Coco Peila
Coco Peila is a Hip Hop & Afro-Soul/alt-R&B Artist. The MC, singer, songwriter, producer, and cultural organizer has worked with young people for over 15 years developing curriculum & programs and facilitating Rap, Songwriting, & Poetry workshops alongside sharpening her musical craft. While most recently serving as the Director of Hip Hop & Climate Justice at Youth Vs. Apocalypse (YVA), a youth-driven Climate Justice Oakland-based organization, she developed a cutting edge “Hip Hop & Climate Justice” department, organizing framework, and accompanying programming. Her Hip Hop & Climate Justice work has been highlighted at The Kennedy Center, in The New Yorker, as well at Stanford and Yale. She and collaborator Hazel Rose branched out of The Bay in 2020 to work with Variety Magazine & The African American Film Critics Association to develop & launch The Micheaux Project curriculum (now in its third iteration) for African American students at LA’s renowned L.A.C.E.S. academy.
Miss Peila has shared stages with acclaimed artists and leaders Talib Kweli, Zion I, Ledisi, The Pharcyde, President Obama, and others. Her music has been featured on KMEL, by the Museum of African Diaspora, and was recognized in the East Bay Express' "Best Local Hip Hop" and by Hip Hop historian Davey D's "Artists to Watch" lists. She’s executive produced all her projects and for artists and organizations alike. In 2020 Coco was thrilled to get the opportunity to executive produce the cypher song, God Code, for The Black Woman Is God featuring RyanNicole, MADlines, Shy’an G, Talia Taylor, & herself.
cocopeila.com
The Pretty Heist is an Audio-Visual media campaign and exhibit which aims to redistribute the wealth and power of beauty throughout the Black Girl Magic diaspora. The Pretty Girls song and music video and Pretty Heist interview series are centered around Black Women & Girls’ liberation and addressing the impacts of sexism, anti-black racism, white supremacy, and the beautification industry on our: lives, perception of ourselves and each other, sense of worth, perception of beauty, relationships with one another, and access to resources. The campaign & exhibit spotlights black women and girls and provides information about how to support the work we’re doing in our communities and the world.
It’s a Black female heist on the beautification industry and on ‘beauty’ as we’ve been trained to perceive it. Under capitalism beauty becomes a commodity, requiring money to access it, set up as an exclusive club. In order to get in we’ve had to lighten our skin, alter our bodies and hair, purchase clothes, shoes, hair, nails, eyelashes, make up, etc. In this exhibit, we crash the party, so that all women have access to the wealth of the Truth, that we are all worthy of reverence and the opportunity to revel in our beauty. We are making ourselves the standard of beauty and taking back what is already ours, the knowledge and understanding that each and every way that we exist and present as Black Women & Girls is phenomenal, miraculous, and perfect. We are entitled access to visual narratives that reflect and articulate this reality.
