activisty spoken word, and words spoken on activism
This weekend the hip-hop festival was in town. A formerly fellow intern (she quit save darfur to work full time for africa action), and I went to the show friday night: a beat boxer on Israel/Palestine conflict and a play about suburban interpretation of hip-hop, then hookah in Tenleytown.
Saturday, I went to a crab cookout sort of thing that Spence's cousin Scott put on: many inane sorts of newly graduated "those" with business degrees, baby ibankers with huge egos, often riding on the type and measure of their parents wealth (since they have yet to make any big bucks).
Hip hop again in the evening, a show by Sol y Soul, a spoken word activist group. During the discussion period they had after the performance, Jessie asked about the activist flavor of spoken word, and if they had considered doing a project on crises left out of the media. The performers had experience with this kind of thing and afterwords we talked to them about performing at the leaders day for darfur in september.
Sunday, we all went to a service dedicated to darfur for the National Weekend. It was interesting. Jay, the hunger striker, spoke. Although I find him a bit self-righteous, it was interesting to watch a man who had not eaten for 9 days deliver a speech. Those who attended the service seemed to be the activist sort already. So it was a bit more self-congratulatory than educational. But what can you do.
Hip-Hop Jive: http://www.hiphoptheaterfest.com/home.html
Sol y Soul: http://www.solysoul.com
Saturday, I went to a crab cookout sort of thing that Spence's cousin Scott put on: many inane sorts of newly graduated "those" with business degrees, baby ibankers with huge egos, often riding on the type and measure of their parents wealth (since they have yet to make any big bucks).
Hip hop again in the evening, a show by Sol y Soul, a spoken word activist group. During the discussion period they had after the performance, Jessie asked about the activist flavor of spoken word, and if they had considered doing a project on crises left out of the media. The performers had experience with this kind of thing and afterwords we talked to them about performing at the leaders day for darfur in september.
Sunday, we all went to a service dedicated to darfur for the National Weekend. It was interesting. Jay, the hunger striker, spoke. Although I find him a bit self-righteous, it was interesting to watch a man who had not eaten for 9 days deliver a speech. Those who attended the service seemed to be the activist sort already. So it was a bit more self-congratulatory than educational. But what can you do.
Hip-Hop Jive: http://www.hiphoptheaterfest.com/home.html
Sol y Soul: http://www.solysoul.com