Karen L. "Magic Fingaz" Smith
Karen "Magic Fingaz" Smith, Brooklyn Native, Philly Resident, is a Professional Percussionist, Playwright, Published Writer and Poet, Director, Teaching Artist, Curator and now a member of the Philadelphia Musician’s Union Local 77 !!! Karen is a recipient of numerous of grants including Leeway Foundation's Art and Change and Illuminate the Arts Grants and received a Pew Fellowship in 2023 from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage. Sistah Karen is the Founder, Artistic Director and Lead Percussionist of The Karen Smith Experience (formerly called Weez the Peeples) and Sistahs Laying Down Hands Collectives. Called "Sounds of Freedom" by Philadelphia Inquirer, she has worked with many individual artists, groups, theatrical production companies, studio recordings as well as traveling various places spreading healing rhythmic energies. "Collaborations are the essence of my creative Journey and I am sure there are still so many more to come" Currently the resident music presenter for the Free Library of Philadelphia in the music department and the "Go-To Percussionist" for a Tri-State area, Karen is part of Theatre Philadelphia : Living Legend Exhibition which is currently on tour. "Truly One Nation Under a Drumbeat!! Possible is Possible is my daily mantra!”
Awarded Grants
2024
Window of Opportunity Grant (WOO)
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Overview
Karen “Magic Fingaz” Smith will participate in an outdoor drumming circle, in collaboration with the Paul Robeson House on November 16th at Vernon Park at the Sonia Sanchez bench. Karen previously hosted a drumming circle in June, and the event successfully created intergenerational space and engaged community members. The drumming circles serve to provide an outlet for people to express themselves musically in a nonjudgmental group, and are associated with a larger community movement to lessen gun violence in Philadelphia.
The WOO Grant will support documentation costs, compensating a videographer for the event, to help create footage that can be circulated and shared in other neighborhoods and community spaces.
2021
Art and Change Grant (ACG)
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Overview
Karen Smith will host an intensive series of writing workshops branded "Cultural Rebirth and Cleansing", giving power to women's voices through prose, song, imagination, and creative self expression. Focused on supporting women in transition from incarceration, addiction, abuse, and shelter services in need of mentorship, these workshops will be a safe space to release, review, and reflect on past challenges and find spiritual healing in the words. The project will culminate with workshop participants sharing their work and reflections with family, friends, and support teams.
Partner
2021
Window of Opportunity Grant (WOO)
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Overview
Karen Smith was invited to vend, drum, and curate a performance by Sistahs Laying Down Hands for BLACK FEMME MAGIC, a stop on the Bearded Ladies Cabaret’s Beardmobile Love Tour. In addition to offering her percussion, spoken word, and storytelling at this socially distanced outdoor event at Bartram Gardens, Karen will also collaborate with Misty Sol’s Tiny Farm Wagon, a mobile art classroom/greenhouse, as a vending space for her Applely Vegan Pies. Honored by the request to incorporate not only her drumming and cultural curation, but also her pie-making as part of her artistic practice, this grant will support Karen in paying honorariums to the performers and supplies for the event, as well as transportation and set-up costs.
2019
Art and Change Grant (ACG)
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Overview
Karen is creating, AWOKE, a musical set under a circus tent that looks into a day in the life of a juror and examines the behaviors of the individuals in the courtroom responsible for administering justice. The play's dialogue is a commentary on the various biases within the legal system and raises questions about those who are resistant to criminal justice reform.
