Thursday, July 17, 2008
National Hip-Hop Political Convention Opens In 2 Weeks
Like most of the others, this one's xposted to Vibe.com...


Since the first National Hip-Hop Political Convention was held in Newark New Jersey in the summer of 2004, young voters have come to the polls in big turnouts, driven by a landmark surge of young voters of color. This surprised many long-time political observers, but not the organizers of the Convention—full disclosure: I was there—who had seen the growth of hip-hop activism and organizing around the country.

After the Convention, those efforts continued around the country, joined by high-profile voter registration campaigns by Diddy and Russell Simmons. Those efforts continue today. Simmons' Hip-Hop Summit Action Network has taken Hip-Hop Team Vote to a number of campuses. T.I. is joining the Hip-Hop Caucus's efforts to register and turn out young people to vote in 12 target states, including swing states like Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio.

When the third National Hip-Hop Political Convention opens in Las Vegas on July 30th—in the heart of another swing state, Nevada—it can boast of its role in expanding the field of hip-hop generation elected officials and candidates, including co-founder Rosa Clemente who will be addressing the body as the Green Party vice presidential candidate. Representatives of the Democratic and Republican National Committees will also be speaking. The focus will be the Convention's political agenda, first forged in Newark in 2004.

2008 Convention Chair Troy Nkrumah took time away from a heavy load of emails, text messages, and phone calls to talk with Vibe.com about the importance of the Convention and its agenda, and what role it hopes to play in this historic election and beyond.


Vibe: This is the third National Hip-Hop Political Convention. Why is it important to hold this convention in 2008?

Troy Nkrumah: The whole idea from the start was to develop a political agenda for the hip hop generation. The political agenda is a living document. It's not set in stone like the Ten Commandments. So the Convention needs to continue to happen to keep the agenda relevant. This convention is even more important than the last because there is more of a possibility of getting at least parts of this agenda implemented with the change of administration coming up. Now that we have people actually expressing that agenda on the national stage, then it makes the other parties look at it.

It's a time for us as the hip-hop generation to step up and say, we put this agenda out and now we want to see where people really stand on it and we're calling you to task. You can't take us for granted anymore.


Vibe: What are the main issues that you'll be pushing?

TN: The first one is the Katrina issue. We want to keep it fresh in everybody's minds that this has not been resolved. There are still people with no right to return because they can't afford to. We have issues on gender relations, exposing the troublesome sexual politics of the hip-hop generation. Criminal justice is going to be top on the agenda. We have artists and activists—Rebel Diaz, a rap group out of Chicago who were recently abused by NYPD, Dhoruba Bin-Wahad, and Regina Kelley out of Texas who was thrown in jail by a drug task force over a confidential informant who lied.

Vibe: Over the last 4 years, there has been a sharp increase in numbers of young people and people of color going out to vote. A number of hip-hop generation candidates, such as Kevin Powell and Rosa Clemente, are running across the country. What role has the Convention played in developing the space for hip-hop generation candidates?

TN: After the first convention, I think a lot of people left Newark, New Jersey, with this feeling like,
'Why are we depending on these other candidates who will tell us whatever we want to hear, why don't we start our own people? So what we saw was a lot of people running for office,
running for school board or city council. And now we see people like Kevin Powell who has a really good chance of beating an incumbent. It's the work of the Convention to show people that it goes beyond demanding people recognize our agenda. If they're not going to, we have no choice but to run ourselves. This year we're going to push that a little further and start preparing for the mid-term elections in 2010.

It's hard to measure how much of an impact hip-hop activism has played. Some people say that it played a really big role, that the work that we did in 2003 and 2004 is the reason Obama can be taken seriously today. Without laying the foundation, a lot of young people would be still saying, 'The hell with voting. It doesn't do anything. But we've changed that perception.

It goes beyond the presidential elections. We didn't really take into consideration that the prosecutors and judges who are locking up a lot of Brown and Black people are in elected positions. So I think the 2004 convention educated a lot of the activist community in hip-hop to say we have to take the electoral part seriously. We can't depend on it as the only outlet. But they're using it against us, so why not switch it and use it for us?


Vibe: Do you expect we're going to see big interest in the elections this year?

TN: We know that there are going to be record turnouts at the polls. Now whether or not the elections are going to be fair and whether all the votes are going to be counted is a whole 'nother story. The question is: If Obama gets the election stolen from him, as did Gore and Kerry, is he going to be willing to fight it? Gore wasn't. Nor was Kerrey. If the elections are stolen again, if the Democrats don't step up to the plate, they're going to lose an entire generation putting their last bit of faith in the electoral system.

However, it's going to be powerful to see how big of an impact these young, first time progressive voters actually affect this election. If they do decide this election, then they can understand that they can decide every election. It's up to us—the activists, the organizers who do this year round—to channel that energy to go beyond November and make it a part of hip-hop culture.

posted by Zentronix @ 3:29 PM   1 comments

1 Comments:

At 7/21/08, 12:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

All I Want to know is why the fuck did McKinney not ask Davey D to be VP. He is the cold crush pioneer of Hiphop activism.

If anything, Clemente is s student of Dave.

Did McKinney not ask?! Or did he turn the option down. More people know Davey than Clemente. Dave has a history of Hiphop political activism that out shines Jeff Chang (no disrespect- I'm just saying).

I think its a huge slap in the face to Davey, and all his supporters that Clemente was picked over Dave. He knows more about the issues and Green agenda.

Just for that, I wont be voting for the ticket, even if Dave is too humble to see how he got shafted.

 

Post a Comment

 

Previous posts
Why The Papers Are Getting The Race Polls Wrong
Kevin Powell :: It's Time For New Leadership
New Yorker Goes Imus On Obamas
HKR Radio :: Rosa Clemente On Her VP Run
Green Party Taps Hip-Hop Activist Rosa Clemente Fo...
McCain :: My Crew, My Dogs
Rinku Sen on Immigration and The Meaning of July 4th
Young Jeezy & The Power of Words
2G2K Circus :: Obama as Billy Beane?
Actually Don't Read My Posts


select * from pages where handle = "BlogLinks" #content#

Archives
June 2002
July 2002
August 2002
September 2002
October 2002
November 2002
December 2002
January 2003
February 2003
March 2003
April 2003
May 2003
June 2003
July 2003
August 2003
September 2003
October 2003
November 2003
December 2003
January 2004
February 2004
March 2004
April 2004
May 2004
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
 

Email list

Add me to the Can't Stop Won't Stop email list, an irregular update of what's new in our world:

Submit