Kojo Astronaut

In the great beyond of space resides Scott Patterson and his ensemble of cosmic misfits. Written through an Afrofuturistic lens for voice, keys, drums and a DJ, Patterson’s music explores love, liberation and the ways in which we navigate our relationship to our planet, our solar system and beyond.

Join Kojo Astronaut at the Enoch Pratt Free Library's Central branch for an intimate performance in the Edgar Allan Poe Reading Room. Advanced registration required.

About the Ensemble

Scott Patterson (Voice and Keys) is an award-winning multi-disciplinary cosmic artist and the Artistic Director of Afro House, a Baltimore-based organization dedicated to creating art that disrupts and transforms the human imagination. Through Afro House, Patterson leads the Astronaut Symphony, a contemporary ensemble that creates symphonic performance art pieces. His compositions for the ensemble include the Afrofuturistic sci-fi opera-ballet, Cloud Nebula and the sci-fi tone poem Ebon Kojo: The Last Tribe. He also serves as the music director and composer for the Afro House Concert Series.

Patterson is a pianist, composer and librettist of incomparable talent. His blend of jazz, classical, soul and rock music is futuristic, emotive and luxuriant. Patterson is a recipient of the 2020 Regional Independent Artist Award for Performing Arts from the Maryland State Arts Council. He is the recipient of the 2019 Mary Sawyers Imboden Prize and is a recipient of a Creative Baltimore Fund Grant and Artist/District Grant.

Learn more about Scott on Instragram @afrohousebaltimore.

Bashi Rose (Drum Set) is a theater artist, musician, and filmmaker. He was raised in West Baltimore and was nurtured, inspired, and trained in his craft by the Baltimore Arts Community.

As a musician, Bashi uses the drum-kit as a creative tool for mental/spiritual healing and as a bridge between the spirit and physical worlds. He is the co-founder of Konjur Collective, a multidisciplinary group using music, video, and spoken word to create radical, experimental, and spiritual Black art. He has performed and had work produced in numerous venues including: the High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music, Baltimore Rhythm Festival, San Francisco Black Film Festival, Black Femme Supremacy Film Fest, Black Panther Party Film festival, HipHop Theatre Festival, Creative Alliance, Arena Players, The Ottobar, Mind on Fire, Rhizome DC, New York International Fringe Festival, and the Schomburg Center.

Bashi also wields his artistry as a force of community good. In 2007, he helped establish D.R.A.M.A, a program designed to bring theater to prisons and to help engender communication and empathy. In 2012, Bashi was awarded an Open Society Institute fellowship to expand the program. In addition to this work, Bashi is the co-founder New Generation Scholars, a youth program that allows Baltimore youth to study the African Diaspora and travel nationally and internationally.

Learn more about Bashi on Instragram @bashirose.

Marcel Martin aka "Kariz Marcel" (DJ) is a New York-born, Baltimore-Virginia raised music producer and social entrepreneur. His roots sprouted from 90’s Hip-Hop, Go-Go (DC) and Baltimore Club Music. In 2008 he founded Kariz Kids Youth Enrichment Services. An after school program that took place in Baltimore, DC and New York during its 10 years in business. After being one of over 4000 applicants, he made it to the final 25 for the 2019 One Beat Program, an international cultural diplomacy exchange program partnering with the US State Department that brings musicians together from around the world to share and collaborate on musical ideas and projects. In 2018 he landed a major music placement on Jidenna's '85 To Africa' album. The song is entitled 'Sou Sou'. Co- produced by 7G, a young prodigy that was once his student in Kariz Kids.

Learn more about Kariz on Instragram @karizmarcel.

Host or Publisher Enoch Pratt Free Library