D'lo-Bio
D'Lo is a jolt of creative and comedic energy. Growing up Tamil-Sri-Lankan, this former L.A. based and now bi-coastal performance artist has been a featured performer at various conferences, showcases, political events and poetry readings. From comedy, music, dance, theatre and poetry, her material revolves around socio-political issues (war, race, class, gender, sexuality) that affect the communities she identifies with. Most importantly, her work comes from a youth urban perspective. Rather than fill her time on stage with preacher poetry or lecture-esque literature, D'Lo's hip-hop/b-boy flavor creates a dialogue of expression with the audience, using empowerment as a vehicle of this performative conversation.
D'Lo's involvement in the arts was sparked with the introduction to the piano at 4 years old. At age 14, she started instruction in the drum set and in the Vina (a south Indian instrument). D'Lo was also trained at an earlier age in Bharatha Natyam (South Indian Dance). She grew up with Hip-Hop as her guide through figuring out this world and as far as writing is concerned, D'Lo started at 13 and has never stopped, except for the usual writer's block. Her musical education continued from 1995-1999 once she attended UCLA and graduated with a B.A. in Ethnomusicology. In her college career, D'Lo spent time in various LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) as a treveling teacher and youth motivation speaker. Mostly teaching in inner-city schools, D'Lo gave poetry/writing workshops in East Los Angeles. In Compton, D'Lo was part of a team that taught Ghanaian Dance and Drumming of the Ewe People. As a musician, she has been instrumental in the production of hip-hop and trip-hop tracks for other poets/mc's and herself. It was during this time that D'Lo evolved as a performance artist/poet. She is comminmted to combining and drawing parallels between both bharathanayam and hip-hop. The products of such collaborations have been presented at various dance schools, dance showcases and multi-cultural events.
D'Lo has also been in various independent films and documentaries as well as theatrical productions. Some of her credits include the independent film, "LockHer Room" which was featured on Showtime under the New Directors series and Hollywood's Black Film Festival. She has been active in various performance troupes, including, Disturbing Silence and Wadda G (performance arts groups in Los Angeles) Mujeres de Maiz (women of color performance art collective, Los Angeles) and is also a member of the Hittite Empire, a theatre group under Keith Antar Mason's direction.