Rise & Decolonize: Let's Get Free! National Call-to-Action

National-Call-to-Action: Rise & Decolonize! Let’s Get Free Rally

DOWNTOWN SEATTLE – WESTLAKE CENTER [and Nationwide]

Seattle, WA, Friday, November 18, 2011 at 5:00pm – In solidarity with All Peoples Revolutionary Front and the POC Caucus of Occupy Seattle, Hip Hop Occupies organizes a rally to claim spaces as people-of-color, youth, and artists in local “occupations”. Meeting at the intersection of arts, culture, and the Movement, the rally will feature speakers from the frontlines, not politicians, and community advocates, not career activists, woven into narratives of Hip Hop and all its elements: B-boy/B-Girling, DJing, Graffiti, and Emceeing. When we imagine decolonization, we do not make demands of those in power; we create power and frame the alternative.

Hip Hop Occupies embraces the term “occupation” as it has been reclaimed by militant workers of color from Latin America (Oaxaca, Buenos Aires, South Korea, China, among other places) to describe their occupation of factories, schools and neighborhoods, to strike back against oppressive forces. But while it is in this context that we use the term “occupy”, we fully endorse the “Decolonize” framework as a necessary expansion of the Occupy Movement. In the face of brutality in the legacy of capitalism, a system that relied upon the enslavement of African and Caribbean peoples, the genocide and displacement of Indigenous Peoples, and the violent seizure of lands for colonial profit, we embody a vision of intersectional social justice and self-determination.

In the strength of “making our own power”, Hip Hop Occupies announces our solidarity with “Rise & Decolonize! Let’s Get Free” National Call-to-Action, and encourages all those who share our commitment to this vision to come out in full force 5pm on November 18, 2011, to create, build, and affirm the decolonization of the Occupy Movement, in order to fulfill its revolutionary potential.

Background Information on Hip Hop Occupies

From its genesis, Hip Hop has been a vehicle of expression and liberation for oppressed peoples. Disenfranchised youth in the development-torn 1970s Bronx responded to the economic violence imposed upon their neighborhoods by resistant occupation of public spaces through art. It was in these acts of occupation that the elements of Hip Hop, b-boy/b-girling, graffiti, DJing, and emceeing emerged and spread. It is in this spirit that Hip Hop Occupies was founded by a group of artists on the ground of Occupy Seattle. We are a growing network of artists, activists, and cultural advocates from the Hip Hop grassroots who are educating, organizing, and agitating from the frontlines of Occupy actions all over the world. In just two weeks, our growing local and national network has expanded to over 22 allies including All People’s Revolutionary Front, Umojafest P.E.A.C.E Center, Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, 206 Zulu, One Hood, Hidmo, Occupy the Hood, Davey D, Black Orchid Collective, Grassroots Artist MovEment, Black Magic Noize, Truth About Tupac Movement, Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign, Rosa Clemente, Bump Local, Hip Hop Congress and more. We seek to continue this growth and collect the representative allies from every city as well as support emerging leadership from our underrepresented communities in order to fuel the resistance, and to feed the vision of a better world for the generations that follow.

Click here to read the Decolonize Declaration of Occupy Seattle

Click here to read All Peoples Revolutionary Front's Open Letter to Occupy San Diego

We Are Hip Hop Occupies

Peace and Solidarity.

We are Hip Hop Occupies, a growing network of artists, activists, and cultural advocates from the Hip Hop grassroots who are educating, organizing, and agitating from the frontlines of Occupy actions all over the world.

Inspired by the revolutionary potential of the rapidly expanding Occupy Movement, and seeking to bridge the gap between occupations, communities of color, and youth, a group of Hip Hop artists on the ground of Occupy Seattle established a Hip Hop working group at the October 9th, 2011 General Assembly.

Within two days of outreach, through our existing networks of urban arts, youth service, and Hip Hop crews, collectives, and organizations, we had more than 14 partners, locally and nationally. Through our daily meetings, actions, and livestream-broadcasted cyphers, we began generating a groundswell of energy, excitement, and attention, expanding our in-the-field numbers more quickly than we ever imagined. Even through nightly stand-offs and morning raids from Seattle Police Department, we grew.

By October 12th, 2011, we had established the www.HipHopOccupies.com domain, framework, and Phase 1 Goals and Plan of Action. We drafted the language, garnered donated graphic design, print, and web support (thank you Mean Mouse), and continued our outreach from the field, meeting at Westlake Center at 9pm, during the height of our local Occupy internal struggles, as well as police activity. Through the chaos, we persisted, and quickly realized our vision was bigger than Seattle, and bigger than Hip Hop.

We seek to grow this network locally, nationally, and internationally, and collect the representative partners and contacts we need from EVERY city to support emerging leadership from our underrepresented communities, shape collective vision, and create a process and forum through which to outline Phase 2 Goals and Plan of Actions, including our own list of demands that address our issues, those of educational disparity, youth violence, media justice, the economic displacement of gentrification, the prison industrial complex, and more. But we cannot do this without you.

Even as I am writing this blog post, Occupy Seattle faces yet another eviction from Seattle Police Department. Such efforts to quash this growing movement from law enforcement, city, county, and federal government will continue, and will become more coordinated, strategic, and subversive every day. As they collectivize their efforts, so must we. We ask you to Join Us in solidarity to fuel the resistance, and to feed the vision of a better world for the generations that follow.

We out here. Get at us.