STOP THE VIOLENCE

www.stvmovement.org ... coming soon The Stop the Violence Movement (STVM) is a non-profit organization deeply rooted in the Hip Hop community with a mission to advance an ongoing series of movements to diminish global violence through education, critical dialogue, grassroots organizing and direct action.
The STVM achieves its mission by providing organized programs, workshops, symposiums and media campaigns that heighten the awareness of the effects of violence, create multi-generational dialogue and supplies parent and youth oriented educational tools for conflict resolution.
The STVM is calling upon fellow celebrities to take action. We are calling upon the mass media to address the images they put forth. We are calling for balance! Balance within ourselves, balance in the media, in our communities, in the world.
The first step in preventing violence is to understand it. Violence is an unjust or unwarranted exertion of force or power. Violence is the diplomacy of the incompetent. Violence is unnecessary and costly. Violence kills what it intends to create. Violence is any activity that is consciously used to hurt oneself, another individual or group of people, whether through mind, body or spirit.
“The question is no longer between violence and non-violence it is between non-violence and non-existence.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In 1987, Afrika Bambaataa called a historic meeting at the Latin Quarter night club where he urged the Hip Hop community to become more politically and socially active. Personally influenced by the meeting, KRS-ONE went to work releasing a 12" single entitled “Stop The Violence.” The popularity of this song gave rise to a swelling community of conscious Hip Hop. Then in1989, KRS-ONE, along with Ann Carli (VP of A&R at Jive records) and author/musicologist Nelson George, developed an all-star project that would become a legendary Hip Hop peace anthem, “Self-Destruction”.
As KRS-ONE said, “We got ourselves together so that you could unite and fight for what’s right.” The recording boldly denounced Black-on-Black violence with quotes like this one from Kool Moe Dee “I never ever ran from the Ku Klux Klan and I shouldn’t have to run from a black man.” The proceeds from “Self-Destruction” were given to the Urban League for community programs and made it cool to ‘Stop The Violence.’
In response to the increased violence and confusion of today, Hip Hop activist/philosopher, KRS-ONE has revitalized the ‘Stop The Violence’ movement. He is calling upon the global Hip Hop community to take responsibility for the way in which conflict is resolved.
The arts yield a powerful influence on our collective culture. We are a collective of artists, activists, entertainers and educators who understand that we are powerful role models. We are taking responsibility. We intend to combine the power of the media and the arts to create our “hammer” so that we may shape our reality, a non-violent reality.
“Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.” - Bertolt Brecht
50 Cent, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Busta Rhymes, Cassidy, Channel Live, Chingy, Daddy-O, Doug E. Fresh, Dr. Cornell West, Fat Joe, Immortal Technique, Jamel Shabazz, Just Ice, KRS-One, Lin Que, Ludacris, Martin Luther King III, MC Lyte, Melle Mel, Pastor Troy, Rick Ross, Siagon, Smoothe da Hustler, Speak Truth To Power Human Rights Defenders, Talib Kweli, Tai Phoenix, Whodini, Various professional atheletes, and Zulu Nation. The list continues to grow.