The Hip-Hop Association and The United Nations Association’s Kurt Krausse.

Natalia Linares conducts interviews for Defuse News!


The Panelist look on in excitement

The Official United Nations Cipha!

MediaClectic recently took a trip down the north east corridor to our second home of Washington D.C., along with our comrades H2A: The Hip-Hop Association. The occasion was a quietly historic meeting of the minds between the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area and various Hip-Hop activist/culture-workers. The United Nations Week event focused on contributions of Hip-Hop culture to the mission of the UN. The panelist which included: Rev. Dr. James White (Hip-Hop Congress), Ebenezer Bond (World Up!), Andrew Ryan (Hip-Hop Matters), Mazi Mutafa (Words, Beats, and Life Incorporated, Tracy Press (Powerful Beyond Measure), and H2A’s own Martha Diaz demonstrated how Hip-Hop Culture is a global phenomenon born of community based movements working for positive change.
There were some interesting contributions from other attendees including a gentleman named Alvin Jones founder of Bamboozled Entertainment Television’s original Rap City program (remember the slightly annoying Chris Thomas?), who lamented over how his original mission for starting the show was eventualy lost within the Hollywood shuffle.

We conducted interviews with several participants, which you can catch exclusively during WBAI’s 29 hour Hip-Hop Takeover Marathon, on 99.5 FM for those in the New York/Tri-State area, and WBAI.org, for our global listeners. The program is entitled Global Hip-Hop: produced by The Hip-Hop Association’s Defuse News initiative on Saturday Nov. 11th, 8AM to 10AM.

[gv data=”http://www.youtube.com/?v=1×97RcEukF4″][/gv]

Graffiti Women Panel Discussion
Brooklyn Museum
November 18, 2006 2PM

On Saturday, November 18 at 2 pm the Brooklyn Museum will host a Graffiti Women panel discussion that will provide a special opportunity to hear from the graffiti writers/artists themselves. Artists Lady Pink, Toofly and Lady k fever will be the panelists.

Graffiti Women: Street Art from Five Continents
by Nicholas Ganz
shop.brooklynmuseum.org/graffitiwomen.html

Female writers have always been in the vanguard of the graffiti movement, though often shunted to the sidelines by their male counterparts. With the publication of GRAFFITI WOMEN: Street Art From Five Continents (November; $29.95; Abrams: ISBN 0-8109-5747-7) for the first time a lavishly illustrated in depth book places them front and center of this evolving art form..

Featuring 1,000 full-color illustrations from some of the world’s most prominent graffiti and street artists, including Americans Lady Pink, Swoon, and Miss 17, Brazil’s Nina, Japan’s Sasu, and Mexico’s Peste, this first-ever comprehensive book includes two eight-page fold-out collages, a fold-out poster jacket, and an authoritative text.

American graffiti artists/writers that are highlighted in the book include: Aiko (NY), Are2, Cade (NY), Che Jen (NY), Claw & Misssl7 (NY), Constance Brady (NY), Diva (NY), Dona (NY), Eroticaa67 (NY), Femme9 (Kansas), Fever (NY), Maya Hayuk (NY), Horsie (Pittsburgh), Jakee (NY), Jel (LA), Jen Props (NY), Jerk (LA), Lady Pink (NY), Luna (LA), Melina (NY), Muck, Queen Andrea (NY), RB827 (NY), Reminisce (San Francisco), Ropas (NY), Sherm (LA), Siloette (Phoenix), Solovei, Swoon (NY), Thundercut (NY), Toofly (NY), Tribe (LA), T.W. (San Francisco).

shop.brooklynmuseum.org/graffitiwomen.html

Words.Images.Art & Design

www.ladykfever.com

November 16, 2006

Play Circle – Wisconsin Memorial Union
800 Langdon Street
Madison, WI 53706

Time: 5pm – 7pm

5:00 – 6:00pm
Cinefest Opening Reception – Play Circle Lobby

Hip-Hop Goes Global (Short Movie Series) – Introduced by Martha Diaz, Founder and President, Hip-Hop Association and Roberto Rivera, President, Elements of Change

6:00pm – 7:00pm
Film screenings

Firmeza Total – Hip Hop in Brazil – 25 minutes
Documentary on making a hip hop videoclip in the favela’s in Brasil.

Slingshot Hip-Hop – Hip Hop in Palestine – 10 minutes
Gives a Palestinian hip hip point of view of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East

Bling: Consequences and Repercussions – Sierra Leone/USA – 11 minutes
This short film tackles the issues behind Hip Hip’s obsession with diamonds and the continued illegal diamond trade in Africa.

4 Real – Real Kenya – 24 minutes
Story of K’naan – The Dusty Foot Philosopher a Canadian born Canadian refugee and Hip Hop Artist who returned to Kenya, West Africa to promote peace and human rights on his mother continent.

Panel: “Using Hip-Hop for Global Empowerment”

The influence of Hip-Hop has grown far beyond its billion dollar industry based mainly in music, entertainment & fashion; across the world Hip-Hop is also making a significant impact socially, artistically, politically, educationally, and even spiritually. Members of the global Hip-Hop culture will discuss the community developments that are currently taking place, as well as what kind of outcomes are expected to happen within the next 5-10 years.

Topics include:

-The Universal Break Beat
-Telling Our Stories: The Hip-Hop Odyssey
-Hip-Hop Education
-Connecting similar struggles
-Finding a greater sense of self worth
-The Hip-Hop Nonprofit sector: How has this perspective shaping different types of NGO’s within the Hip-Hop community
-Women in Hip-Hop globally

Moderator:

Martha Diaz, President of the Hip-Hop Association

Panelists:

*John Fredericks, Director of Mr. Devious
*Ariel Fernandez, DJ & Cultural Promoter
*Marcella Runell, Ph.D. Candidate, Hip-Hop Education
*Minister Server, Temple of Hip-Hop

Film screening: Mr. Devious / Director: John Fredericks

Mr Devious is a definitive work of art for John Fredericks, writer and filmmaker from Cape Town, South Africa. Not only did the filmmaker and his main character have a deep bond as artists and co-workers, an unlikely friendship developed between a young rising hip hop mc (26 years) and an old writer (60 years).

Mario’s death was a huge blow to John, but in the mourning and healing process, a strong film idea emerged that went beyond a “tribute” and has ventured into the realm of hard-core documentary where the edge is true life in all its complexities reflected in the story. This is not anymore a film about mourning, about tribute or about hip-hop. It is a story of a remarkable young man and his people, and sends a strong message of social awareness in the engaging lyrics and electric on-stage presence of Devious in his own words.

The archive footage makes for remarkable documentary material that includes performances and a music video completed in Amsterdam, where Devious visited and worked with an organization called Baobab Connections, an anti-globalisation international organisation. The filmmaker presents an honest deeply thought-through film that reflects the passionate life, death and legacy of Mr. Devious, an icon of the Cape Flats and South Africa.

***Admission to this event is free. Tickets will be available at the NJPAC Box Office on the day of the performance. Admission is limited and will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

Peace Brothers and Sisters:

It’s Hip-Hop History Month!

Lets give thanks to our pioneers and the culture that is the pulse of this world.

The culture that has created a global movement dedicated to Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun.

A movement, that has made an impact in every part of society. From education to politics to entrepreneurship and art, Hip-Hop culture is now embedded in the fabric of human civilization as an inherent legacy that our ancestors passed down to us as a living spirit.

A legacy of knowledge of self, great resistance and perseverance, overstanding, abundance, ultimate creative self-expression, intelligentsia, and the capacity for super powers and total freedom.

This is a spirit that shines a beacon of light into the darkness and creates a path for human evolution.

Hip-Hop Culture is a celebration of Life.

Live on, save life.

M:D, Prez

Maybe not, but still:

“I never thought I’d sell diamonds, but we’re actually working with De Beers to create schools in Africa, to make De Beers create better investments.” - Russell Simmons / Complex Magazine

Complex Magazine: There’s something to be said for gradual progress…

Really?

Choose for yoursef, read more about it:
[Defuse More]