BLOOM ARTIST PROFILE: EYEDA SOPHIA

March 01, 2020

The second edition of Bloom festival is coming up March 6&7! Bloom is a multi-venue world music festival presented by your friends at Northern Lights Festival Boreal. Their team has put together an amazingly curated line up of artists from across the globe and if their summer fest is any indication you don’t want to miss out. Sudburians will have the chance to catch performances from festival headliners including A Tribe Called Red with their electric multimedia DJ show, Polaris Prize winner Lido Pimienta, and the ferociously talented Terra Lightfoot. Make sure you have the Bloom app downloaded so you’ll be the first to know about surprise pop-up shows!

Making her way from Toronto for Bloom 2 is, Eyeda Sophia, MC, poet, and multi-media artist! Her flow will have you mesmerized as she explores topics of self-growth and the catharsis we often resist. You can catch Eyeda performing live at the Asylum, March 7^th as part of a stellar hip-hop line-up including Clairmont the Second and local Jor’Del Downz. Show starts at 8 PM and is one of many performances over Bloom festival, tickets for this show are $15 but we recommend grabbing full pass!

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We’re very excited to have you in the nickel city for Bloom festival this year! Please tell us a bit about yourself as a performer and your style?

I’m a passionate person and this translates into my art. Most of my work is very emotionally vulnerable. I enjoy bending and blurring the lines between poetry and rap. I bounce between soft, feminine written material and aggressive, raw freestyle. Everything comes together to create a clusterflock of feelings

Your latest release The Red Project is all about expressing big feelings and emotions we are often told to suppress. Your track Patience sets the tone as it thanks those close to you for sticking it out while you went through a bad time. What experiences led you to want to explore this topic?

I’ve struggled with not knowing how to understand or address my mental health for a long time now. I tried to hide it, hide from it, bury it and even victimize myself. While searching for my resolution, I found a lot of the people close to me had taken on the emotionally laborious task of listening, caring and constantly being available. This deserved acknowledgement. This thank-you was a self-teaching moment and a shift towards personal responsibility.

Can you give us some advice for a beginner poet or MC? How did you get your start and how did your writing process change over time?

I started performing spoken word and writing for competitions/poetry slams. A majority of slams use a point-based system to grade your work and include time restrictions. I loved it, but music provides freedoms that poetry couldn’t for me. Both developed my craft differently and made me the artist I am today. I recommend all poets and musicians to try dipping into different communities to find themselves. Along the way, you will acquire great mentorship and lifelong friendship. Always remember, growth never ends. If you think you’re dope now, believe me…you can only get BETTER! Trust the process.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BzydP3BpqkX/

Not only are you a rapper and performer you’re also a multi-media artist. Can you talk to us about how these two expressions intersect in your work?

Oftentimes work can feel like a chore. Poetry or writing can grow exhausting if I am not in the right headspace. To avoid feeling forced into creation, I like to shift between mediums. Collaging or drawing have less expectations attached to them for me. I use all art for relatively the same reason; to express a thought, emotion or feeling. I always create using the medium that provides the most freedom to work within. The way I feel will determine whether that be rap, poetry, collage art or something completely different.

In Toronto, you are an active promoter of inclusive spaces for queer, marginalized and femme peoples. Talk to us about your experience as a female POC in the rap community and how allies can be better advocates.

The important thing about these inclusive spaces is that there aren’t a lot of them. They have been specifically curated to invite people into the room, who have previously been left out. That means checking your privilege at the door, whether it be white, CIS, male, or even white-passing (as a half-white person, I acknowledge I carry this privilege as well). This also means, knowing the difference between support and over-insertion. These spaces are for marginalized people to be benefiting from and curating in. Support means attending, without gained finance or attention.

It is so important to have a place where womxn and other femmes can enjoy Hip-hop without having to deal with misogyny or homophobia!!!

We are working towards this by holding these spaces. This is the future.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7O8Wf3lPN8/

Give a shout out to a few other Ontario MC’s who inspire you for our readers to check out!

YES These are some of my favourite MC’s in the Ontario: King Kimbit, Strawberry Shortemper, Sofia Fly, Shaili Champ, SuhKA, Pharah Kai, Pasifik, Ugggy, Calm Connery, Scott Ramirez, Spenny, The Sorority, Scribe, Chris Cruz and Germain Carter. Shout out the cypher squad as well! They are the team I freestyle with all summer and they’re some of the best in Toronto. Real Lije, Andre Gibson, Masta Inferno, Knwra and Ricky.

Where can readers follow you for more information and updates?

You can find me on all the social medias: @eyedasophia

Here’s the quick link to my most recent work, The Red Project. And my Spotify page.

The second edition of Bloom festival is coming up March 6&7! Bloom is a multi-venue world music festival presented by your friends at Northern Lights Festival Boreal. Their team has put together an amazingly curated a line up of artists from across the globe and if their summer fest is any indication you don’t want to miss out. Sudburians will have the chance to catch performances from festival headliners including A Tribe Called Red with their electric multimedia DJ show, Polaris Prize winner Lido Pimienta, and the ferociously talented Terra Lightfoot. Make sure you have the Bloom app downloaded so you’ll be the first to know about surprise pop-up shows!

Making her way from Toronto for Bloom 2 is, Eyeda Sophia, MC, poet and multi-media artist! Her flow will have you mesmerized as she explores topics of self growth and the catharsis we often resist. You can catch Eyeda performing live at the Asylum, March 7^th as part of a stellar hip-hop line-up including Clairmont the Second and local Jor’Del Downz. Show starts at 8PM and is one of many performances over Bloom festival, tickets for this show are $15 but we recommend grabbing full pass!

We’re very excited to have you in the nickel city for Bloom festival this year! Please tell us a bit about yourself as a performer and your style?

Can you give us some advise for a beginner poet or MC. How did you get your start and how did your writing process change over time?

I started performing spoken word and writing for competitions/poetry slams. A majority of slams use a point based system to grade your work and include time restrictions. I loved it, but music provides freedoms that poetry couldn’t for me. Both developed my craft differently and made me the artist I am today. I recommend all poets and musicians to try dipping into different communities to find themselves. Along the way you will acquire great mentorship and lifelong friendship. Always remember, growth never ends. If you think you’re dope now, believe me…you can only get BETTER! Trust the process.

Not only are you a rapper and performer you’re also a multi-media artist. Can you talk to us about how these two expressions intersect in your work.

In Toronto you are an active promoter of inclusive spaces for queer, marginalized and femme peoples. Talk to us about your experience as a female POC in the rap community and how allies can be better advocates.

The important thing about these inclusive spaces is that there aren’t a lot of them. They have been specifically curated to invite people into the room, who have previously been left out. That means checking your privilege at the door, whether it be white, CIS, male, or even white passing (as a half white person, I acknowledge I carry this privilege as well). This also means, knowing the difference between support and over insertion. These spaces are for marginalized people to be benefiting from and curating in. Support means attending, without gained finance or attention.