Trinity International Hip Hop Festival

Hartford, Connecticut, January 23, 2008 – Hip hop garnered a lion’s share of negative publicity in 2007 – DJ Drama was arrested for selling mixtapes, Don Imus pointed a finger at hip hop’s misogyny and T.I. was arrested on gun charges – spawning a nationwide dialogue over the future of the culture. But one bright spot was the Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival, now poised for its third annual event on April 4, 5 and 6, 2008, sponsored and hosted by Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. The Trinity Festival is a coming together of artists, activists, pioneers, filmmakers, DJs, graffiti writers, and fans with one thing in common – to make a difference in the world through hip hop.The first and largest international hip hop festival in the United States, the Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival blends the wisdom of old school pioneers with the passions of hip hop musicians from the far points of the globe.According to Trinity College graduate and festival organizer, Magee McIlvaine '06, global hip-hop--as opposed to mainstream, commercialized hip-hop--is the real voice of his generation, "a global movement, musically and politically, a voice against oppression." The incredible success of the first-ever in the US, large-scale international hip hop festival held at Trinity College in April of 2006 garnered press coverage from FOX News, the BBC, NPR, the Hartford Courant, The Hartford Advocate, XXL Magazine, and more.Co-organizer Jason Azevedo '06 notes that the purpose of the Trinity College International Hip Hop Festival is to examine the musical genre from pedagogical and artistic perspectives. "This is an event of enormous cultural significance for Hartford." he asserts. Hartford is home to large Puerto Rican, Brazilian, West Indian, and African refugee/immigrant communities. The support from the Hartford community at last springs event, including a speech by Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez and financial donations from several key Hartford Arts Collectives and Community Organizations, confirmed Hartford as the perfect location for an event as unique, cross-cultural, cross-generational, and multi-lingual as this one.Co-organizer and Trinity College student Zee Santiago said, “This is the first event of its kind that demonstrates how hip hop has become an international culture as well as an accepted academic area of study.”In past years, Trinity College has played host to hip hop luminaries such as Fab 5 Freddy, Jeff Chang (author of Can't Stop Won't Stop), Byron Hurt (director of Hip Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes) and Charlie Ahern (director of Wildstyle).The 2008 festival will kick off Friday afternoon with a hip hop theatre performance led by Baba Israel and opening remarks from Trinity College President James F. Jones, Jr., and Dr. Xiangming Chen, the Dean of the Center for Urban and Global Studies. This will be followed by a keynote address from Bakari Kitwana (author of The Hip Hop Generation and Why White Kids Love Hip Hop) entitled "Can Hip Hop Make the Transition from Cultural Movement to Political Power?"Artists scheduled to perform Friday night include Baba Israel (Australia/USA), La Bruja (Puerto Rico), Shokanti with Chachi and crew (Cape Verde), Abyssinian Creole (Seattle), Self-Suffice (Hartford), and a Senegalese “Super Crew” featuring several top Senegalese MCs backed by Nomadic Wax’s African Underground live band. The performances will be hosted by Canadian lyricist Eternia and Blitz the Ambassador (Ghana) backed by DJ Boo (of the Juggaknots).Saturday’s activities will kick off with a panel discussion about the early years of hip hop with old school pioneers Grandmaster Caz and Tony Tone from the Cold Crush Brothers, Grand Wizard Theodore and DJ Disco Wiz. Pop Master Fabel of the legendary Rock Steady Crew will host a 2-on-2 b-boy battle Saturday afternoon with music provided by DJ Disco Wiz and a $500 prize on the line. West coast crew and Trinity-alums Trust Your Struggle will present a Graffiti Workshop and collaborate with other invited artists to create an all new mural in the center of campus. The Beat Making Workshop will give budding producers tips on how to make hip hop beats led by Connecticut production team Kemistree and Zaquan.Saturday night’s performance schedule includes Zimbabwe Legit (Zimbabwe/USA), The Perceptionists (Mr. Lif & Akrobatik – USA), Sam the Kid (Portugal), Jewish emcee Y-Love (presented by Trinity College’s Hillel House), female super-group Anomolies, spoken word collective iLL-Literacy and Rebel Diaz (Chile/Puerto Rico). Performances will again be hosted by Eternia and Blitz with DJ Boo.On Sunday, hip-hop educator Melissa Noel Green will present “The Art of Rhyme” Workshop. Global hip hop DJs will spin at the “Chill Out Lounge” during the course of all three days culminating with an open mic session for MCs on Sunday afternoon.The event has elicited an enormous response and has been called "the best of the wave of springtime hip-hop conferences" by highly esteemed journalist Jeff Chang. Trinity College has been described as "a point of renaissance for Hartford" by the Trinity Tripod and the BBC reported that the students and artists involved "truly believe they can change the world through Hip-Hop." The Trinity Tripod declared it "up to events like the [International Hip-Hop] Festival to pierce through the negative, capitalist-driven image now tagged to the Hip-Hop genre." XXL magazine wrote of "an event that everyone could relate to, regardless of what country they came from or language they spoke."Festival Sponsors include Trinity College, Nomadic Wax, The Temple of Hip-Hop Kulture and World Hip Hop Market. The festival will be free and open to the public.Details and schedule information: http://trinityhiphop.org For further information: Jason Azavedo – co-organizer [email protected] 339-832-3260 Zee Santiago – co-organizer [email protected] 917-637-9004If interested in performing, presenting or volunteering/working at the Trinity International Hip Hop Festival, please contact [email protected] and send hard copy press packages/bios to katie mcguigan, 300 summit st, box 702250, hartford, ct, 06106