Hebrew Mamita mixes culture and rhyme

“Hebrew Mamita”

Nov. 12

Public Health Auditorium

7-9 p.m.

Admission is free

A few… “Hebrew Mamita”

Nov. 12

Public Health Auditorium

7-9 p.m.

Admission is free

A few years ago, Vanessa Hidary walked onto the stage of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and recited a poem.

“I am the culture bandit,” she said. “I eat Matzah in Harlem. I was thrown out of Hebrew school ’cause I spent Rosh Hashanah at the Puerto Rican Day Parade.”

She went on to empathetically announce her love of all cultures and their various eccentricities. The crowd went wild.

“It was an amazing, inspiring experience,” Hidary, who often goes by the name “,” said. “I thought [the show] was a forum for talking about being Jewish that was really exciting and different.”

Now, Hidary is a diva of the slam poetry circuit with her critically acclaimed show, “Culture Bandit.” The show began as a single poem and now features music, monologues and, of course, poetry.

“It was this kind of dedication to my neighborhood about different cultures,” Hidary said. “That poem ended up turning into a full show that was just an outpouring of all the different cultural experiences that I’ve been through.”

The show features myriad styles and influences, a diverse landscape of words and music.

“I wanted to use a soundtrack that was going from the ’70s through the present day,” Hidary said. “I just really used music that I felt like influenced the time.”

One genre that particularly stands out is hip-hop.

Growing up in New York’s Upper West Side, Hidary lived in hip-hop’s “Golden Age.”

“It was a big time of inspiration for me,” Hidary said, citing Public Enemy and the Jungle Brothers as two of her favorite groups. “It was a very special time in hip-hop.”

While the show is a coordinated amalgamation of styles, it’s partly based on a confusing period in Hidary’s life — her youth.

As a member of an urban melting pot, Hidary said she often felt conflicted about her Jewish identity.

“I was in a place of trying to grapple with how I felt proud of it,” Hidary said. “It took me a while to get to a place of having pride about [my Jewish identity] and wanting to learn about my culture.”

It was her art, she said, that helped coax her out of such a malaise.

“My writing in general was just a way to express my journey and talk about the grapples of identity,” Hidary said. “Through my arts, I was able to come full circle and kind of understand and express a lot of my experiences.”

Her discovery of the genre-blending art that she performs on stage took a long time to make.

Originally an actress, Hidary began writing solo-show monologues during graduate school and was inspired to take up poetry when she returned to New York.

“I started performing my own material,” Hidary said. “I felt as though that was just a better niche for me.”

Now, Hidary rhymes rather than acts and writes her own scripts, exploring the intricacies of city life, religion, culture and relationships.

On writing about the latter, Hidary said, “It’s a good way of dealing with the different situations I’m in as a woman and hopefully inspires other women who are going through the same situation.”

Inspiration, it seems, surrounds Hidary.

She’s inspired by music, human interaction and the cultural web that entangles every one of us.

“I’m someone who’s excited by all the different pleasures of different cultures,” Hidary said, “and all the different ways that we can enjoy each other’s many different traits.”