“Nowhere near famous but still infamous,” Psalm One is a legend to rap nerds, scholars, and “heads,” and has gone on to work with the brightest names in rap and have her work celebrated and taught around the globe. In Her Word Is Bond, Psalm One tells her own story, from growing up in Englewood, Chicago through her life as a chemist, teacher, and legendary rapper. Intrinsically feminist, this story is a celebration of the life and career of one artist who blazed the trail for women in hip hop.

Get Her Word is Bond from Haymarket: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1660-her-word-is-bond

Join us for a limited-capacity in-person book launch event and celebration with Psalm One and special guest Jill Hopkins. Please note: this is an in-person only event and will not be live-streamed.

Masks and proof of vaccination are required for all attendees. Doors will open at 6:00 PM.

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Speakers:

Cristalle Bowen, professionally known as Psalm One, has been consistently named one of the nation's Best Artists by the Chicago Tribune, and in 2011 made her national television debut on MTV's Emmy-winning series, MADE. She released her debut album, Bio:Chemistry, while studying chemistry at the University of Illinois in 2002. In 2006 Psalm One became the only woman signed to the independent record label Rhymesayers Entertainment after leaving her job as a chemist and releasing her commercial debut, The Death of Frequent Flyer. Since then she’s toured the globe performing and recording an impressive discography, and has shared the stage with everyone from Chance the Rapper to 50 Cent. In 2012 she released a children's album, aptly titled Child Support in conjunction with ASCAP and America SCORES, a nationally celebrated after school program.

In 2015 she self-released P.O.L.Y. (Psalm One Loves You), and embarked on a U.S. tour she orchestrated herself. P.O.L.Y. broke new ground for Psalm, showing a beautiful amount of live instrumentation and group vocals. Fittingly, the album was named #3 in the top 10 indie albums of 2015 by the Chicago Tribune. Psalm has been extremely D.I.Y. in her approach and has publicly taken the rap community to task for their collective treatment of women. She’s also been the driving force behind a supergroup, the all-female collective The Rapperchicks. Gender Fender Bender, a limited edition triple album, was released in 2016.

Jill Hopkins is the New Media and Civic Events Producer for the Metro venues in Chicago, and the host of the Making Beyoncé, The Opus, and the Have You Met podcasts. She’s also a pop culture critic with bylines at The A.V. Club, Chicago Reader, Consequence of Sound, Riot Fest’s blog, Noisey, and more. Jill’s a comedic essayist with regular appearances at The Paper Machete, and is the emcee of the live Moth StorySlam events in Chicago for NPR. She’s moderated panels and conversations for the Chicago Humanities Festival and Chicago Ideas Week.

Jill is also a longtime club DJ, who has manned the decks opening for Big Freedia, Har Mar Superstar, Michael Shannon, and a host of local bands. NewCity Magazine named her as one of 2019’s “Music 45: Who Keeps Chicago In Tune.”