RiverFlowz, Kuiggpak Torin Jacobs
Bethel and Anchorage, AK | Yup’ik, Iñupiaq, and African American
Hiphop Artist
Torin Jacobs, aka RiverFlowz, was born into the community of Mamterilleq (Bethel), Alaska to Blanche Jacobs (Andrews) from Lenapehoking, Philadelphia and Herbert (Kenick) Jacobs from Naparyaarmiut (Hooper Bay), Alaska. His maternal grandparents are Sarah Andrews and John Fisher Davis from Lenapehoking, Philadelphia and his paternal grandparents are Mary Alice Jacobs (Menzo) from Naparyaarmiut, and Hultman (Kenick) Jacobs from Saktuliq (Shaktoolik), AK.
Torin grew up mostly in Mamterilleq with several early years spent in Lenapehoking, Philly. While serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, he began exploring his talent for music making, first through rap, then by blending sounds from his cultural background in beatmaking. He is first and foremost a family man – husband, father, uncle, brother – and music-making has taken the back burner over the last seven years while he has focused on the role of father and caretaker to six children.
His well-being, resilience, and radical self-care and healing journey are his activism – he is breaking cycles, crushing stereotypes, raising healthy and happy human beings, and participating in the uplifting of his community as a leader and friend. He uses his music to tell his story, to spread love and positive messaging, and to honor his peoples.
I generated a lot of ideas before finally settling on this piece. My artistic component is an instrumental. Listening to it silently is one way of taking it in, but the real power comes in the active participation of the listener to use their own voices via narration, singing, rapping, or any other manner of sound creation in conjunction with the music playing. Anyone and everyone will be part of the art by being guided through the rhythm of the drums. By actively engaging, each person becomes part of the collective story of our people through this art form. It is not simply consumed, it is co-created.
I encourage the use of excerpts from biographies, speeches, and other collections of Native quotes such as those from the Alaska Native Quotations Repository Facebook group to be read aloud by the listener. Additionally, if the listener has any form of media on their phone from audio recordings of elders to video recordings of baby talk, I highly encourage the actual playing of that for the listener to actively mix the sounds thereby creating their own real time, real life soundtrack.
This is meant to be fun and engaging in any way the listener feels moved to engage with the piece, dancing and head-bobbing included.
Torin Jacobs, RiverFlowz
