Manifesto 7 Review #HipHopEd #HipHopEdTO

Manifesto

See: http://www.themanifesto.ca/festival/2013/

See HipHopEdTO Blog: http://hiphopedto.wordpress.com/

A great weekend of community, culture, celebration and arts! What started off as primary Hip Hop, it has evolved to include many other aspects which I believe lends itself to the diversity of Toronto.

Friday Evening DJ Event: “The Beat” at Adelaide hall featured some pretty crazy DJs, headliner Oddisee got to spin and spit at the event, killing both! The $20 dollar tickets were a bit high but understanding it helps fund the entire weekend of events, I was cool with it. Elaquent and Rich Kidd both put on amazing shows while a few others I didn’t feel showcased the true art of Dj’ing.

Saturday’s George Brown event: “So Much Things To Say: Evolution Summit” was hosted at the sleek waterfront campus and had too many great sessions to name. I attended “Art Education and Empowerment” session with some great #HipHopEd people Sam Seidel (https://twitter.com/husslington) , Francesca D’Amico (https://twitter.com/hiphopscholar82) , Mohammad Ali Aumeer (https://twitter.com/SocialistHipHop)  and moderated by Shaheen Ariefdien (https://twitter.com/capecrusader). The session had many great points brought up in terms of including youth in the decision making process and giving them power.  Allowing youth to use their cultural capital to influence programs and policies that will ultimate affect them.  There needs to be recognition that today’s youth may not see hip hop as we see hip hop, so recognizing there may be a generational gap.  In the secondary and post secondary level often arts are seen as electives/ ”bird courses” which can make participating, teaching and getting a job from them difficult.  Sam shared a great equation: Arts + Education + Hustle = Change x community. He added community as a factor because if you have representation, support and an active community you will see massive gains in the change.

Sunday’s event felt like a true community celebration as the Friday and Saturday events were either limited to youth under 19 (19+ DJ Event) or required a paid registration online.  Yonge-Dundas Square was over spilling with energy and passion.  The performers on the stage did a great job but where I felt the true connections were walking around speaking to the community partners and vendors.  Even though some were selling a product, they all have passion for Toronto arts and most if not all were involved in some other community work. Each 1 Teach 1 (https://twitter.com/E1T1partnership)  program created by Tina Khan (https://twitter.com/mizzteacha)  was there at a booth displaying the many benefits to her program and their printed shirts which looked great.  Ride or Die Project (http://therideordieproject.com/) and Stolen From Africa (https://twitter.com/SFAmedia)  not only had great merchandise but strong roots in community and creating change locally and globally.  Former students had a booth for their own clothing line! Check out (https://twitter.com/_BBALDASSARRE) and Berma (https://twitter.com/_Berma) .

Check out Sam Seidel’s book here – Hip Hop Genius: Remixing Education