A Broken Network Can’t Pull it Together:
Why our Youth are Killing Each Other

Mother’s Outreach Movement and
Umojafest P.E.A.C.E Center Candlelight
Vigil.

By Hip Hop Congress

Hip Hop, if we’re serious about saving young lives, it will take more than a superficial “Stop the Violence” campaign. On a policy level, the fragmented approach to serving vulnerable youth is wrong. While cities and law enforcement, states, and school districts collaborate in the identification, tracking, and targeting of these youth (through free lunch programs, test scores, and gang databases), they have shown a consistent unwillingness to apply the same collaborative efforts toward providing real solutions. We cannot tell the youth “Stop the Violence,” while relying on these agencies to help and heal them, especially not while they are closing our schools, mismanaging our youth service funding, and building a new jail.

“They don’t care about kids of color; they don’t care about poor kids. They don’t care about anyone who’s different than somebody who makes $75,000 or more a year.” These were the words of NAACP Seattle President James Bible after being removed from a Seattle School District school closure hearing. Mr. Bible’s frustration was shared by a packed room of others who challenged the sincerity and secrecy of Seattle’s recent school closure process in the midst of last year’s youth violence spike. While the district bureaucratically steered clear of accountability on the issue (they maintain they are separate from the police department and the city of Seattle), they also emphasized that the closure plan was developed based on feedback from the community.

It seems that the district either has an irresponsible disconnection from reality, or other interests to satisfy. We know that that the scores of wealthy white parents who fought against the closure of their schools had a hand in the outcome. But what about the Gates Foundation, who after postponing the renewal of grants to the district for 3.5 years, finally awarded $7.5 million after the closures were announced? This money, which could have kept the schools open and programs running at least for a while, will go to more ability tracking and testing.

Now let’s talk about the Mayor’s Youth Violence Prevention Initiative, which has also been shrouded in secrecy. The initiative allocates money to select NGOs to contract out services for youth without oversight or any specified benchmarks for tracking success. This approach is justified by a flimsy report of four model programs, but a brief inspection shows the data to be riddled with incomplete or inaccurate information. To top it off, the city has tasked the Urban League, little known for any actual work in the community, with helping to solidify its “network,” while keeping community leaders who are effectively active in the work out of the discussion. Ironically, the most critical network for violence prevention, one that places the school district, the city and law enforcement in a collective state of accountability for the safety for our children, is absent.

Unfortunately this disconnection is a convenience that youth don’t have. When the schools fail them from 9:00-3:00, and the youth initiative fails them from 3:00 to 10:00, the only thing that won’t fail is the new jail. The city is putting $110 million up for this project, plus committing another $15 mil a year for operation, which is quite an investment. Perhaps they are banking on their failure to our youth?

Whatever the case may be, it is time for us as Hip Hop artists, media producers, educators, and activists to step up, beyond the superficial message of “Stop the Violence.” We must unite, collectivize our skill sets and resources, and create an alternative solution: the seamless network, rooted in culture and community that our young people need to survive.

Featured Artist: Quanstar

       
Quanstar, an artist out of Atlanta Georgia, is an emcee, author, and producer of “Do It!: A Documentary” movie and soundtrack. A man of superior grind, he is one of the headlining artists, as well as the visionary behind the “Bring Your ‘A’ Game Tour” Series, which has just completed its 6th annual travelling celebration of underground Hip Hop, featuring such acts as Akil of Jurassic 5, D’Labrie, DJ Metrognome and many others. You can learn more at www.myspace.com/quanstar.

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Using Hip Hop as Cultural Text in Emancipatory Education

Seattle Hip Hop Youth Council

By Julie Chang Schulman

Umojafest P.E.A.C.E Center will be making history by opening the tentatively named Center for Hip Hop Culture, Business & Technology in the Central District of Seattle, Washington, this summer. While this community-owned and operated Hip Hop center is the first of its kind that will serve community youth, particularly dropouts, high-risk, and those under the criminal justice supervision, it is also a continuation of the historical struggle for an African American Heritage Museum and Cultural Center in the CD that reaches decades back. It will feature a digital recording studio, computer lab, video production studio and a library/reading room. The summer school at the Center for Hip Hop will coordinate culturally enriching, entrepreneurial-based activities to address social and community development through daily, open-door element and technology workshops, study sessions, and classes. An initial glimpse at the program schedule reveals DJ and producer clubs, Young Kings and Queens Leadership Development, and class titles that range from “Music History” to “Hood Politics”.Through launching a youth-led, community-centered approach to outreach, education, and violence prevention, Umojafest P.E.A.C.E Center is putting revolutionary social change theory to practice with Hip Hop Culture.

Eighteen-year-old Imani Kang, the youth committee president of UPC, is development director for the summer school at the Center for Hip Hop Culture. As a drop out, she can’t tell you the benefits of a diploma, but she can quickly break down how the social construction of knowledge through dominant culture in traditional classrooms alienates youth today. “Freshman year, I attended all my classes in the beginning, but felt like I was doing the same thing over and over again. I went to Job Corp to get my GED, and during those classes, I asked myself how relevant is this? We’re taking the same classes from 4th grade to now. I took the test, and the test is so easy, and I started asking myself, is this all I have to do to be complete? What are they really doing to us? What are you guys really teaching me?”

Her critical reflection on oppressive education systems continued to develop through watching many of her friends get driven away from school by boredom, or from being penalized for challenging what and how things were being taught up, and give up altogether. “I know kids who dropped out and haven’t gotten their GED, haven’t done anything but kick it, sometimes work, but a lot of the time, they just stop because they think that school is the only option for learning,” Imani says. “The ones who ended up pursuing something after dropping out, it’s because they find something that they’re interested in, something that keeps them there. Some aren’t fortunate to find that. The Hip Hop Center will be one more way to get one more person there.”

Assuming the agency to reinvent education through Hip Hop culture is a powerful and strategic move toward self-empowerment for today’s youth, especially for those who’ve inherently rejected the role of being passive objects in the school enterprise. “School is a closed box, they teach only what they want you to know, like closing one eye on one side. Our school is resistance to that because we wanna keep both eyes open, we want to see everything. Our idea is for these classes to be open conversations, collaborative ideas, rather than having students be sitting and watching. We have so many volunteers and special guests that are already lined up; it’s exciting,” says Imani with a smile. For more information on how to get involved, or to show your support, email Imani Kang at mani.sue@gmail.com.

Imani Kang