Hip Hop Congress

SISTAS SPEAK: LETTERS TO HIP HOP

SISTAS SPEAK: LETTERS TO HIP HOP

Women in Hip Hop are often misrepresented in mainstream media. In reality, these women (seen and talked about in music videos and in commercial radio) are a small proportion of the women who are involved in Hip Hop. The majority of women in Hip Hop are independent artists, organizers, educators, industry executives, and Hip Hop connoisseurs. These women’s perspectives are rarely portrayed in the media. We are looking to take a proactive stance in publicizing the unheard female voices from the multiple facets of Hip Hop culture and industry. Our goal is to allow all women to share their experiences of Hip Hop. We intend to compile the letters into a book to be published by an independent press. We invite women of all aspects of Hip Hop to contribute letters.

Guidelines:

1)Please submit a 500 – 800 word letter on one of the following issues. Bring your own unique experiences on hip hop to the letter.

2) Please include your full name and stage name if you have one, an e-mail and contact number.

3) A short bio consisting of 50 words or less. At this time, we are only accepting submissions from U.S. residents.

4) Please include this release with your submission:

I (Insert Full Name Here) give the Sistas Speak Project permission to publish my work.

Issues:

1. How can hip hop embrace motherhood, fatherhood and raising children?

2. What has your experience been as a female hip hop artist and how do you maintain your feminity in a positive way?

3. Who are some of your role models in hip hop? Why?

4. What are some ways to bring back the balance of how women are represented in hip hop?

5. How do you think relationships between men and women are portrayed in hip hop and what can be dome about it?

6. Often times in our communities women demean each other. What is the root of it and how can women move to support each other?

7. How do you teach young women to stand up for themselves and embrace their individuality?

8. What’s your best memory in hip hop and how has it affected you?

9. What is it like having a love hate relationship with hip hop?

10. How has hip hop inspired you to make a positive change in your community?

11. What is on your mind right now concerning hip hop?

12. What would happen if there were no women in hip hop?

13. How do you get hip hop artists to recognize the repercussions of the lyrics and images that they put out?

Deadline: Please submit by November 30th, 2007 to Sarah Harris sarah@hiphopcongress.com or Tachelle Wilkes at Tachelle@femmixx.com

Bios:

Sarah Harris has been involved in community organizing and working with youth populations since 1999. After volunteering with PIRGs (Public Interest Research Group) in Montana and Oregon for three years, she shifted her focus to youth empowerment and education as well as community organizing through the culture of Hip Hop. Shortly after graduating with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Sociology with an emphasis in Criminal Justice in 2002, Sarah became a member of the national grassroots organization Hip Hop Congress. In 2006, she founded the Women’s Project as a program of Hip Hop Congress to expand the presence of the female perspective in Hip Hop. She is now the interim director of the Women’s Project until the position is filled and will then be refocusing her energy on Hip Hop education and youth. Sarah has worked with youth of all ages and backgrounds in Portland, Oregon; Missoula, Montana; and Oakland and San Francisco, California in group homes and after school programs. She also has experience as a radio DJ and was a co-producer for the legendary Sunday Morning Cultural Affairs Outreach Show on the University of California college station KALX. Sarah brings musical balance to her life by playing classical and rhythm and blues on the piano. She currently lives and works in Oakland, California as an educational assistant and after school teacher at Berkeley Maynard Academy, an elementary charter school.

Tachelle “Shamash” Wilkes – Co-founder of Femmixx.com, the Home Of Female Music Producers, DJs & Emcees. Through Femmixx.com, Tachelle directed and executive produced “Lady Beat Makers Vol. 1,” a documentary on female urban producers and co-founded She’s My DJ Turntablist Mix & Scratch Battlle. Tachelle has also written for Vibe, The Source, Daveyd.com, industrycosign.com, Elemental, The Ave, and One World Magazines. As an artist she has opened for KRS-One and Doug E. Fresh and has been featured in media such as Scratch Magazine, Amsterdam Newspaper and on BBC Radio, WWRL Radio, ABC News and Hispanics Today on NBC. As a high school teacher and college professor, she is a believer in using hip-hop as a vehicle and healing infused education. Her high school students have performed at the United Nations Conference on Healing Through the Arts and developed Flav Teen Magazine. She holds a BA in English with a concentration in secondary education from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University and an MA in American

Literature from Brooklyn College.

–
Sarah Harris
Interim Director
Hip Hop Congress Women’s Project
www.hiphopcongress.org