By: Joleen Braasch Staff Writer
If you’re looking for a fun night, check out the hip hop concert on Friday, Feb. 26. As part of Western Accessibility Awareness Month (WAAM) and Black History Month Activities, WAWA will be performing in the Pacific Room at Werner University Center with his DJ, Nicar.
Don’t know sign language? No problem; WAWA voices the lyrics that he raps, and the concert will be interpreted.
WAWA, Warren Snipe, cannot hear, but he wears hearing aids, speaks, and signs. The rapper has been performing in many mediums of entertainment since childhood, and has been traveling the world to perform in the last dozen years.
As part of the emerging music genre Dip-Hop, deaf hip-hop, WAWA stands among other deaf rappers who are working to get Dip Hop into the mainstream music scene, including Prinz D The First Deaf Rapper, Signmark, Sean Forbes, and Survivor C.
Ensuring that the deaf community is heard and pushing back against oppressors, WAWA raps about equality. In his single, “Vendetta,” WAWA states: “You can’t hold me down ‘cuz I’m busy givin’ love … Bully Bully Bully, how nice of you to visit me, now you in my world, consider yourself history.”
These lyrics ring to the goals of Western Accessibility Awareness Month. As stated by Madison Malot, a senior English major and ASL minor as well as a student worker in the Office of Disabilities, “WAAM is a time where the WOU community can come together and learn about how to be accessible and how to bring inclusion to our campus.”
Contact the author at jbraasch12@wou.edu
