Project Hip-Hop had its end of the summer event this evening and the youth did their thing. There was a mini conference of sorts where various groups of them faciliated discussion on a range of important local issues. The topics include violence in hip-hop (breaking down juelz), media stereotypes (of black women), knowledge (the hip hop element), cipher (freestyling), and street memorials (what shoudl be done about them). It was great to see some of the same cats who earlier this summer were still a bit rough around the edges really stand out as young leaders. It was a beautiful thing. Parents and others came through to engage in the dialogue which proved to be a productive way to cap this summer's programming and head into the school year with a strong crew who seem eager to make their mark across the city.
In one of the sessions, it was brought up that a lot of the true responsibility for the violence belongs in the laps of the OGs not doing enough to steer young cats in the right direction. Just like how former banger end sup on Oprah only after they seen seom seriously ill stuff go down or almost lost their own lives, many older folks tend to follow the age-old adage that cats have to experience and learn from their mistakes. But the only problem with that is that some of the mistake are costly; life-costing. Some serious building must be done. Hopefully, some of the Black Man plans we got in the works will help a little bit to redeem the integrity that befits brothers out there doing their thing. We can only hope.
...no matter what we say our religion is
whether it's Islam, Christianity
Juddaism, Buddha-ism, Old School-ism or New School-ism
If we're not schooling the youth WITH wisdom
then the sins of the father will visit the children
And that's not keepin it real...
that's keepin it -- WRONG
-Gangstarr, Robbin Hood Theory
1 comment:
I love that song! And, I'm glad all went well with the events. Glad to see there was some real talk up in there, too.
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