BNS Unplugged with Ruby Ibarra, Bolo Music Group and the Balikbayans
Live music series
The Concept
BNS Unplugged began with one question: what happens when you take away the barrier between an artist and their audience? We pictured the rawness of Lauryn Hill’s MTV Unplugged in a room as close as a Tiny Desk session, rooted in SoMa.
The series is an extension of the Brave New Spaces Event Lab, our incubator for new event models. Most stages are built for polished, finished sets. BNS Unplugged is built for experimenting. It gives BIPOC and LGBTQ+ musicians, collectives, and crews from across the Bay Area a place to try new music and new material in front of a small audience that is there to listen.
The Experience
We kept the room small on purpose: only 50 tickets, and both ticket tiers sold out.
- Seating: Floor cushions up front, first come first served, plus reserved VIP tables and open standing room in the back
- Lineup: An opening DJ set followed by several live performances from Bolo Music Group and The Balikbayans
- Host: Ruby Ibarra, the Bay Area rapper and Filipino American cultural icon, guided the night
- Food & drink: Bites from a local food vendor, and a “sip for a cause” bar program with all beverage proceeds going to Brave New Spaces
Rooted in Community
The launch was co-presented with Balay Kreative, a Filipino arts accelerator in San Francisco, and took place in the SOMA Pilipinas Cultural Heritage District. Pairing a Filipino-led host and lineup with that neighborhood made a deliberate statement: BNS Unplugged is grounded in the place it calls home while reaching out to the wider BIPOC and queer creative community in the Bay.
Featured Performers
