Songwriter/MC and performer Bianca Mikahn is back with the release of her latest EP NightDreams & DayMares on November 19th. The record, a Visceral View Entertainment release is a collaboration that came together between Mikahn and New Mexico producer Diles.

Arriving in New Mexico in June of 2013, only one song from NightDreams & DayMares had been written. Escaping numerous hard situations back in the Mile High City, Mikahn used her studio time with Diles as cathartic release and emotional exercise.

The trip to New Mexico was a spiritual retreat of sorts and the result is an EP about foresight, redemption and the explosion of creativity. Mikahn is a swordswoman of words and uses her lyrics to create stories from the deep recesses of her mind. The majority of the album was written in the daytime and recorded at night, yet the stories began to take on an inverted nature, hence the word mashup. NightDreams & DayMares was recorded and mixed at Central Root Studios by Diles and mastered by DJ Icewater.

The album, written from the place of a wild woman on a quest for inspiration and understanding, is chock full of stellar production and, as Mikahn calls it, “deeply magical” sentiment.

This is the third edition of the annual album GreenChileInTheAir by Albuquerque producer Diles, with Visceral View Entertainment and Central Root Studios (Central Root Music Group, LLC). Volume two featured artists from around the Southwest, Midwest, and West coast regions highlighted by artists such as Anacron, Idris Goodwin, Carlos Contreras and Kevin Coval. This year’s batch ended up connecting with artists on a global scale. GreenChileInTheAir Vol.3 features artists from Vancouver, Los Angeles, Denver, Colorado Springs, Trinidad and Tobago, Gabon, and of course Albuquerque. Featuring the likes of artists such as modern renaissance artist Anacron, The prolific underground Hip-Hop legend Moka Only, critically acclaimed poet, author, MC, and playwright Idris Goodwin, Albuquerque Poet Laureate Hakim Bellamy, Bianca Mikahn, Kayohes, Jungle One and many more.
Diles compiled 90% of the songs between August and October 2013 during “Chile Season”. Most of the songs were recorded at Central Root Studios in Albuquerque, NM. It is an eclectic mix of modern Hip Hop while still staying true to Diles’ notorious blend of nostalgic golden age vibe and dark traditional boom bap styles. The wide array of artists, locations in which they reside, and cultures they represent, along with the mix of Spanish, French, and English languages add to the underlying emphasis that Hip Hop can unite people and offer a common “language” to all. It is also fitting due to Albuquerque being such an ethnic melting pot and international destination, as well as our recent global recognition from Hit T.V. show Breaking Bad (Which is also a theme for the artwork on GCITA3).
Much more music to come soon from Diles, Visceral View, and Central Root. Albums with artists Bianca Mikahn (“Nightdreams and Daymares” due to release Nov 19, 2013), Kayohes (“Zia Sun 16 Bars” due to release early 2014), Hakim Be, Asliani, and Jungle One are already in motion and several nearly finished and due for release in near future. Diles also has several instrumental albums in the works and expected for release in early 2014 including “Adobe Starship Volume 2.”

Inaugural Poet Laureate of Albuquerque Releases His First Collection of Poems
A 35 year-old press helps get the 34 year-old author into the history books.

With more than 35 years and 100 titles to its credit, West End Press is fiercely independent publishing house founded in New Your City and now based in Albuquerque, NM. Joining a roster of distinguished West End Authors (such a Pablo Neruda and Meridel le Sueur), Albuquerque Poet Laureate Hakim Bellamy was also founded in the Northeast and now based in Albuquerque.

Though West End Press invited Bellamy to submit a manuscript many months before Bellamy was selected as Albuquerque’s first poet laureate, SWEAR is in print eleven months into his two-year appointment. With a book release party and reading announcement coming soon, here is what West End Press had to say about its newest author:

In his debut collection of hard-hitting poems, Albuquerque Poet Laureate Hakim Bellamy addresses the issues important to our day—politics, work, and art. Bellamy moves from a free-thinking attitude of deliverance to a provocative new space where the reader can reflect on the poet’s inquisition of the 1%, working class life in urban and rural America, and the transcendent value of hip hop as one of our top exports and global contributions.

Here are a few endorsements of the book:

SWEAR politicizes the human condition in a manner that balances the abstract with the concrete. Bellamy’s work is polemic like Amiri; satiric like Nietzsche; iconoclastic like Mao; passionate like Neruda. Ministering without preaching, Bellamy’s sense of metaphor whistle-blows on the top-down without fear of consequence.

Bruce George
Co-Founder of Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on HBO

Hakim Bellamy is a man engaged with the world. His words are more direct than lyrical. His poems are warning signs, headlines and prescriptions. From government to Occupy-the economic and political blues finds Bellamy wearing Langston’s hat and coat. Here is the same type of urgency Hughes felt in the 1930s after the Harlem Renaissance. Today our eyes turn to Albuquerque. SWEAR will tell you what’s coming next.

E. Ethelbert Miller
Author, activist, and director of the African American Center at Howard University
For more endorsements and information (including the electronic press kit) about SWEAR, visit beyondpoetryink.com Distributed by University of New Mexico Press, review copies and author interviews can be requested from West End Press by contacting Amanda Sutton at Amanda@westendpress.org. For more information on Hakim Bellamy, please visit hakimbe.com