zentronix: dubwise & hiphopcentric: National Hip-Hop Political Convention Opens

Thursday, July 31, 2008
National Hip-Hop Political Convention Opens

Today, the National Hip-Hop Political Convention opens in Las Vegas.

Thousands are expected to attend the Convention, with some coming from as far as Colombia and South Korea yesterday for the opening b-boy battle, that featured a showdown between Las Vegas's Knucklehead Zoo and the R16 champs, Gamblerz.

They will be discussing issues like the criminalization of youth, youth violence, the right of return on the Gulf Coast, media justice, sexism in hip-hop, economic justice, Black-Brown solidarity, global warming, liberation theology, and vote disenfranchisement. (I'm speaking today at an all-day symposium on the place of hip-hop in academia. alongside folks like Asheru, Byron Hurt, Marc Lamont Hill, and many others.)

Dozens of skills-building trainings around voter registration, lobbying, organizing, media, film making, and even krumping will be held, showing that the organizers draw no distinction between arts and social justice. Some of the best recent underground films on hip-hop--including "African Underground: Democracy in Dakar" and "Masizakhe: Let Us Build Together"--bring a distinctly global view of hip-hop to the event.

On Sunday Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney will give the closing address and the Convention will revise and update their hip-hop political agenda.

Keep your eye here for reports back over the coming days.

posted by Zentronix @ 7:01 AM 4 comments

4 Comments:

At 7/31/08, 8:52 AM, Anonymous said...: So Jeff, you introduced many Hiphop people to Barack. Now you post a lot about Clemente and McKinney. The simple question is, at the end of the day, who will you vote for and why?
At 7/31/08, 9:28 AM, Zentronix said...: Whoever's better? Haha. No I haven't decided yet. That's a good thing, I think, for progressive political journalism, tho it might be a bad thing for you if you're looking for an answer from me right now. What about you?
At 8/20/08, 6:00 PM, Anonymous said...: um, how is it bad for 'progressive political journalism' to make a decision on something? obviously, a vote for clemente is not a vote for barack. can one endorse both? or is this the journo-weasel equivalent of flip-flopping? why not just vote for mccain, since the mckinney/clemente ticket occupies the nader position in this year's election?
At 8/20/08, 6:08 PM, Zentronix said...: there's 11 weeks and a lot of reporting left to do. question's back to you.

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