Summer Cypher + Elements of Community = Tribal Fusion, the passing down of culture as a form of art.
February 16, 2023 | Arts & Cultural Affairs
Summer Cypher August 2021 event supported by the Graves Foundation / Chicago Avenue & Lake Street. Drone photo by Teddy Grimes.
Teddy Grimes and Kimani Beard, Summer Cypher co-founders create authentic spaces where people in community can immerse themselves into a process of self-exploration and critical reflection within the raw elements of hip-hop culture.
In June of 2022 the City of Minneapolis’ Arts & Cultural Affairs Department announced funding through the Creative Response Fund for 12 artist-led teams for projects providing creative healing and support to Minneapolis communities that continue to be directly impacted and affected by the stress and trauma of 2020.
For Creative Response Fund recipients, Teddy Grimes and Kimani Beard, self-exploration and a critical analysis of the world and its impact on oneself, is a major part of the process towards mastering any aspect of hip-hop; dance, graffiti, DJ’ing, MC’ing, even history and philosophy. By providing intentional spaces for community, people of all ages can explore undiluted, uncut, authentic expressions of hip-hop in safe, inclusive, interracial, intercultural, and intergenerational healing environments.
Interviewed by Rajine Williams. Written by Liz Pangerl, in collaboration with Teddy Grimes and Kimani Beard. This article has been edited for length and clarity.
Despite their 20-year age difference, Kimani and Teddy seemed destined to spawn Summer Cypher together. They met in 2015, outside a music studio on Hennepin Avenue in Uptown, Minneapolis. Teddy was capturing photos of community which included Kimani. They connected, got to talking, and as Teddy says, “there was an immediate connection through art.”
Kimani was born in 1973 in north Minneapolis and grew up in Brooklyn Park. Teddy was born in 1994 and grew up in south Minneapolis. The world of hip-hop had been integral to Kimani’s life since childhood, or in his words, “I been breaking since cardboard.” Kimani’s parents encouraged him to explore life at a young age. He was involved in youth centers, teen clubs, and community cultural events, all experiences that “tapped him into the city flows quickly,” he recalls. “I also roller skated, played basketball and tennis.” In the third grade he was introduced to the upright bass. By age 17, he was fully into hip hop culture, making mix tapes and creating designs on his mother’s Macintosh computer. “I was also skateboarding and dirt bike riding, something dope to do with the neighborhood kids and I got pretty good at it,” Kimani adds.
“I been breaking since cardboard.” —Kimani
Teddy Grimes and Kimani Beard, co-founders of Summer Cypher.
Teddy recalls his mother, a photographer, snapping family photos, and color filled memories of her painting on gourds she grew in their garden. He was only four when she passed away. His father, an aspiring musician, worked the night shift at the local post office and in Teddy’s eyes, “did the best he could under the circumstances.” While his dad caught up on sleep during the day, Teddy learned how to be self-sufficient, resourceful, and creative. Musical instruments and camera equipment were well within reach in his home, so he began experimenting with photography and video as a young teen. It was also community that helped him learn how to navigate life. “Community” he says, “held me.” That lasting experience is one he and Kimani desire to share with community today, to hold community the way it held them as young teens. To give back, share, and reciprocate.
Teddy learned how to be self-sufficient, resourceful, and creative.
Around 1988, Kimani formed a dance crew, 4 the right way, adding to the idea for his dad to open a youth center called Twin Cities Teen Club for 16-20-year-olds in Fridley, Minnesota. Kimani reminisces, “the club’s DJ was Doug Davis from Minneapolis and his DJ connections/friends in New York City would ship him 12” vinyl. I performed with my dance crew.” Kids from Duluth, Rochester and Alexandria, Minnesota and Eau Claire, Wisconsin and city kids from Minneapolis and St. Paul areas descended on the popular dance club.
The youth center tied Kimani’s connection to hip-hop permanently and he credits the community structure of his youth for furthering his hip-hop education. He adds, “All these experiences presented me with the opportunity in 1999-2000 to create my own fashion line and build a relationship with the co-founder of Zubaz Apparel, who mentored me on how to mold my craft and help me secure job opportunities.” All the music and dance multifaceted skills he mastered would lead him to the DJ’ing scene that evolved into DJ’ing for Summer Cypher today. As a multi-disciplinary artist, he cites many influences including photography, design, fashion, and branding as well as elements of community, Kimani describes as “tribal fusion, the passing down of culture as a form of art.”
By the time Teddy and Kimani co-founded Summer Cypher, there was little they couldn’t take on by way of music, video, photography, dance, hip-hop pop-up events, promotions, entertainment, and community building.
Teddy attended El Colegio High School in south Minneapolis. For a senior video project, he chose what he was most interested in and the lifestyle he was living—hip-hop. Xilam Balam, who was part of the art program at El Colegio at the time, and a member of Los Nativos, asked Teddy if he would like to interview artists from Rhymesayers Entertainment in Minneapolis. Familiar with cameras, hip-hop, graffiti, and art, Teddy went to work and interviewed hip-hop artists; Brother Ali; Felipe Cuauhtli; I Self Devine; Kevin Beacham; Seddiq; Slug from Atmosphere; and Toki Wright. The senior project gave Teddy complete creative control, and at the end of the year, before graduation, his video was screened for students, staff, and community. At that point, he began to think seriously about a career in video editing and film.
After graduation Teddy was hired to film two music videos in Jamaica for BiG WiZ, aka Nic Swisher, a strong hip-hop presence in Minneapolis. Teddy was good friends with BiG WiZ’s nephew, Jayvonne, who introduced the two. More bookings followed, but it was a trip to San Francisco in 2015 that really sparked the idea for Summer Cypher. Teddy was filming a few dancers from the Turf Feinz, including Frenchiebabyy, (a contortionist dancer from Season 15 of America’s Got Talent) and was taken by, “how they incorporated dance into their lives on such a fluid level—this was their full-time hustle, on the subway, or the train line. They had a speaker, a dance crew and just performed for people. They would pull up on a corner, with a boombox, dance crew, and they didn’t even have linoleum, but they danced, on sidewalks and parking lots, basically they were performing street shows.”
Inspired by what he experienced in San Francisco, Teddy knew no one better to partner with than Kimani on an idea—to make a place, a safe space for people to dance, experience hip-hop and get immersed in the culture of hip-hop. Teddy was in. With a boombox, linoleum, and dancers, they decided to ‘pull up’ on May 7, 2017, to the 43rd annual MayDay Parade at Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis. Teddy described it as, “a success and people really and thoroughly enjoyed it. And it wasn’t just for the people, it was for us too.”
“We put Summer Cypher on for the community because it was something we enjoyed and loved to be a part of and loved living in.” —Teddy
Influenced by what was happening in the Bay area and even going back to the elements of hip-hop born in the Bronx borough of New York City in the early 70’s, Teddy and Kimani blended all their ideas and applied them in Minneapolis. “It made sense for us, it was stuff we were working very hard at sustaining and maintaining in our own lives already but in different ways. Coming together and focusing on one area made sense to the both of us,” added Kimani.
Summer Cypher 2019 / Modus Locus, 35th and Bloomington. Photo by Kimani Beard.
Both multidisciplinary artists agree that what makes their work successful is the beauty they witness when participants are free to be in a safe space that is at peace; free of violence, shock, or fearful elements; free of being told what to do, a respite from trauma. Kimani and Teddy believe the freestyle elements of hip-hop are physically healing, affirming and encourage self-expression. They operate on the “strength of the community,” affirm both. Participants feel emotionally touched by the essence of hip-hop in its raw form. People relax and enjoy the vibe while allowing elements of hip-hop to flow over them; watching graffiti artists paint their work in real time; feeling the bass from the speakers; and watching the dancers display their craft to the community. Kimani adds, “Yeah, after five years we’re still doing this and making it better and asking for feedback. And if it doesn’t rain on our event, that’s success too.”
Teddy and Kimani also acknowledge that their work over the past five years couldn't have happened without the support and commitment of countless volunteers and the participation of community members. Going forward with additional funding Summer Cypher can – in turn – support the talented artists and dancers who energize their Summer Cypher experiences.
Kimani and Teddy believe the freestyle elements of hip-hop are physically healing, affirming and encourage self-expression. They operate on the “strength of the community.”
As Creative Response Fund recipients, Summer Cypher’s events in 2022 included Open Streets at Lake Street and Chicago Avenue on the Neighborhood Development Center (NDC) lot on August 13th, followed by Public Functionary at the Northrup King Building on September 17th and wrapping up the year at Cedar Cultural Center on October 2nd. Their 2023 event will be held on Saturday, May 7th (or the 27th if it rains).
Teddy and Kimani are appreciative of the Creative Response Fund. They feel supported in their events, knowing they can really make them happen. They also stressed that the grant process isn’t easy, but the fact that their ideas were valued, their work recognized, and their events understood made all the difference.
“We can present hip-hop in an authentic way, in all its shapes and forms, where its actual properties aren’t negated or diluted.” —Kimani
During the summers of 2018 and 2019, they worked with Modus Locus (Ephraim Eusebio), holding down the block at 35th and Bloomington and transforming the empty lot into a safe space for hip-hop.
In 2020, after the torture and murder of George Floyd and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, spaces to hold Summer Cyphers disappeared. Teddy and Kimani took time to recalibrate their sustainability model going forward. During 2021 and 2022 Teddy and Kimani reactivated their pop-up style Cyphers, as pathways towards healing. They made connections with the Graves Foundation, Public Functionary at Northrup King, Neighborhood Development Center, Cedar Cultural Center, Midway Rise Up, Springboard for the Arts, and Philadelphia Community Farms in Osceola, Wisconsin.
Teddy and Kimani are driven to excel by presenting the pure, raw, and real culture of hip-hop to community as a healthy way to cope with everything that is happening globally. There is a feeling that you get when you step into a Summer Cypher experience, where no explanation is needed.
Allowing people to just ‘be’ in space is something Teddy and Kimani have always made a priority. No obligations, no responsibilities, simply living in the present moment through hip-hop.
As for what’s in the queue, Teddy and Kimani would like to work with schools, and more community organizations. They also have culinary aspirations. They soft launched their food truck concept last summer which offered a freestyle food menu they plan to curate with different food options. Teddy added, “Another element of Freestyle Foods is that we can operate and collaborate with other members of the community that also sell food.”
Summer Cypher also co-partners with Philadelphia Community Farm, located in Osceola, Wisconsin near the St. Croix Valley. Teddy and Kimani are in the process of creating experiences that are inclusive to hip-hip and nature. They envision an environment that will include all the elements of hip-hop culture as way to establish transformational connections between city and farm life, and a place to express fluid movements in a safe space.
Summer Cypher, Facebook Instagram
Stay in the loop by checking in on Arts & Cultural Affairs calendar of events.
Publisher's Note: The name, "The Office of Arts, Culture & the Creative Economy" has been updated on August 13, 2023 where it appeared within the content of this article to "Arts & Cultural Affairs" to reflect its new name as a department of the City of Minneapolis.