Sickle & Flow is a group of Atlanta musicians, patient advocates, scientists and health care workers working together to connect music and medicine through community outreach. Sickle & Flow will host a benefit concert featuring Atlanta hip hop, R&B and soul musicians to raise awareness of and funds for sickle cell disease on World Blood Day, Saturday, June 18th 2016. The event takes place from 7pm to midnight in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward at two venues, The Sound Table and Peaceful Clouds, both on Edgewood Avenue.

Sickle & Flow’s impressive lineup features local hip hop artists BAMN, Bassmint Fresh, COMMAND, Eri Soul, Arielle Symone, Ziggy 2P, DJ Anomina and DJ ZuluWāv; hosted by Suli Chillis and Marlan Ballard; as well as live graffiti artists and painting by Loud Paint. The evening will include special guest appearances by State House Representative Park Cannon; patient families and bone marrow donors who will share how their lives are affected by sickle cell disease; and sickle cell research doctors. Representatives from Be the Match Georgia will also be present to provide education about donating blood or marrow, through a simple cheek-swabbing at the event.

Sickle cell is an inherited disorder of red blood cells that is most common in people of color. One in 500 black children are born with sickle cell anemia, suffering pain crisis or stroke when sickled red cells block vessels throughout the body. Children with sickle cell disease can usually receive the medical treatments they need through state-funded programs like Peachcare, but when they transition to adult care, they often face barriers to treatment. Individuals with sickle cell disease can suffer from chronic or disabling pain, resulting at times in the stigmatization of adults as painkiller addicts. Life expectancy for those with sickle cell disease is 36 for men, 48 for women.

Current treatments for sickle cell rely on frequent transfusions of donated blood, but new promising bone marrow transplant therapy is achieving cure rates up to 80%. Nationwide, science and clinical research funding for sickle cell is consistently less for sickle cell than cystic fibrosis or hemophilia, two other less-common genetically-inherited diseases. Dr. Manu Platt of the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Dr. Margo Rollins of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta will both speak at Sickle & Flow, sharing what inspires them to work in advancing sickle cell research.

“Caring for patients with chronic disease requires an interdisciplinary team of clinicians, and in sickle transplant, this team must extend to those with African-American blood cells. Sickle & Flow seeks to empower the ATL community so we can all work together, and help translate bench-to-bedside research into meaningful social change that saves lives,” said Christopher Lewis, Emory MD/PhD student and the director of Sickle & Flow.

Tickets to Sickle & Flow are $7 online at $10 at the door.
Proceeds from Sickle and Flow will go to benefit Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia.
Please contact Christopher Lewis at christopher.lewis@emory.edu with any questions.