Brinkman himself has personally planted more than one million trees in Western Canada. Today, Brinkman is best known for his "Rap Guide" series, a collection of albums and plays tackling complex topics such as wilderness, religion, medicine, business, evolution and human nature.

"Climate change is the challenge of our time, and few voices capture its urgency and its scientific intricacies with as much rigour and panache as Baba Brinkman. Baba is the science rapper supremo!" -- Tim Flannery, author of 'The Weather Makers' and Chief Commissioner, Australian Climate Council

In preparation for the U.S. premiere of RAP GUIDE TO CLIMATE CHAOS, Brinkman attended and performed multiple times at the heart of the 2015 COP21 Paris Climate Conference. His delegate badge came by invitation of Kevin Conrad, Executive Director of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, who said "The politics of climate change are extremely complex, but Baba captures them effortlessly in his lyrics, bringing humour, irreverence, and real insight to the process."

Brinkman's job was to absorb the key ideas from each event and write original raps on-the-spot, to be performed at the conclusion of each meeting. Brinkman participated in a range of events attended by everyone from top industry executives to high level ministers for several national governments. Highlights include a performance at an event by The Shift Project entitled Can the Aviation Industry Protect the World's Forests? and a closed meeting of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, commenting on the day's negotiations over a draft of the climate agreement. Brinkman also performed at the press conference for a "faith and science initiative," created to join interfaith leaders in discussing the moral imperative of climate change. With the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams in attendance, Brinkman performed his rap adaptation of "Laudato Si", Pope Francis' famous climate change encyclical. The following day, Brinkman was invited back to perform his song "Make It Hot" about the urgent need for carbon pricing.

"Baba Brinkman's raps were one of the true highlights of the Paris conference. They were spontaneous, on target, and brilliant -- sometimes cuttingly insightful. I've been going to climate conferences for years, and I will be seriously disappointed if Baba does not become a regular fixture." -- Andrew Bishop, Lead Negotiator, Government of Guyana.

Brinkman said of his time in Paris "The conference transformed my view of the current climate crisis from one of deep pessimism to one of cautious optimism -- it showed that global cooperation is possible in the face of this threat."

Using this experience to further revise and rework his own theatrical production, Brinkman is now preparing RAP GUIDE TO CLIMATE CHAOS for its upcoming off-Broadway premiere.

Previews begin on February 25th and the play will run indefinitely with starting dates as follows:

Previews
February 25th
February 26th
February 27th

Press Nights
February 28th
February 29th
March 2nd

Opening Night
March 3rd

Baba Brinkman is a Canadian rap artist and award-winning playwright. To date, Brinkman has written six hip-hop plays, which have toured the world and enjoyed successful runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and off-Broadway in New York. He has also released ten original rap albums on his independent label Lit Fuse Records. Brinkman is a pioneer in the genre of "lit-hop" or literary hip-hop, known for his adaptations of The Canterbury Tales, Beowulf, and Gilgamesh. He's best known for his "Rap Guide" series. The first of which, The Rap Guide to Evolution ("Astonishing and brilliant" - NY Times), won a Scotsman Fringe First Award and a Drama Desk Award nomination, and was featured on US national TV on The Rachel Maddow Show and at the Seattle Science Festival opening for Stephen Hawking. Baba is a recent recipient of the National Center for Science Education's "Friend of Darwin Award" for his efforts to improve the public understanding of evolutionary biology. His latest play, RAP GUIDE TO CLIMATE CHAOS, was a hit at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe, presenting the science, economics, and politics of global warming in hip-hop form and will debut in the U.S. at the SoHo Playhouse, with previews beginning on February 25th. His clever and distinctive style has earned him the attention of the New York Times, Time Out New York, The Village Voice, NPR, Macleans, CBC and BBC. When he is not on tour, Baba Brinkman resides in New York with his wife, neuroscientist and Discovery TV host Dr. Heather Berlin, and their daughter Hannah.

SoHo Playhouse (Darren Lee Cole, Artistic Director) has been one of Off Broadway's primary venues for new plays for the past 70 years. Formerly "Vandam Playhouse" the theatre has been home to countless dreams and movements. Many actors, directors, choreographers, production designers, theatre managers, technicians, and producers all received their start at SoHo Playhouse. Several of America's leading writers have premiered their work at 15 Vandam Street including; Sam Shepard, Edward Albee, Tracy Letts, Charles Buch, Leroi Jones and Lanford Wilson. Award winning shows have included: "The Boys in the Band", "Killer Joe", "The Divine Sister", "Mindgame", "Krapp, 39", "Piaf", "Room Service", "Jamaica Farewell", "Belly of a Drunken Piano", "Bukowski From Beyond", "Simon Lovell's Strange & Unusual Hobbies", "The Emperor Jones", "Triassic Parq", "The Canterbury Tales Remixed", "The Other Josh Cohen" and "Bill W and Dr Bob". Mr. Cole has served as Artistic Director since 2004.

For more information, visit www.rapguidetoclimate.com, www.bababrinkman.com or www.sohoplayhouse.com.

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