Amilcar Shabazz II is the founder of Collabo Beatworx, a dynamic form of arts practice that encourages cultural democracy by engaging with people and communities to make exceptional art, especially music, film, video, and public art like murals & sculpture.
Amilcar began this work as a member of the Youth Action Coalition, studying at Hampshire College with metal artist Kamil Peters. He also studied with Wendy Ewald when she was a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow and a visiting artist-in-residence at Amherst College. Ewald taught the class “Collaborative Art: The Practice and Theory of Working with Communities” at Amherst College in 2005, and brought in well-known collaborative artists to create art with Amilcar and other Five College students and the Amherst community. He has also studied at Greenfield Community College and the University of Massachusetts in media and Africana Studies.
For his Music go to https://collabobeatworx.bandcamp.com
Early samples of his creation of new,
multiversal soundscapes include https://soundcloud.com/collabobeatworx
Video projects and channels include:
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOJRuS-YZ9o4J9Xx8zkcAvQ/videos
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Also, Amilcar Shabazz II is a producer at Amherst Media and has credits as an editor, camera operator, and director on numerous programs, including:
Juneteenth in the Valley https://vimeo.com/channels/shabazzworldvideo/161409129
Difficult Dialogues https://amherstmedia.org/content/difficult-dialogues-dr-charles-w-mills-pt1
Africana Studies Today [links forthcoming]
Collaborative visual and public art projects that Amilcar led or contributed to include:
- Inside Amherst Regional High School (YAC, 2009)
- On the lawn outside the Jones Library of Amherst, MA (2011)
- On the Amherst Coffee Building near Amherst Cinema (YAC, 2012)
