Action:
What We Are Doing
ATLANTA Local Organizing Committee
The National Hip-Hop Political Convention’s Atlanta Local Organizing Committee (NHHPC ATL LOC) has engaged young people for the past four years in non-partisan civic engagement programs dedicated to social justice. Led by a coalition of young men and women, black, latino, and white, we have created a space in the Atlanta area for young people who are socially conscious to engage in political activism and organizing.
Begun in 2004, Anasa Troutman initiated the ATL LOC participation in the National Hip-Hop Civic Engagement Project registering over 4,500 people (18-35 year olds) to vote. The increase in college age voting population of the Atlanta University Center combined with a voter education program consisting of Street Corner Poetry Slams, Street teaming, targeted flyering, and participation in the 2004 NHHPC improved the turnout in the 2004 Presidential election by 62% to 80%.
In 2005 the ATL LOC continued working in the Atlanta University Center fighting for youth rights by participating in a coalition to oppose House Bill 244. The success of this initiative has continued to the present day in finding out that the bill was connected to one of the U.S. District Attorney’s that Antonio Gonzalez looked to as a partisan supporter. In addition, student leadership responded by creating the Atlanta University Center Relief Coalition (AUC Relief). AUC Relief raised over $8000 for supporting student community service in the Gulf Coast and also assisted families that relocated to Atlanta hotels with transportation, food, clothing, and housing. The highlight of the relief work was taking contingent of volunteers to sell t-shirts at David Banner’s Heal the Hood Foundation Concert on September 15, 2005. The relief work continues each semester with students taking alternative spring breaks to help New Orleanian families rebuild the destroyed 9th ward.
On the election front the ATL LOC also conducted a voter outreach for the 2005 Atlanta city council and mayoral elections. The LOC provided rides to the polls for Atlanta University Center Students on Election Day and for early voting the week prior to the election.
In 2006 the highlight event featured the Atlanta LOC producing a Speak Out Against the War in Iraq. The open mic and quilt making event carried throughout 2006 with students creating over 60 panels on a quilt asking “What would you do with the money?” This quilt brought attention to the draining of domestic resources on the anniversary of the 3rd year in Iraq. In addition the ATL LOC collaborated with Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition at the April 1st March for Peace in Iraq and Justice at Home.
In 2007 the ATL LOC initiated the Atlanta Hip-Hop Social Forum. The forum is an educational, creative, and inspirational space for community oriented activists to discuss how to solve the issues of criminal justice, education, media justice, and healthcare.
People are concerned about the shifting population of blacks to the suburbs of Atlanta. For example, in the diverse county of Clayton County, the county population is shifting to be predominantly black. This county has received a brunt of the working poor population that was displaced following the destruction of public housing around the nation. Many transient families from Florida, Alabama, and the Carolinas have arrived in Clayton County to take part in what is described as the Black Mecca of Atlanta, GA. The next three years are critical for Clayton County. The 3 of the 5 city council’s of Clayton are majority white male or all white males over the age of 50. Even the young white citizens do not have a political voice in Clayton County.
This same population shift is occurring presently in the politically volatile Metropolitan counties of Gwinnett, Cobb, and Fulton. With Metropolitan Atlanta representing half of the state of Georgia’s population, the politics of these counties will not only affect the citizens in Metro Atlanta but also the State of Georgia. The leaders of these counties must not only be sensitive to people of color but also be culturally represented from the population.
Unfortunately with our current youth political leadership of the Democratic and Republican parties, they are handpicked from the old white guard of the state. Yet they do not represent most of the voters in the Democratic Party, which are black women.
The NHHPC has consistently been led by women of color and will continue to be so. This is the leadership that has taken the lead in organizing our generation and will become the representatives. Our young organization is more connected into the community than the Young Democrats themselves.
BAY AREA Local Organizing Committee
BayLOC was founded in October 2003 and has gone on to become one of the most successful LOC’s in the national organization. From its inception BayLOC functioned as a highly organized collective of artists, community activists, journalists and researchers representing a multitude of ethnic and cultural perspectives. Our volunteer leadership and youth organizers are active members of other communities including over 25 cultural, environmental, youth organizing, and educational groups such as Leadership Excellence, Hard Knock Radio, Center for Third World Organizing and People’s Printing.
Since 2004, BayLOC has been registering and educating hundreds of hip-hop voters at rap concerts, spoken word events, hip-hop theater shows, movie theaters, in the neighborhoods, even doing door-knocking in communities of color. We have also been very successful in registering hundreds of high school seniors through our It’s Your Birthday program. To date we have registered more than 10,000 young voters.
BayLOC has a strong history of sustainability and was one of the only LOC’s to receive foundation support (The San Francisco Foundation, The Akonadi Foundation), labor support (SEIU, Teamsters) as well as earned income in its first year of inception. This support was leveraged by the impressive array of talent that constitutes BayLOC leadership as well as the innovative and engaging programs that consistently turned out hundreds and ultimately thousands of unregistered young voters. Highlights of BayLOC’s additional successes include:
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Over 5,000 youth and young adults attended a day of political education, voter registration, and a free hip hop concert featuring 10 local acts and two national headliners. BayLOC worked with Congresswoman Barbara Lee and County Supervisor Keith Carson to keep the event free of charge and free of violence allowing many young people their first opportunity.
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Distribution of over 1,000 print copies and more than 10,000 e-mail copies of the Hip Hop Voter Guides which used hip hop vernacular to make complicated ballot measure accessible to youth audiences.
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Development of the Bay Area Hip Hop Agenda. BayLOC organizers collected thousands of surveys from constituents which identified key issues with which they were concerned.
CHICAGO Local Organizing Committee
Our target community is primarily Black and Latino Americans between the age of 15 and 35 years old. We are interested in developing a long term strategy that will build a politically engaged electorate.
The Hip Hop Civic Engagement Project is a Chicago based, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes democracy and civic participation through the context of Hip Hop culture. We seek to engage and educate Chicago’s youth and young adult population in areas that include leadership development, civic and issue education, voter participation, media literacy and overall community participation.
We identify with Hip Hop as a principled culture that supports positive community growth, and we utilize various marketing, music and multi-media techniques to encourage civic participation, economic inclusion, cultural understanding and social improvements. Our work takes place in neighborhoods, commercial districts, school districts and college campuses in both urban and suburban environments. It involves youth and young adults from various ethnic and class backgrounds.
A sampling of our past accomplishments include:
- Registering over 17,000 youth and young adults over 13 weeks during the 2004 Presidential Elections.
- Producing and managing the first ever Hip Hop stage at both the 2005, 2006 and 2007 African Festival of the Arts.
- Producing and managing the first annual Thank GOD for Hip Hop Film Festival in January of 2006.
- Co-sponsoring and producing a weekly edutainment event called Saturday Sessions at the Center, which included a 7 week Political Education class that covered the basics of political participation.
- Producing and Managing the 2006 National Hip Hop Political Convention.
- Entering a float and producing the Hip Hop Stage at the 2006 Bud Billiken Parade
- Working with the Chicago Local Organizing Committee to develop a city wide political agenda listing the issues and concerns of Chicago Hip Hop Community.
This work has helped us amass a database of over 20,000 people that interact with the group as volunteers and/or event attendees. We also have developed working relationships with a minimum of 20 community organizations throughout the city and state.
On an informal basis, our members have volunteered for political campaigns, run for office themselves, participated in issue advocacy, voter registration and get out the vote activities.
LAS VEGAS Local Organizing Committee
The Las Vegas Local Organizing Committee (LV-LOC) is one of over 15 partners, who organize semi-autonomous of the national umbrella organization known as the National Hip Hop Political Convention (NHHPC). The LV-LOC is comprised of over 20 youth organizers whose purpose is to foster civic engagement, establish a local Hip Hop political agenda and address social, political and economic issues that have a direct impact on the Las Vegas youth in particular, and the overall community in general. Members of the LV-LOC meet two to three times a month in person and hold bi-weekly committee conference calls in order to ensure sustainability and organization.
CURRENT PROJECTS AND CAMPAIGNS: One of the LV-LOC’s ongoing projects is the “Know Your Rights Campaign” in which we are able to educate citizens of their constitutional rights when interacting with Law Enforcement. This specific campaign arose after a series of questionable police encounters with Las Vegas citizens (several ending in the death of Black youth at the hands of Las Vegas Police).
Another consistent and more critical program would be our Civic Engagement efforts. The LV-LOC holds voter registration drives at every LV-LOC sponsored event and every event the LV-LOC has a presence. We strongly believe in the political power of our youth and not only encourage them to register, but to also show up and vote. We stress civic engagement and grassroots activism during voting periods and during non-voting periods as well. Our next civic engagement project will entail placing measures on the 2008 ballot in Nevada.
Currently the LV-LOC is organizing a Music Conference appropriately named “The Real F.M.: Tune In or Continue To Be Tuned Out!” scheduled for September 29, 2007. This music conference is not limited to just Hip Hop but includes information pertinent to all genre’s of music. “The Real F.M.” is intended to educate and make aware of many of the political aspects that manifest themselves throughout the music industry, including the area’s of publishing, marketing, recording, radio/tv, internet etc..
The LV-LOC currently has working relationships with the Las Vegas ACLU, the Urban League, The National Black United Fund, Students for Hip Hop (UNLV Chapter), and Father’s For the Future Foundation. Our 501c4 work is done as a project of the League of Young Voters.
The need for effective community grassroots and civic activism cannot be overstated, and the fact that the sub-culture of Hip Hop has been the one force that has been able to show substantial success in these areas cannot be ignored. The much sought after awareness and education for our community is overwhelming and mirror the needs of most inner-city populations around the country. The LV-LOC is ready to be a national model for all inner city community organizations attempting to building a power base within the youth communities though civic engagement and grassroots organizing. We look forward to your consideration of our request to submit a formal proposal for your review.
NORTH CAROLINA Local Organizing Commitee
Cherryl Aldave is an activist and community organizer currently acting as Chairperson of the North Carolina Triad LOC (local organizing committee) of the NHHPC (National Hip Hop Political Convention).
In 2003, Ms. Aldave was also among the founding members of the popular voter education and empowerment organization, the League of Young Voters. She also served as the NC Street Team Leader for Rock the Vote where she recruited members of street teams which she oversaw in over 12 North Carolina counties and coordinated new voter outreach and electoral education programs throughout the state. She is an accomplished music and political journalist with over ten years of experience writing professionally for such outlets as Elemental Magazine, Wax Poetics, The Source, HipHopDX.com, Popandpolitics.com and many more.
From 2003 to 2004 her teams' voter outreach programs and voter education guides reached over 30,000 youth and young adult North Carolinians and registered over 18,000 new voters at concerts, nightclubs, poetry slams, gay and lesbian bars, city street festivals, shopping mall parking lots, motorcycle club rallies, churches, college campuses, and through door to door canvassing in neighborhoods across the Tarheel State.
In her work as NC Triad LOC chairperson, Ms. Aldave oversees issue education actions such as film screenings which engender discussion of issues critical to the self esteem of today’s youth. The LOC currently has plans to develop series of free health clinics with dental screenings and STI testing for rural/underserved areas in the Triad for 2008, and will continue their current issue education by holding workshops and seminars on topics such as misogyny, homophobia, racism and other self esteem issues facing young people - primarily youth of color - at schools and universities across the Triad.
The LOC also has plans to join with several area business and new businesses that plan to come to the Triad in hosting a job fair, as the people of the community have emphasized a need for jobs as one of their most pressing issues. Ms. Aldave will incorporate her work with Rock the Vote into her work with the Triad LOC by organizing voter registration drives and voter education campaigns, and publishing pro-progressive literature and pamphlets for members of her community including a voter guide for local elections and "know your rights" pamphlets.
Ms. Aldave has worked with and has allies in several organizations, including the UNC Chapel Hill System and groups and businesses such as United for Peace and Justice, The Anti-Racist Organizers Network, Red Bull Energy Drink, Wachovia of North Carolina, North Carolina Poets Society, Charlotte SHARP (Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice), United Division Hip Hop Crew, TOOLS of WAR, Third World Citizens, Universal Zulu Nation, Rock Steady Crew, Rock The Vote, League of Young Voters, the Barack Obama 2008 Campaign, RAP Cointelpro, Hip Hop Against the War, Hip Hop Caucus, Hip Hop Congress, the NAACP, and more.
NEW JERSEY Local Organizing Committee
To assist the maturation of hip-hop politics, a network of activists, organizers, artists, advocates and professors crafted a plan to funnel the political and cultural power of the hip-hop generation into mainstream public policy activities. In 2004, Newark, New Jersey hosted over 6,000 young people from over 24 states to develop, endorse and vote on a political agenda for the hip-hop generation. This Convention, unlike any other convention, was a hybrid of a cultural/political event. Furthermore, this Convention set in motion the organized infrastructure of hip-hop culture to create excitement, identify issues, disseminate information and develop a national database of young people interested and ready to act on these issues.
There were three long term goals of the National Hip-Hop Political Convention in 2004:
1) to energize young people into becoming interested and excited about public policy issues;
2) to use the cultural apparatus of hip-hop to organize young people to participate in public policy and civic activities; and
3) to implement a new paradigm to use the power and influence of hip-hop to make tangible changes in communities across the country.
Coinciding with the event were two projects - New Jersey’s Ready to Run for Office and the New Leadership for College Women Program. Both training programs were designed to facilitate the civic participation of women as elected officials. This basic program trained Newark women in the basics of fundraising and community outreach and assessment.
Members of the the NJ local organizing committee took part in these programs and have run for local seats successfully. Angela R. Garretson (current NJLOC chairperson) has successfully run for Hillside’s school board and recently attained a re-election victory. In her quest for a second term, she “coached” another young hiphop generation candidate to run together with her win.
NEW YORK Local Organizing Committee
The organizational/community base for a civic voter project in NYC
From 2003 to 2004, organizers utilizing hip-hop culture as a tool for progressive social change helped to bring about the first National Hip-Hop Political Convention. This national gathering of thousands developed a 5-Point Issue Agenda on Education, Health & Wellness, Criminal Justice, Human Rights, and Economic Justice.
The New York Local Organizing Committee NYLOC is a founding member of the convention. Since the convention NYLOC has developed amicable relationships with a broad network of community, grassroots, faith based and political organizations that work on a multitude of common struggles for social justice. NYLOC has developed a steering committee of 5 members with a general affiliate participation that numbers in the dozens.
CURRENT PROJECTS
More recently our strategic efforts have been centered on two main issues which are integral to our carrying out our 5-Point Issue Agenda – 1) the environment and sustainability and 2) media justice and community accountability over corporate control over media. NYLOC has identified these 2 key issues as being central to how it affects the outcome of NHHPC’s 5-Point Issue Agenda, therefore we have entered into or developed projects and campaigns that will have a fundamental impact on our core issues on an integral level.
Hip-Hop Sustains
While global warming and climate change is an issue that affects us all as a human race, everyday working peoples, the unemployed, the impoverished and the poor are the most impacted in crises situations because of their lack of access to resources, lack of limited state resources and lack of access to vital information. The consequences of an energy policy based on pollutant hydrocarbons and financial policies downsizing and fiscally constricting infrastructure expenditures are resulting in disasters and no doubt will result in more in the near future unless the structural root causes are properly addressed. It is a vicious intertwined cycle of national self-affliction.
To combat climate change and global warming, NYLOC is a founding coalition member of “Hip-Hop Sustains” as a strategic project/campaign that combines culture technology and social venture development. We have already carried out a joint solar powered hip-hop concert and we plan to conduct more with community organizations throughout NYC’s working communities. In addition high school youth will be educated about urban permaculture through a hip-hop education curriculum.
Media Justice
NYLOC is also a founding coalition partner to the R.E.A.C.Hip-Hop Coalition (a NY based media justice org.) in their continuing struggle against Emmis Corporation and Hot '97. NYLOC in conjunction with R.E.A.C.Hip-Hop has built a vibrant community coalition for media justice in NYC with national reverberations. Employees that carried out offensive and racist programming were fired and negotiations for community oversight are still ongoing.
NYLOC members have given media support to Hurricane Katrina evacuees in New York City as well as providing coalition assistance to organizations in New Orleans such as Common Ground Collective and the People’s Hurricane Relief and Oversight Committee. We understand the importance of media access for the working class before/during/after environmental disasters due to the failure of critical coverage – much of which is corporate dominated media – which is the difference between life and death for much of the poor.
OMAHA Local Organizing Committee
Black Men United (BMU) was formed in February 2003 to enhance the performance of existing organization within the Black community. The BMU operates as a "think tank" by providing a space where representatives of various organizations can share their missions, ideals, actions and events amongst other participating organizations. The BMU will provide existing organizations a "networking vehicle" where they may share information, resources, ideals, and/or personnel to support their initiatives and/or to challenge problems within the community. Despite the name, the participants have represented a diversity of leadership within the Black community.
On February 26, 2005, North Omaha activist and founder of BMU, Willie Hamilton, held a community forum at Skinner Magnet School. This meeting was called to establish a better working relationship between local elected officials and the community. Discussed topics included the empowering of the communities, by challenging educational issues, the lack of access to resources, and what strategies that should be implemented to better overcome these needs. Invited guests were Mayor Mike Fahey, Omaha Public Schools Superintendent, John Mackiel, Omaha Police Chief, Thomas Warren, NAACP Tommie Wilson, Police Auditor, Tristan Bonn and various community leaders. On October 29, 2005, a second community forum was held at the OPS Teacher Administration Center. A variety of topics were discussed including the “One City, One School District” issue and it's implications for the North Omaha community. At the conclusion of the second community forum many participants felt again there was a lively discussion on various topics, but no immediate concrete solutions to empower the residents of North Omaha.
By December 2005, Mr. Hamilton led supporters by providing support to Katrina survivors by providing community resources, referrals and emergency bedding. Hamilton and supporters became advocates for the Katrina victims to assure their successful adjustments to the Omaha community.
After nearly one year’s worth of development, Mr. Hamilton and his political partners began the next step towards effective civic engagement. The Native American North Omaha & South Omaha Coalition (NANOSO) for Latino voters was formed. Willie Hamilton (voted chairman) held subsequent follow-up meetings to draft a strategy to address specific goals in relation to voter education and to increase voter turnout. With the failures of local elected leadership, the coalition of Black & Latino voters will be seeking to develop in the next 3 years – a shared plan of endorsing and developing candidates based on the continued development of their local agendas through an open democratic process.
Organizations we share local alliances
Chicano Awareness Center, Appleseed Foundation, Malcolm X Foundation, League of Women voters, OTOC, NAACP, Mid-America Arts Council, 100 Black Men, YMCA, Omaha Public Schools, African American Achievement Council, OEDC, Dick Davis Insurance,OPD, Metro Community College, Community Telecast (CTI), Fesup Apparel, Empowerment Network, NOCA, Nebraska Democratic Party, AFL-CIO and many more.
Upcoming Projects
Upcoming events July 21 Voters registration, August 1-6 Voter Registration, Black August Event August 3-5 at Malcolm X birth site and the 2nd Teen Summit and Harambee Celebration at Lincoln State Pen for Political Prisoners Mondo and Ed Poindexter. In 2008, the Omaha HipHop Political Summit.
PHILADELPHIA Local Organizing Committee
From 2003 to 2004, organizers utilizing hip-hop culture as a tool for progressive social change helped to bring about the first National Hip-Hop Political Convention. This national gathering of thousands developed a 5-Point Issue Agenda on Education, Health & Wellness, Criminal Justice, Human Rights, and Economic Justice.
The Philadelphia Hip Hop Political Organizing Committee (PHHPOC) is a founding member of the convention. Since the convention PHHPOC has developed amicable relationships with a broad network of community, grassroots, faith based and political organizations that work on a multitude of common struggles for social justice. PHHPOC has developed its own steering committee while actively participating with a representative on the National Steering Committee of the National HipHop Political Convention.
PHHPOC has hosted and co-sponsored several events from registering voters, GOTV activities, social and political education, fundraisers and etc. Indiviudal members of the PHHPOC worked closely with the League of Young Voters in 2004 as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh organizers played a significant role in an attempt to swing this vital state towards an electoral college vote against George Bush.
In October of 2005 the PHHPOC hosted the 2nd Annual Pennsylvania Hip Hop Political Convention at Temple University. PHHPOC worked with Student Voices to register high school students to vote. The PHHPOC screened and hosted more than 11 panel discussions around the documentary Hip Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes addressing issues such as masculinity, misogyny and men's violence against women at colleges, high schools, middle schools and community centers.
Organizational resources are needed to facilitate our community to lobby will help address the PHHPOC's local 3 point agenda: gun violence, employment and education. Our community will have the ability to lobby local goverment for an increase in law enforcement in the investigation of gun trafficking, equity in job access from city contracts and quality public education.
We are seeking membership to assist us to accelerate our multi-year plan to engage the hiphop and millennial generations towards civic engagement and political power. These generations respond to cultural methods of political education, whereas the HipHop political movement is committed to using the five foundational elements of hiphop culture (Mc-ing, Dance, Graffiti Art , DJ-ing and Knowledge) towards that end.
PHOENIX Local Organizing Committee
Phoenix - Local Organizing Committee (Phx-LOC) is one of the newest of over 15 partners, who organize semi-autonomous of the national umbrella organization known as the National Hip Hop Political Convention (NHHPC). The Phx-LOC is comprised of youth organizers from the Hip Hop community, whose purpose is to foster civic engagement, establish a local Hip Hop political agenda and address social, political and economic issues that have a direct impact on the Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa, Arizona youth. Phx-LOC meets every two weeks and tries to hold events or public issue based discussions once a month.
CURRENT PROJECTS AND CAMPAIGNS: The Phx-LOC was formed in May 2007 by the Chair of the National Hip Hop Political Convention (Troy Nkrumah) who temporarily relocated to Mesa, Arizona with the purpose of building a Local Organizing Committee in the region. One of the purposes of the LOC structure is to extend the presence of Hip Hop activists in conservatively run communities were there are large numbers of youth of color or large pockets of youth who identify with the Hip Hop culture, both of which tend to be more politically progressive then those in power over their communities.
One of the first projects that the Phx-LOC plans to implement is the campaign initiated by the partner organization from Las Vegas, the LV-LOC, which is an ongoing project titled: “Know Your Rights Campaign”. The purpose is to educate citizens of their constitutional rights when interacting with Law Enforcement. A Civic Engagement campaign is also in the works. Youth turnout at the polls in the Phoenix area has historically been below the national average, especially in the Black, Latino and Native American communities. The Phx-LOC will hold voter registration drives at every Phx-LOC sponsored event and every event the Phx-LOC has a presence. We also intend to tour local high schools, community colleges and universities to register potential 2008 voters. Like our partner LOC’s nationally, we also strongly believe in the political power of our youth. Our goal this year is to be organized well enough to start creating ballot measures as a strategy to get out the vote in 2008.
The LV-LOC currently has working relationships with the local artist community as well as the local chapter of Cop Watch, and the National Black United Fund.
The need for effective community grassroots and civic activism cannot be overstated, and the fact that the sub-culture of Hip Hop has been the one force that has been able to show substantial success in these areas cannot be ignored. The much sought after awareness and education for our community is overwhelming and mirror the needs of most inner-city populations around the country. The Phx-LOC is ready to step up to the plate and show the rest of the country that our youth are just as concerned about their future as anyone anywhere should be. We are now over the one barrier that paralyzed us, “a lack of organization”! The national model that is in place has worked for us over the past couple months.