ARTIST STATEMENT
SUGAR - SHIT - SILK- SWEAT
My name is Keenan Ruffin (he/nigga), and I’m a New Yorkbased guitarist, composer, and provocateur with a penchant for cute, complex, cheeky, and cumbersome musical aesthetics. In my compositions, I seek to design polystylistic experiences that explore emotional spaces otherwise go beyond more straight-forward notions of style or genre. Furthermore, duality is also an obsession of mine, and my debut studio recording, SUGAR ~ SHIT ~ SILK ~ SWEAT (2022) thoroughly investigates this idea. As a teaching artist and bandleader, I try to foster a sense of community and create environments where everyone is allotted a chance to tell their story and be empowered by other individuals on a similar mission. As is evident in the history of Black American Music, I do believe in the social power of this music and want to make sure that future generations will be able to reap the benefits of such powerful music.