Unique blend of art, culture, and community empowerment broadens the ‘Occupy Movement’
Hip Hop Occupies and the POC Caucus of Occupy Seattle present an urban arts-infused event that redefines protest and self-determination. In solidarity with All People's Revolutionary Front, and in partnership with 206 Zulu, Dope Emporium, Black Orchid Collective, and over a dozen other local Hip Hop organizations, collectives, and businesses, “Rise & Decolonize! Let’s Get Free” aims to create a new model for engaging and empowering youth, people of color, and other voices in the ‘Occupy Movement’.
The “Rise & Decolonize” program will feature a march down to Westlake, performances from over twenty local DJs, emcees, and b-boy/b-girl crews, speakers, live art and cipher spaces, as well as a survey to canvass and identify local demands around youth service, media justice, economic displacement, and other issues directly impacting underrepresented communities in Seattle. “Beyond entertainment, Hip Hop is a potent organizing base,” says Julie C, emcee from Hip Hop Occupies, “and through this event we are providing a timely access point and channel for our communities to be represented.”
“Hip Hop History Month [November] is a reminder of the struggle's intensity and how under any circumstance and by any means, change can be made,” says King Khazm, Westcoast Regional Director of Universal Zulu Nation and founder of 206 Zulu, “Let us remember and overstand this legacy so that we can be the change we want to see, shaping our own future.” Jace Ecaj, veteran emcee from Black Stax and founder of Dope Emporium adds, “The actions of the movement are aligned with the consciousness of Hip Hop Culture. The time is now to create an infrastructure that reflects the attitude and respect for basic human rights and balance to the people.”
Event Date: Friday, November 18, 2011
Event Location: Westlake Park, 4th & Pine in Downtown Seattle
Event Schedule:
4:30-5:00pm: March from Seattle Central Community College to Westlake Park
5:00-5:30pm: Press Conference
-Opening Statements, Background on Hip Hop History Month, Mission of Event
5:30-9:30pm: Rally & Performances
-Featuring Black Stax, Sista Hailstorm, Suntonio Bandanaz, Waves of the Mind, DJ SeaBefore, Korvus Blackbird, DJ Intylekt, Sean Malik, Graves 33, Greg & Jerome, Jamil, Youth Speakin' Truth, G.M.F Squad, JJ, Massiah, Black Magic Noize, Sire One, Khazm, Julie C, E-Dawg, and B-Boy/B-Girl cyphers from Circle of Fire, Crisis Crew, North City Rockers, & More!
9:30-10:00pm: Closing cipher
I have a problem Grouping everybody together as "marginalised gendered People of Colour DECOLONISATION" as if we were one common people. We have 1 common enemy. Our cultures,Music,food, point of origin are all different. And we as individual groups have many different issues that we have to deal with.So while ideally it would be nice to be one.To start off what music would we listen "Rancheras,Salsa..." Hip Hop I dont think so. what food collard greens.... and so on.Then you my be ready,but most of us are not.How do we deal with Immigration...The list is long, and we are not ready. Nice idea but we are not ready
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your words, and that's real. We do not/can not speak for everyone who is marginalized as POC globally, and our efforts with this event reflect merely the starting point from which the organizers have come together around, which is Hip Hop culture. It's not an ends, its a means, and only a small step towards the real work ahead.
ReplyDeleteAs far as immigration goes, we believe this falls under the umbrella of economic displacement. Our organizers identify not as "immigrants" or "undocumented peoples" but rather as "economic refugees", and its a phenomenon we see global to local, from corporate and humanitarian colonization, economic terrorism, exploitative trade policies, right down to the struggle for immigrant rights, and the gentrification of our neighborhoods. We are down for that fight, and we are ready to grow in this struggle.
Appreciate your comments, and hopefully you stay in the loop, and perhaps are open to contributing towards broadening the reach and scope of this work, with or without Hip Hop.
Peace and Solidarity
Should criminals be in charge of correcting the wrong they inflicted?
ReplyDeletePuerto Ricans vote in elections every 4 years at an 80% level of participation. Puerto Rico has been a colony of the United States (US) government for the past 116 years. If the US government has the final say in what happens in Puerto Rico, what is the purpose of these elections? The purpose is to fool the world that Puerto Rico is a democracy.
The United Nations (UN) declared colonialism a crime against humanity in 1960. The UN has asked the US government 33 times to decolonize Puerto Rico immediately. The US government has refused. It says that Puerto Rico’s political relationship with the United States is none of the UN’s business. The US says that it is a domestic affair.
To appear that the US government wants to decolonize Puerto Rico, it promotes the use of plebiscites to determine what Puerto Ricans want. Doesn’t that sounds innocent and democratic? So what’s the problem?
To begin with, the international community already rendered its verdict and determined that colonialism is illegal. So to have a political status option in a plebiscite that favors maintaining Puerto Rico a colony of the United States is not permitted. To have a political status option of Puerto Rico becoming a state of the United States is also not permitted under international law. The problem goes back to the beginning of this article. In order to have free elections, the country must be free. So before these elections and plebiscite could be valid, Puerto Rico would have to first be an independent nation.
What people must realize is that Puerto Rico is a colony of the US because the US government wants it that way. That is why it has used terrorism to keep it that way. That is why it refuses to release the Puerto Rican political prisoner of 33 years Oscar López Rivera. That is also why it is ridiculous to believe that decolonization is a US internal matter in which the UN has no jurisdiction over. If we allow the US government to decolonize Puerto Rico, she will remain a colony of the United States forever!
José M López Sierra
www.TodosUnidosDescolonizarPR.blogspot.com