In What Language?

Vijay Iyer & Mike Ladd

Mike Ladd

Born in Boston MA., Michael C. Ladd received his BA. in Black expatriates in the Nineteenth century from Hampshire college and an MA in poetry from Boston University. He has published in several literary magazines including Long Shot Review and Bostonia. His work is also featured in the book Swing Low, Black Men Writing and several anthologies, including, Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café, In Defense of Mumia, Bum Rush The Page, Por La Victoire and Everything But the Burden. Michael is the writer and producer of five albums, Easy Listening For Armageddon (Scratchie/Mercury records), Live From Paris (Home Style Cooking), Welcome to the After Future (LikeMadd/Ozone records) and The Infesticons: Gun Hill Road & The Majesticons: Beauty Party (Big Da Da records).

Mike has collaborated with several artists including Company Flow, Saul Williams, MURS, Terranova, Cannibal Ox, Roots Manuva, Ultra Living, DJ Mehdi, Ken Ishii, and others plus has remixed songs for the likes of Yo La Tengo, Anti Pop Consortium and Enrico Macias. He began his musical career in a punk rock band and through the years has fused a combination of genres, from poetics to hip hop to electronic to Afro punk, in a way that few others have. First signed to Scratchie/Mercury Records by the Smashing Pumpkins, he has assembled a body of work rare amongst his peers and influenced indie music in ways still yet to be seen. In the tradition of Parliament Funkadelic, Charles Stepney, Gil Scott Heron, The Bad Brains, and Public Enemy, Mike Ladd exists unquestionably at the heart of New York’s progressive black music movement. He has toured extensively throughout America and Europe and in the process established a cult following.

As a Fellow at the Institute for Arts and Civic Dialogue at Harvard University, Mike produced and directed Blood Black and Blue, an audio documentary/performance about Black police officers in the United States. Michael lives in the Bronx and Paris, France.