First off here is an article written by one of the members of the chapter and as noted by Travis (One of the Organizers):
No mention of HHC because my boy who wrote the article is also co-presiden of the local chapter and it would have been a conflict of interests (from a journalistic standpoint) and no one else was going to cover the story if he didn’t do it. Still, it’s a pretty good article and helps expose heads on campus to Hip-Hop.

The article is set around the appearence of former Pharcyde member Tre Hardson and Fatlip

Click for the Article Here

Now to hear more about the chapter from Travis:

My name is Travis Cole (DJ Philos) and we have recently started a HHC chapter on the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque. We are
chartered and funded as of about a week ago and we are working on setting up weekly public cypher’s on campus incorporating all of the elements (we got funding for sound, linoleum, panels to paint, plus $ for fliers), free B-Boy workshops (more workshops to follow) and two events. The first event is with Fatlip and Tre Hardson (Slimkid Tre) from Pharcyde plus some local talent and the other is a Dia de los Muertos jam. Both shows are at a local arts collective called stove because the good venues on campus were already booked but it’s cool because we invited local artists out to do a sick piece on the outside of the building that is all Day of the Dead themed, something we could never do on campus.

Anyway, we already have the venue on campus booked for Breakin’ Hearts 5, the biggest b-boy event in the state probably for valentine’s day next semester (our boy has thrown the show for the last four years and is now a member of our chapter so it works out really well) and we’re working on one other show for next semester that will be our response to recent acts of racial intolerance on campus. We will hopefully be featuring an open panel discussion on the role of artistic expression as a form of resistance against intolerance and prejudice, plus we’ll feature local local hip-hop artist’s as well as musicians in other genres (to celebrate cultural diversity) and exhibitions by a local flamenco group and a local
capoeira group, b-boys, etc. We are also trying to get a national headliner through. I’m not about the logistics of that yet, but we’re hoping to get artist’s from other chapters involved if anyone’s down.

As a corollary project, some of the other local member’s and I have been working on an international hip-hop exchange between the U.S. and Cuba to protest the blockade and travel ban and also to build with some killer Cuban hip-hop artist’s. Last year was the first year and it was pretty successful, but next year will be off the hook.

Sorry about the long message but i figure it’s better to catch you guys up all at once and be done with it. You can hit me back at the local congress email hiphop@unm.edu or you can also call me if you have any questions @ (505) 350-2553. We’ll be back up with you guys after these two shows and a couple more meetings and let you know where we’re at before the semester is over. Peace.

A political Fiasco
Rapper talks gay rights, hip hop and Hillary Clinton on steps of Grad

By Kimberly Chou, Daily Arts Editor on 10/30/07
Original Article Found Here

Rapper Lupe Fiasco held court on the Diag yesterday, answering questions about politics, hip hop and homophobia.

“I make really good hip-hop music, Grammy-nominated hip-hop music, GQ-Man-of-the-Year hip-hop music,” Fiasco said by way of introduction. “The opportunity-to-speak-to-y’all-in-the-Diag hip-hop music.”

Fiasco spit a few verses – old and new material, with the crowd joining in occasionally – but told the 400-or-so gathered that he wasn’t allowed to perform.

Students, many of whom saw the event advertised on Facebook.com and through e-mails, were able to get over the initial disappointment.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” said LSA sophomore Britney Rashleigh. “It’s just good to see him, a celebrity in Ann Arbor – an African-American celebrity in Ann Arbor – and for everyone to come out.”

At one point, a fan insisted on freestyling for Fiasco. Fiasco let the guy rap, though he joked, “You trying to take my shine, son.”

But he then used him as an example. He said he wanted to listen to the wannabe rapper, saying that before current fame and fortune, Fiasco was just like him.

The event was sponsored by Atlantic Records’s Urban College Network and the Michigan Chapter of Hip Hop Congress. The hip-hop star promoted his upcoming album The Cool.

Fiasco, whose real name is Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, took questions from the audience for about half an hour.

The questions were often pointed – not surprising for an outspoken artist known for the political content of his lyrics.

A fan who proclaimed himself to be “an openly gay man who loves hip hop” asked the rapper where he fell in the spectrum of hip-hop artists who have expressed contrasting views on homosexuality and the gay community.

He pledged support for gays, among other groups, because he said he supports anyone who faces discrimination.

Another asked who Fiasco was going to vote for in the 2008 presidential election.

Fiasco said he doesn’t believe in voting, but he wants Hillary Clinton to win.

“I’m tired of men, ya’ll,” he said to cheers, “I think that a woman in charge of the most powerful nation in the world is going to empower so many women.”

LSA senior Meagan Mirtenbaum, co-president of a student group promoting Arab-Jewish harmony, Bridge the Gap, asked Fiasco to perform and speak at a planned event next spring alongside Orthodox Jewish rapper Matisyahu.

“I think that was actually pretty ballsy to ask him to come perform with Matisyahu,” said Business School junior Sasha Compere, a member of Encore, a University student dance group that performed at the event.

Mirtenbaum said she only found out on Sunday night that Fiasco was going to be speaking on the Diag but the group has been planning a way to hold a Matisyahu/Lupe Fiasco concert since early summer as part of a year of cross-community activities.

Fiasco eventually directed Mirtenbaum’s invitation to his assistants, but not without his own questions first.

He joked about a price tag when she first asked him the question, then asked her about her nationality.

“I’m Jewish,” Mirtenbaum said.

“How much money we talking?” Fiasco replied.

There were a few seconds of awkward laughter.

“Thanks for playing out the stereotypes,” Mirtenbaum said.

Mirtenbaum said she wasn’t offended by the jokes, but she said if Fiasco did accept the invite conditions of what would be “appropriate” fodder for humor would have to be clarified.

“I think he was making jokes the entire time so I didn’t take it offensively,” she said.

Jennifer Yin, a Business School senior and a college representative for Fiasco’s record label, arranged the event.

“He’s real, he’s not going to hide anything in. He’s not going to pretend like he’s not going to offend anyone,” she said. “I think he handled the questions very well. I think he’s very respectful. That’s who he is – that’s the type of person he is.”

- Daily News Editor Gabe Nelson contributed to this report.

Peace friends, fam, and comrades~ For those people around the country that don’t know about this case, which kicked off new momentum behind police terrorism in Seattle more than a year ago, please check www.myspace/supportdvone. I just came from the courthouse 15 minutes ago, and wanted to give folks who had to work, a briefing on what went down this morning before I headed
off to my day job! If you can make it please come through to support DV at King County Superior Court, 516 3rd Avenue tommorow, the 18th, and next Monday 22nd through Wednesday the 24th. Court convenes at 9:00am, but will be running all morning into the afternoon. ~Julie C

DVONE Trial, Day 1, Opening Statements

Starting Wednesday, October 17th, DJ DVOne is finally getting his day in court to face trumped up assault 3 charges after he was brutalized by Seattle police at Memorial Stadium more than a year ago. Once again, members of the Seattle Hip Hop community made our way down to 3rd avenue superior courthouse downtown to show our support.

Though the group was small at 9am, the scheduled beginning of the trial, by the time the jury arrived for opening statements around
9:45am, all three available rows of seating in the courtroom were filled with DVOne supporters, including Scott Macklin from UW’s
Hip Hop Congress and Open Reel, Chev, Ghetto Prez from Block Teamsters Union and Sea-Sick, Natasha Burrows from HighlineCC,
Mike Clark, Cliff from 206 Zulu, J.Moore, Beyond Reality, and more. Unfortunately, the jury was not as diverse as DV’s support, only three jurors of the thirteen were people of color, none of them black.

The prosector started off this morning with her opening statements, and the state’s case rests on the following points she made:

1) High school football games, especially those of rival schools like
Garfield and Franklin, and especially those at Memorial Stadium, are
“not what they used to be,” and have become breeding grounds for
violence, often attended by people who are only there to make trouble.

2)The three officers who will be the prosecutors` only witnesses, and who
accused DV of assault, had no way of knowing whether DVOne, his
daughter, or her friend were a part of this trouble making crowd and
thus, had to act accordingly.

3) DV ran toward police at beckoning of his daughter`s friend, slowed
to a quick walk when he approached, officer Boggs (sp?) was only one to see
him, so she stepped between him and other officer who was facing her, DV
pushed her, then hit her multiple times in the face, then got behind
her, pinned her arms down and somehow gets her to the ground, she
gets up and calls for backup. Other officer present, officer Blackmer,
tazes DV for 11 seconds.

4) No officer ever kicked or hit DV. The only injuries he sustained
was from the taser, from falling down, or from resisting restraint.

DVOne`s defense countered the prosecution’s claims in their opening statement with the following points:

1) The three officers from SPD`s `ACT` or `Anticrime` unit (a
proactive unit supposed to prevent street level crimes) percieved the
threat they were expecting and were determined to percieve that threat,
even when when there was none.

2) Officer Boggs had a flashlight in her hand when she put her hands
up to DV, who stepped back. It was daylight, the officers were on
traffic duty, and there was no need for flashlights. The police did
not admit to this fact until defense found an independent witness to
support this. Boggs did not take opportunities to radio for help
during her supposed assault when she could have. She does not remember
any details on how he put her in a bear hold, or where he pushed her,
or how he got her to the ground, and there are no independent
witnesses to support the police`s version of the story, even though
there were hundreds of people around. There are witnesses to support
DVOne`s account. The police are lying.

3) DV was tased twice as long as standard procedures call for.
Injuries DV sustained are not consistent with the police`s account,
and show evidence of blunt force, kicking, punching, when he was down.

In my opinion, and as our comrade from Real Change, who was there put it, “If there is such thing as reasonable doubt honored here, they will find DV not guilty.” The fact that during the whole incident and the time after, not one officer bothered to collect statements from any of the witnesses who were there to support SPD’s account of the story, is highly questionable, and anyone who’s seen the photos of DV ONE after the assault, knows there is no way those injuries came from falling, or from a taser.

The weakness in DV’s case, however, is that the doctor he saw after the assault was an aquaintance of his wife, who is herself a medical professional. This is because DV has no health insurance, and needed immediate, accessible treatment as well as documentation of his injuries. However, the prosector will undoutably try to attack the credibility of the doctor’s assessment of his injuries do to this.

I left this afternoon after the cross examination of the prosecutor’s 1st witness, Officer Lundin, who was the cop who intially told DV’s
daughter to move (although he claims he left, and returned only after the call for help, and when he came back the incident was
over, and DV was face down on the ground, handcuffed, with taser darts deployed by Officer Blackmer in his body). Out of the three
officers, he is the one who can say the least on the incident, since he wasn’t there.

I will try to keep y’all posted as things develop, and I find out more. Again, if you can make it, please do stop through the courthouse
to show your support.

-Julie C

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< www.myspace.com/thetwomp>

aim: JulieChang206