Education Meets Hip-Hop in Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival

    PRESS RELEASE
    Rising Star will Headline Biggest International Hip-Hop Festival in U.S.
    Education meets hip-hop in Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival
    Hartford, Conn., Mar. 4, 2009 – Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. announces the fourth annual Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival, the first and largest international hip-hop festival in the United States, on April 3rd and 4th, 2009.
    This year, the popular festival is headlined by K’naan, the fastest rising star in international hip-hop. The Somali emcee spent the last two years touring the world with Damian and Stephen Marley. K’naan’s vividly spoken images of war-torn Somalia and his fierce criticism of American gangster rap has garnered him appearances on BET, MTV, the Jimmy Kimmel Show, and collaborations with Mos Def and M1 of dead prez. With two independently released albums under his belt, K’naan signed with A&M/Octone in 2008 and released Troubadour in February 2009.
    An accomplished group of international performers and academia will support K’naan and participate with attendees though workshops, panel discussions and films throughout the festival.
    A panel discussion entitled Stereotypes in Hip Hop features Trinity College professors Gail Woldu, author of The Words and Music of Ice Cube, and Emily Musil, Coordinator of African Studies and Co-Chair of the President’s Colloquia “Hip Hop: Roots, Race, Rights.”  Stanford’s Angela Steele will present her Fulbright research, Rap in China - In Search of a Hip-Hop Hero. Steele spent a year in China immersed in the emerging hip-hop scene and looking for the leaders who will form hip-hop culture in the world’s most populated country.
    New York’s Hired Gun and Washington, D.C.’s Princess of Controversy will host two nights of performances featuring K’naan, Poetic Pilgrimage (UK), Blitz the Ambassador, Mohammed Yahya (UK), BeatburgerBand (Czech Republic), African Underground All-Stars (Senegal), Mr. Reo (Haiti), and Game Rebellion (Brooklyn, New York). Dj Craig G of Hartford’s Hot 93.7 hosts the afterparty on Friday night, and DJ Boo of the Juggaknots hosts the Saturday night afterparty.
    The Trinity festival will screen one of 2008’s biggest hip-hop films, Planet B-Boy, a look at five international break dancing crews as they prepare for the world dance championship Battle of the Year in Germany. For the second consecutive year, the festival also will hold a 2-on-2 b-boy battle with a $500 grand prize. This year there will be several new workshops including a beatboxing workshop with Czech Republic’s world champion beatboxers, BeatBurgerBand, and a freestyle rhyming workshop with New York emcee Hired Gun. Graffiti artists will be painting murals all day as a backdrop for the workshops and b-boy battle.
    The Spread the Word Tour has added Trinity Hip-Hop Festival to their schedule, which includes performances by two leading protest bands from Zimbabwe, Comrade Fatso & Chabvondoka, and Outspoken and The Essence.  The foremost political activist musical group in Southern Africa, and specifically in Zimbabwe, gives the festival attendees extremely rare access to youth activists that live and work on the ground in Zimbabwe.  Comrade Fatso blogs for CNN.com about politics and conditions in Zimbabwe
    (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/05/14/zimbabwe.blog/index.html).  The Mugabe regime has banned their albums from Zimbabwe.
    The festival will also include a screening of Fangafrika, an African Francophone documentary set during a hip-hop festival in Burkina Faso that gathered a who’s who of African hip-hop addressing the serious issues facing Africans everywhere. The films directors will be on hand for a discussion of activism and education in West African hip-hop. Poetic Pilgrimage, a female Muslim duo from London, will host a discussion about Gender and Sexuality in the Middle East.
    Festival Sponsors include Trinity College, Nomadic Wax, The Temple of Hip-Hop (Trinity College Chapter), World Hip Hop Market, and the Greater Hartford Arts Council. Pre-registration is required, and will take place the day of the event at Gallows Hill next to the Austin Arts Center on the campus of Trinity College.
    This event is free and open to the public.  For more details, directions, and schedule information, visit http://trinityhiphop.org.  For more on the headliner, K’Naan, visit, www.myspace.com/knaanmusic. For questions, contact Zee Santiago at zee.santiago@gmail.com or 917-637-9004, or Greg Schick at greg@worldhiphopmarket.com or 404-797-9234.

    December 23rd - January 1st: Eighth Annual Media That Matters Festival To Screen In New Orleans, LA at 5:30 p.m.

    December 23rd - January 1st: Eighth Annual Media That Matters Festival To Screen In New Orleans, LA at 5:30 p.m.
    The Zeitgeist Multidisciplinary Arts Center in New Orleans, LA will host a total of seven screenings for the Eighth Annual Collection of the Media That Matters Film Festival, from December 23rd to January 1st. The Zeitgeist Center regularly hosts events for the New Orleans community, and the festival screening will part of a programming filled with activist documentary films.

    The Zeitgeist Center is located at 1618 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd (Across from Cafe Reconcile in the Saturn Screen Printing Building) in New Orleans, Louisiana 70113. You can reach them by telephone at (504) 827-5858 recording or (504) 352-1150 office, or by email at rene@zeitgeistinc.net. The screenings will take place every day from December 23rd through January 1st, except for New Years Eve; the screenings will all start at 5:30 pm.

    Democracy in Dakar at the NY African Diaspora Film Fest!

    DEMOCRACY IN DAKAR AT THE NYADFF (NEW YORK AFRICAN DIASPORA FILM FESTIVAL)

    AFRICAN UNDERGROUND: DEMOCRACY IN DAKAR
    Tue. Dec. 9 @ 7:30pm

    CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS ONLINE

    By Ben Herson, Magee McIlvaine, Chris Moore. 65mins, 2007, Senegal/USA/France, documentary in English, Wolof and French with English subtitles
    A film that explores the transformative role of hip-hop in politics in Senegal during the February 2007 presidential election campaign. Looking at the election through the eyes of hip-hop artists around Dakar, the capital of Senegal, the film is a fresh and engaging documentary that presents a very positive image of hip-hop as an educational tool in an continent where oral tradition is central. Part of Senegal: Cinema and Society. Screening followed by a Panel Discussion: Senegal Cinema and Society. Tue. Dec. 9 @ 7:30pm at Cowin Center. Moderated by Senegalese Journalist and host of African Times radio show in New York Dame Babou. Reception after discussion

    November 20: Democracy In Dakar’s Hip-Hop In Senegal) Screening at NYU, New York, NY at 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

    November 20: Democracy In Dakar’s Hip-Hop In Senegal) Screening at NYU, New York, NY at 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
    The film Democracy In Dakar will be screening this Thursday as part of NYU International Education Week. Democracy in Dakar is a feature length film from which Hip-Hop In Senegal (part of the Eighth Annual Media That Matters Festival) was taken as a short. The film follows rappers, DJs, journalists, professors and people on the street at the time before during and after the controversial 2007 presidential election in Senegal and examines hip-hop’s role on the political process. Originally shot as a seven part documentary mini-series released via the internet - the documentary bridges the gap between hip-hop activism, video journalism and documentary film and explores the role of youth and musical activism on the political process.

    The screening is free and open to the public, and will be accompanied by a live performance and panel discussion. RSVP is required!

    The event will take place on November 20th from 6:30 to 9:30, at NYU’s Kimmel Center Eisner and Lubin Auditorium (4th Floor) at 60 Washington Square South.

    November 15: Eighth annual Media That Matters screening in Barcelona, Spain at 6:00 p.m.

    November 15: Eighth annual Media That Matters screening in Barcelona, Spain at 6:00 p.m.
    Media That Matters comes to Barcelona!
    Cuc Sonat, Duende Pictures and Humanfuzz are hosting a screening of the eighth annual Media That Matters Film Collection on November 15th in Barcelona, Spain at Radas 41 (metro Poble Sec) at 6pm.

    Check out the Duende Picture
    s or at the Media Overseas Conversations websites for more details on our hosts.