Clean Speech St. Louis will wrap up its 30-day Clean Speech Challenge with a performance and Q&A with rapper, songwriter and record producer Nissim Black. The finale event takes place at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6) Sunday, March 26 at the Jewish Community Center’s Staenberg Family Complex in Creve Coeur. 

Clean Speech St. Louis presents its 30-day challenge during March to encourage the community to show their commitment to using positive speech every day when speaking to others, striving to use kinder, less hurtful and offensive communications.

Nissim Baruch Black (born Damian Jamohl Black) and his wife Adina, with whom he has seven children, were initially married in 2008; they participated in an Orthodox Jewish marriage ceremony in 2013 at the Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation after both had converted. Black and his family continued to live in Seward Park, the Seattle neighborhood where he grew up, until making aliyah to Israel in 2016 and settling in Jerusalem. He self-identifies as a follower of Breslov Hasidism and makes pilgrimage to Uman every Rosh Hashanah.

Under the stage name D. Black, he released the albums “The Cause & Effect” (2006) and “Ali’yah” (2009) and was featured on producer Jake One’s debut album “White Van Music” (2008). He retired in 2011 to focus on his conversion to Orthodox Judaism, but soon returned under his new legal name Nissim Black and began focusing on Jewish hip hop. 

He self-identifies as a follower of Breslov Hasidism and makes pilgrimage to Uman every Rosh Hashanah.

“Motherland Bounce,” the name of one of Black’s recently released singles in 2020, tells the story of how he went from selling drugs in Seattle by age 12 to finding a spiritual home in Orthodox Judaism and moving to Jerusalem. In the song, he grapples with his many different identities.

The song’s video has garnered 5 million views on YouTube. 

The concert is free; suggested donation $18 RSVP to 314-862-2474 or [email protected]

The event is sponsored by Michael Staenberg and the J’s Staenberg Family Complex and the Weisman Family Foundation.