Detroit Creative Na Bonsai Brings Heart and Beats to Neutral Zone and Educate Youth

Na Bonsai at Educate Youth

Neutral Zone's "Beats!" Project brings fresh energy that has teens feeling accomplished. Na Bonsai's strategy of leading with example and enthusiasm has teens lining up to take their turn at the Maschine drum pad, and 404 Sampler. With encouragement, teens have been bringing their own culture to reimagine into new tunes. Samples that range from Motown hits to Willie Colon's iconic Salsa horns can be heard drifting out of the studio on Monday afternoons, and evenings at Educate Youth in Ypsilanti.

Na Bonsai is a multidisciplinary artist based in Detroit, MI. Their main mediums of work are in music (songwriting, production, multi-instrumentalist, and arrangement), as well as visual artistry (printmaking, collage-work). Na’s work centers and depicts their experience as a Queer, Black Womanist. Through art they focus on our connections to each other in a technological age, among other things.

"Na's ability to make music a heartfelt and joyful experience is contagious - it inspires teens to lead with that same element. I believe that's the most important part." Says Danielle Yarmoluk, NZ's Artist in Residence Curator. Students from Neutral Zone and Educate Youth are working towards creating their own songs for Na's culminating project this Spring. The journey to that end has so far been full of smiles, head-nodding, and courage to try new ways of honoring culture and identity.

Na Bonsai