WELCOME!
ILLUMINUS Roxbury is a free public art activation created with and for the neighborhood. Four local artists have spent eleven months in a cohort, sharing works in progress and inviting feedback through this year’s “On the Rox” sessions. The result is an immersive celebration of light, sound, and community.
MAP
MelGoHard- “Breathe Life Together” (Problak) Mural Animation and Sound Design
Najee Janey- Performance Stage. Sets at 8:30, 9:30 and 10:30
Landmine “Krump Battles” mixed reality video game and exhibits (located on lower level)
Artwork by students from Madison Park Technical Vocational High School
MelGoHard- “Sangre Indigena” (Don Rimx) Mural Animation and Sound Design
MeGoHard- “Dino City Untitled” (Curtistic) Mural Animation and Sound Design
Phree- Interactive Meditation and Healing Space
PRESENTING ARTISTS
Mel Go Hard
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Mel Go Hard (Melissa Sanon) is a Boston-raised producer, engineer, and songwriter known for intricate sound design and precise musical storytelling. She began producing at 15 and developed a hybrid style that blends R&B, hip hop, and pop with layered rhythms and detailed instrumentation. In the studio she crafts clean, high-impact tracks for artists across genres. In public space she scores and animates visual art so that music and motion feel rooted in the wall itself. Recent recognition includes multiple regional award nominations and Producer of the Year at the New England Music Awards. For ILLUMINUS, Mel brings her studio discipline to the street, transforming murals into time-based performances that invite reflection, joy, and a sense of shared presence.
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Murals in Motion is a music and projection work that brings three Roxbury murals to life through sound, animation, and precise mapping. Using original compositions and frame-by-frame motion, Mel Go Hard brings to life to Don Rimx’s “Sangre Indígena,” ProBlak’s “Breathe Life Together,” and Curtistic’s “Dino City (Untitled).”
These pieces are designed as a conversation with the original artworks, not a rewrite. Mel’s approach listens to what each mural already says about identity, joy, ancestry, and place, then amplifies that voice with music and motion. A continuous loop lets visitors arrive at any moment and still experience a full arc. Together the three pieces form a journey from reflection to celebration to open-ended imagination, turning familiar walls into living stories for a shared public night.
Thank you to Sam Okerstrom-Lang for animation support
Najee Janey
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Najee Janey is a rapper, singer, songwriter, and poet from Roxbury, Boston, known for a vivid blend of rap and soulful R&B and a delivery that shifts from intimate to explosive. Raised on his father’s eclectic records—Zouk, jazz, funk, and Latin sounds—and ignited by Big Pun’s “Still Not a Player,” he began writing and performing as a teenager and has been sharpening his voice ever since.
His catalog includes “Blue Manifesto,” “Blue Manifesto Deluxe,” “The Purple Earth Theory,” “As-Is,” “Four Agreements,” and dozens of singles that showcase immersive, genre-bending production and lyrical honesty. Beyond his own releases, Najee is a Billboard-charting songwriter with credits for Sebastian Mikael, helloSIXX, and TeaMarr, with placements across HBO, BET, TIDAL, Issa Rae Productions, Tyler Perry Studios, Atlantic Records, and more. His work has drawn attention from outlets such as Rolling Stone, Variety, The Boston Globe, Paste Magazine, and Vanyaland. Active in the studio and on stage, Najee continues to expand his range as an artist, songwriter, performer, and creative entrepreneur.
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The performance by Najee Janey is a guided journey to awaken inner power. The set moves through four centers of action and insight in the body: feet, hands, heart, and head. Feet are where the journeys begin, and where movement begin. Hands represent making, service, and reaching for one another. Heart opens care, courage, and connection. Head brings clarity, focus, and intention. As music and visuals unfold, these parts assemble into a whole, encouraging a shared rise toward higher selves.
His set awakens the eternal giant in each of us, calling us to a higher power and purpose.
Landmine
TikTok: @realofficiallandmine
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LandMine is a Boston-based movement artist and choreographer rooted in krump and street dance. He is not a visual artist. He performs and trains with MIJO Bulls, and is active as an educator and community leader who builds skills and confidence through foundation, freestyle, and intentional practice.
LandMine’s credits include performing in the Super Bowl halftime show with Kendrick Lamar. He also competes nationally in krump battles, bringing a style defined by musicality, precision, and emotional storytelling. In performance and workshops, his focus is on technique, respect for lineage, and using movement to foster resilience and belonging.
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Learn about LandMine’s artistic origins, then get a glimpse into the masterful storytelling behind some of LandMine’s best battles with “Krump Captioning”. Finally, take the stage yourself as you control a holographic krumper and battle live dancers in the world’s first ever holographic krump video game.
Get to know Tayquan (AKA LandMine) as you hear from his aunt, brother, and mother. They share early memories of young Tayquan, reflections on where he has been and where he is going.
Krump Captioning
Krump Captioning is LandMine’s live narration of the battle. On-screen text and voice call out the exact moves as they happen and explain the story beat by beat. The narration uses the same move catalog as the game, naming foundations and variations in real time. The aim is to make structure and intent legible for newcomers while offering deeper insight for fans.
Holographic live video game dance battle
A real-time dance battle runs on a life-size holographic screen. Motion capture at the MIT.nano lab built a catalog of krump moves that powers the game. Players can battle each other (player vs. player) or go up against live krump dancers—including LandMine—in alternating rounds. The system scores timing, variation, precision, and musicality, and the holographic dancer responds instantly so each exchange reads like a fighting-game round.
Thank you to DreaMR labs and MIT.nano for programing and motion capture support
Phree
IG: @phree_dom
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About the Artist: Phree
Phree is a Non-Binary, Queer, Black/Indigenous interdisciplinary artist from Boston. They use creative practice to process self, memory, and lived experience, with an open, ongoing commitment to healing. Their work addresses generational trauma and cycles of abuse while building spaces for care, reflection, and community.
Guided by Toni Morrison’s call that “the function of freedom is to free someone else,” Phree treats art as both personal practice and public invitation. Across paint pouring, sound, light, and interactive media, they create environments where viewers can slow down, listen inward, and imagine collective paths to liberation.
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This installation is an immersive environment that blends paint pouring, sound, and light to support calm, grounding, and introspection. Visitors move through zones inspired by the seven chakras, each with its own palette and tone. Your presence shapes the artwork. Motion in the space is translated in real time into a projected paint-pour canvas, so the image on the wall flows and shifts as people breathe, sway, and walk.
The piece reflects Phree’s practice of using creativity as a pathway to healing and liberation. By inviting gentle movement, slow looking, and attentive listening, the work encourages visitors to notice what arises in the body and to set intentions for care. It is a communal space for reflection where individual experience becomes part of a larger shared image.
The audience will experience audio of Phree’s poetry, reflecting on of themes of light, an projected poetry exploring themes of color, that will serve as a centerpiece and soundscape for the experience.
Thank you to Andrew Hlynsky for interactive programming.
Many thanks to our host, Madison Park Technical Vocational High School!
Thank you to our sponsors
