Next month, RMG Fridays is on April 1^st, and the killer line up is no April Fools joke! We are combining two classic genres of music for one amazing night. This April, RMG Fridays is bringing together hip-hop and opera, the ultimate mash up!

This exciting mash up will be a one-of-a-kind experience for RMG Fridays guests, and the music and dancing will be bringing down the house! Turning the RMG into an opera house will be Jennifer Mizzi, a Soprano singer, and Kristine Dandavino, a Mezzo-Soprano, from the Oshawa Opera Association.

Switching gears, we have an awesome emcee Shaheen rapping in the gallery. We’re also turning the space into a dance floor with Judi Lopez, a b-girl who will be breakdancing. That’s not all, though; DJ Mark V. Campbell will be demo scratching as well!

We have a little visual art tying into our theme as well as some interesting themed history for you curious folks. Paul Paget (Praxis) will be explaining the roots of graffiti, and will also be doing a collaborative art project as our studio activity for the night! Showing the same love to our opera fans, Friday Film Features will be screening a short documentary about opera that night.

Durham Folklore Storytellers will also be joining us with a performance as we say goodbye to our exhibition Their Stories: Unidentified Portraits from the Thomas Bouckley Collection. You will also have the chance to meet our new ArtLab resident Ruth Read!

On top of the amazing music, rapping, dancing, and scratching, we have some community partners appearing at RMG Fridays. Crayons for Change will be in the gallery, where you can donate your used crayons that night as well as the City of Oshawa, launching their “Our Oshawa” Campaign, where our guests are encouraged to participate and take a photo, revealing what Oshawa is to you.

So bring out your favourite MC Hammer parachute pants, your strongest singing voice and best tagging paint, the RMG is turning into a graffiti and HIPHOPera house!