Angélika Beener is a proud New York City native whose love of writing began in fourth grade when she won a storytelling contest. Her imaginative tales always amused her schoolteachers, and although her college professor urged her to change her major to English after reading her quirky essays about her hometown, she studied marketing instead. In fact, it would be some time before Angélika would take his advice, as she was busy nurturing her first love — music — by interning at record labels between classes.
Happily, her true passions of music and writing collided, and over the next fifteen years since those college days, Angélika has worked for ASCAP, The Hit Factory, Blue Note Records, and Newark Public Radio-WBGO Jazz 88.3 FM. Her work for WBGO was recognized by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which presented her with the “My Source Community Impact Award” as part of their Public Awareness Initiative to Celebrate and Affirm the Essential Role of Public Broadcasting in American Society. The following year, Angélika created and co-produced the four-part podcast series called “We Insist! Jazz Speaks Out”, which garnered award recognition by The New York Association of Black Journalists.
In addition, she has contributed liner notes to several acclaimed recording projects, including several GRAMMY®-winning and GRAMMY®-nominated albums.
Angélika continues to enjoy a dynamic career in the music business spanning the last twenty-six years, and has contributed her work to esteemed media outlets and organizations including Downbeat, TIDAL, The Huffington Post, NPR Music, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and The New York Times. A journalist who writes about music and culture at the intersections of race, gender, and generation, Angélika has participated in several notable event panels and guest speaking engagements, including Marvin Gaye and the Legacy of What’s Going On: Christian McBride in Conversation which included fellow panelists Janis Gaye, David Ritz, Nelson George, and Steven Reineke; and Under the Radar with Callie Crossley.
Angélika has moderated music discussions presented by distinguished institutions including the Apollo Theater, The Greene Space and NJPAC.
Additionally, you can find her name attached to various notable jazz projects including Droppin’ Science: Greatest Samples from the Blue Note Lab; Marcus Strickand’s People Of the Sun; and legendary bassist Ron Carter’s Dear Miles. A fierce advocate for gender and racial equity, particularly in the arts, Angélika served as a dedicated member of the Board of Directors for the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls.
Angélika adds film producer to her list of credits as part of the team for the award-winning documentary Digging For Weldon Irvine, the unsung father of jazz fusion, who mentored the likes of Q-Tip and Yasiin Bey (f.k.a. Mos Def).
Angelika is a member of the Jazz Journalists Association, and has hosted their JJA Awards ceremony three times. In 2021 Angélika had the privilege to co-host Jazz Foundation of America’s “Spotlight Jazz” mini-gala at City Winery with award-winning actor, producer and activist Danny Glover.
In November 2022, Angélika directed and co-produced Represent! A Night of Hip Hop, Jazz and Spoken Word at New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) with NJPAC Jazz Advisor and musical director Christian McBride. The historic program brought these artistic mediums together with an illustrious line-up including Black Thought (The Roots), Yasiin Bey, Speech (Arrested Development), Councilman Dupre “Doitall” Kelly (Lords of the Underground) and legendary poets and spoken word performers Nikki Giovanni, jessica Care moore, Mayor Ras Baraka, and The Last Poets.
Angélika has taken her passion for playing music — since her days curating mixtapes as a teenager and messing around on turntables in the privacy of her own home over the years — front-and-center as a DJ. She shares about when she first began to feel drawn to DJing, “It all came about organically. Outside of working on the business side of music, I’ve always been involved in music in some other way, since as early as I can remember. I can find my way around the piano, have perfect pitch, I am a walking bank of random music knowledge, an avid music collector, I studied voice at some of the most prestigious institutions in the city… I had all of these music-related elements that I didn’t know exactly what to do with, and I guess my soul felt the need to find a way for me to express the music I love, and present it in an interesting way.”
Angélika graduated from Scratch DJ Academy in New York City in 2018. Since then, she has DJ’ed at several notable NYC venues, including Le Poisson Rouge (LPR), Nublu, JALC, Madam X, and Ginny’s Supper Club. She was featured DJ at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2020 Worldwide Concert For Our Culture Gala after-party, and for The National Jazz Museum in Harlem gala in 2022. She made her SummerStage debut in August 2024.
Angélika is the producer and host of Milestones: Celebrating the Culture, a popular podcast series in partnership with WBGO, where she and special guests thoughtfully examine a curated selection of landmark albums, books, events, and people celebrating milestone anniversaries.
Angélika’s other interests and past times include stalking her local bookstore, drinking decaf lattes, cataloguing her extensive music library, and adding to her large collection of eyewear. Angélika’s most meaningful endeavor being is being mom to a creative and loving boy who deserves to live in a world that will meet his heart and mind with the same awesomeness he exudes. She is passionate about guiding his self-discovery through art and culture, and believes that he and his Gen Z buddies are going to change the world — one revolutionary step at a time.
Angélika is currently writing her first book.
Keep up with ANGÉLIKA BEENER on all social media platforms, at @KULTUREDCHILD.
Credits
LINER NOTES, ALBUM BIOGRAPHIES & FOREWORDS
Tomorrow’s Another Day (2024)
Jeremy Pelt
HighNote Records
Lean In (2023)
66th Annual Grammy Award nominee
Gretchen Parlato & Lionel Loueke
Edition Records
What Do You Say? (2021)
Shedrick Mitchell
Smoke Sessions (2021)
Nicholas Payton
Smoke Sessions Records
The Magic Of Now (2021)
53rd NAACP Image Award-nominated
Orrin Evans
Smoke Sessions Records
Griot: Examining the Lives of Jazz’s Great Storytellers (2021)
Jeremy Pelt
PeltJazz Publishing
Freedom Over Everything (2021)
64th Annual Grammy Award winner
Vince Mendoza
Modern Recordings
Flor (2021)
64th Annual Grammy Award nominee
Gretchen Parlato
Edition Records
Relaxin’ with Nick (2019)
Nicholas Payton
Smoke Sessions Records
Digging For Weldon Irvine (2019)
Teal Octopus Productions
The Thought Of You (2014)
Otis Brown III
Blue Note Records
Star of Jupiter (2012)
Kurt Rosenwinkel
Wommusic
Black Radio (2012)
55th Annual Grammy Award winner
Robert Glasper Experiment
Blue Note Records
Triumph of the Heavy (2011)
Marcus Strickland
Strick Muzik