Chilean MC Ana Tijoux kicks of re/route’s inaugural season tonight at Līv.

Being an international city, Washington, D.C. has no shortage of international music. But most of those global sounds are found in larger concert halls, with relatively few opportunities for enthusiasts to hear what is going on in the world’s club and underground music scenes. A new venture, re/route, is seeking to change that, beginning with an event featuring Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux tonight at Līv.

With the tagline, “New roots. Global Culture.,” re/route aims to bring rarely-seen global artists to D.C. through production of live performances, along with other cultural and educational events. The company’s founder and Artistic Director, Jeffrey Parks, spent the past two years as Director of Programming for the Washington Performing Arts Society, and is also a consultant at Accolade Arts.

“Basically, we want to curate the best new, innovative stuff that’s happening out there, find bridges we can build with audiences and other artists in D.C., and get people together to have an experience and a conversation about our current state of culture,” said Parks, in a recent interview with DCist.

To fill that very tall order, Parks looked to arts presenters in other cities, specifically at “relatively small, lean organizations that produce really high-quality arts programming.” This approach stemmed from the fact that during Parks’ tenure with large non-profit organizations, many interesting opportunites were lost because a certain artist would not fit within a given programming framework. There are no current plans for re/route to scale up, or apply for non-profit status, though Parks acknowledges that those steps are possibilities if they are in re/route’s best interest.

“It’s really just about discovering great artists and projects that speak to current issues in our culture,” said Parks.