Established 2015 on Darug country, Sydney, Australia
4ESydney is the only festival and project of its kind, specialising in hip hop culture and multi-artform, interdisciplinary practice. The project is made up of a series of industry and community events, mentoring programs and professional development, as well as an annual conference and festival.
As part of the Biennale of Sydney, 4ESydney hosts 4ESydney HipHop Festival at Cockatoo Island, as well as a collaboration at the 4ESydney Festival and Conference in Bankstown. These events foster environments from within which to hear and experience formidable and poetic responses to our times, collecting and generating cultural knowledge through collaboration, participation and truth-telling unique to the hip hop artform. Featuring a group of poets from both Australia and abroad, Luka Lesson’s Where There’s Smoke connects local and global climate issues through the sharing of personal stories, and a focus on our ability to stand resilient through adversity.
DOBBY’s WARRANGU: River Story centres around the three rivers that form the tribal boundaries in Brewarrina, New South Wales, constituting a journey back home and connection to culture by returning to the country where the artist’s grandmother and great-grandfather were born.
DOBBY and Naomi Keyte present SYMBIOSIS, a collaborative project about our global climate crisis that features a fusion of folk, pop and singer-songwriter melodies with the rhythmic styles of hip hop. Messages of hope and calls for action typify the project, which explores the many concerns and shifts in extreme environmental disasters that will continue to occur across the globe.
Nardean presents THE NEW ERA, both a declaration and celebration of the new era where women are claiming their rights, where Western Sydney is being recognised for its immense talent, and where minorities from these communities are forming new, hybrid identities, embracing the cultures of their past, and the cultures they were born into. THE NEW ERA speaks to a larger moment in Australian musical history, where minorities are coming to the front and embracing their roots with pride and power.
Vyvienne Abla
Born 1986 on Darug country, Westmead, Australia Lives and works in Sydney, Australia; New York, USA; and London, UK
Rhyan Clapham aka DOBBY
Born 1993 on Dharawal country, Wollongong, Australia Filipino and member of the Murrawarri Republic of Weilmoringle, Australia Lives and works on Gadigal country Luka ‘Lesson’ Haralampou
Born 1983 in Meanjin, Brisbane, Australia Luka has no fixed address but lives and works across Australia, Chile and Greece
Nardean
Born 1992 in Sydney, Australia Lives and works in Sydney