Packed venue for Akala
English hiphop artist Akala at an interactive session at a packed King’s and Queen’s Performing Arts Centre yesterday, where he was welcomed with a rousing haka. Akala is an author, poet, political activist and social entrepreneur. In 2009, he founded The HipHop Shakespeare Company, which explores the social, cultural and linguistic parallels between the works of William Shakespeare and that of modernday hiphop artists. The aim of the talk was to help young people develop an alternative view of the arts by showing how both hiphop and Shakespeare have the power to transcend race and class.