BIOGRAPHY
I have decided to create a world where everything is about music and people two things I love
Benjamin de Graaf has executed over a 300+ successful events ranging from weddings, corporate leadership series, fundraisers and community events through his DJ business. He is an aspiring DJ, husband, father, sports fanatic and creator of a music and leadership program that uses the arts to make learning fun for kids called The Love
Music Initiative – with a focus on DJing, drumming, dance and spoken word.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Music has always been an art form that I have grown to love and am very passionate about. Seeing how music touched people at events I produced is where my desire to DJ grew. Growing up I couldn’t even play a recorder but took DJ lessons and the rest is history. Within 8 years I have gone from practicing in my den nightly to my biggest show last December was 800 people!
“What’s my sound?
When I mix I am looking to create a night musically with bounce, musical surprises and leave people tapping their feet on the way out- every night is fresh I don’t use pre-set playlists. DJ’ing to me is like a painter with a fresh canvas. The songs I select are like my paintbrush and the canvas is the dance floor!”
My passion for music also led me to create an alternative education based and TDSB approved program called The Love Music Initiative. It’s a program that we use to empower kids, youth and adults by using urban music, hip hop/pop culture to make learning fun for kids. Our end game is to help kids have a greater sense of self identity, self regulation, self expression and self awareness. We use music as a tool to tackle common issues that youth face such as school disenfranchisement and help them to get better connected to self and awakening their mind to the possibilities that they have in their lives.
We perform workshops focused in small class settings and also big assemblies.
In interacting with youth we have found that music, sports and pop culture are things that grab their attention so by using these platforms it gives us an in to have deeper conversations with youth about issues of race, social injustice and everyday issues that youth face
Benjamin can be reached at optraining@hotmail.com for more info or workshop availability.
