Collective Spotlight: The Collective Bae
Collective Spotlight: The Collective Bae
In this series, we spotlight up-and-coming collectives who are paving their own way while driving underground culture forward.
Collective BAE (Balancing All Energies) is an NYC-based, women+ and BIPOC-led revolutionary arts, culture, and well-being movement. They describe themselves as a full-spectrum ecosystem of artists, educators, practitioners, and inter-disciplinary facilitators from across cultures. That includes DJs, designers, clinical herbalists, sound-healers, architects and activists working to co-create positive impact rooted in community care. Founded in 2016, they blend conscious music, holistic healing, and art activism to create intentional spaces that promote equity and transformation, and today we caught up with their founder DRĖĖĖMY to learn all about their ground-breaking community.
When was Collective Bae founded?
DRĖĖĖMY: The Collective BAE was founded in 2016 in Brooklyn, NY. It began as an intimate experiment born during a time of political crisis — a gathering rooted in music, embodiment, and liberation featuring primarily women-identifying artists across many genres and disciplines. We quickly evolved into something much larger than we anticipated.
Who are the founders of Collective Bae?
DRĖĖĖMY: BAE was founded by inter-disciplinary artist DRĖĖĖMY (Founder, vocalist/DJ/producer, facilitator) and was born from a desire to create spaces where music wasn’t just entertainment — it was medicine, memory, and movement.
How did the concept come about?
DRĖĖĖMY: The concept came from noticing what was missing in nightlife and in wellness spaces. Clubs often lacked intention and community. Wellness spaces often lacked rhythm and realness. We wanted to bridge that gap — to create unique environments where you could sweat, dance, release, pray, celebrate, and feel culturally met without it being rigid or performative. At the time, there were little to no spaces fusing these modalities - especially in the electronic music scene.
What is your mission?
DRĖĖĖMY: Our mission is to create culturally-rooted, intention-driven transformational spaces that invite liberation through music and movement. We center sound as a transformational technology — blending global rhythms, electronic production, live performance, and embodied guidance to reconnect people to their bodies and to each other.
At its core, The Collective BAE is about embodied expression and liberation.
What were your early events like?
DRĖĖĖMY: Our early events were intimate, raw, and experimental. They were smaller gatherings — underground, word-of-mouth, very community-oriented. People came ready to participate, not spectate, with open decks, open mics, and interactive art offerings that allowed participants to tap into their own creative energy. They were also more politically charged, building on an ethos of justice, equity, and activism. There was a scrappiness to it — and a purity.
What are your events like now?
DRĖĖĖMY: Now the scale has expanded and evolved out of site-specific events. The production has elevated and the primary work is to educate and connect our roster of artists to other aligned opportunities and communities.
But the essence remains: we create immersive experiences where DJs, live musicians, and facilitators guide the room through a journey rather than just a party. There’s an arc, storytelling, myth-making and ritual. There’s also a deeper emphasis on educational offerings, learning from and teaching one another via the transformational technologies of music, movement, and natural medicine.
How has your community grown?
DRĖĖĖMY: Our community has grown both locally and internationally. What started as an NYC-based roster has expanded into a cross-cultural and global audience — dancers, artists, wellness practitioners, nightlife lovers, curious newcomers across many other communities.
It’s grown not just in numbers but in depth. Many people who attended our first gatherings are now stewarding sister movements of their own.
What can people expect from your events?
DRĖĖĖMY: People can expect high-level sound, global rhythms, live immersive elements, and an experience of natural healing modalities rooted in cultural wisdom. There’s permission to move fully. To sweat. To release. To connect deeply.
They can also expect diversity — ethnically, musically, and energetically. We are intentional about who we platform and how the room feels.
How has your mission changed since you launched?
DRĖĖĖMY: In the beginning, we were focused on proving the concept. Now we’re focused on legacy.
We think more about sustainability, artist support, and how to build infrastructure that protects the culture we’re cultivating. We’ve become clearer about boundaries, about ownership, and sacred circular economy - valuing our work appropriately and distributing resources abundantly.
The mission hasn’t changed — but the maturity has.
You mentioned you’re in a powerful new chapter — what does that look like?
DRĖĖĖMY: This new chapter looks like intentional expansion with discernment. We’re refining our offerings, building stronger partnerships, and integrating more educational offerings that steward the next generation of intentional artists and community leaders. My own evolution as a producer and live artist is influencing the scale and vision of the events.
It feels less reactive, more strategic. Less hustle, more alignment.
What do you have lined up for the future?
DRĖĖĖMY: We’re developing larger-scale immersive events, international collaborations, and educational offerings that support emerging artists and DJs. There’s also a stronger live electronic component being integrated — blending DJ culture with original composition and performance.
We’re building something that can travel and last. Something that can truly meet these times.
The Collective BAE exists at the intersection of culture, rhythm, and community. We’re not trying to replicate nightlife or wellness culture — we’re building an entirely new world that empowers the next generation of creators and leaders.
For all their latest news and events, follow The Collective BAE on Instagram.
