Hip Hop Congress

It’s Bigger than Hip Hop: The Truth Behind the Evergreen Uprising

For Immediate Release

2/25/2008

Julie Chang Schulman
Northwest Regional Director
Hip Hop Congress
(425) 223-7787
juliec@hiphopcongress.com
http://www.hiphopcongress.com http://www.206zulu.com

It’s Bigger than Hip Hop: The Truth Behind the Evergreen Uprising

In a prior release on February 22, 2008, Hip Hop Congress stated that the organization was in the process of preparing the results of our own independent investigation on the uprising that occurred after the Valentine’s Day Dead Prez show at Evergreen State College. The results of this independent investigation have now been released in the form of a short video and accompanying script. The video, entitled “It’s Bigger than Hip Hop: The Truth Behind the Evergreen Uprising,” narrates the sequence of events that led up to the violent uprising, and contains footage of the performance, the protest, and the uprising, as well as commentary from exclusive interviews and statements from community forums that followed later in the week.

“We have spent well over 150 hours, interviewing various eyewitnesses, faculty, administration, and students, as well as collecting and editing over 20 hours of footage,” says Andrew Rutherford, who directed and edited the video for Hip Hop Congress. “We are confident in the quality, content, and accuracy of this film, and hope that it clears up misconceptions and misinformation about what happened that night.”

Video released on YouTube by the Geoduck Student Union at Evergreen on February 21, 2008 was the first substantial footage to surface of the incident itself. While the YouTube video revealed serious discrepancies between what was reported by authorities, and what was caught on film, it still left questions as to which law enforcement agencies were involved at what time, and which agencies may have actually contributed to escalating the protest to a violent confrontation.

“We offer the results of our inquiry not only as community media producers and advocates of Hip Hop culture, but also as supporters of the movement towards universal restorative justice and proactive restitution,” says Julie Chang Schulman, Northwest Regional Director for Hip Hop Congress, and author of the video’s script. “We are concerned with what seems to be the omission of the Olympia Police Department’s role in this incident. If the objective is accountability and preserving the safety of this community, this should be just as important a part of the investigative process as finding those responsible for damages, especially given the preexisting tension between OPD and the Evergreen community.”

The National President and Executive Director, Shamako Noble, will be speaking at an event aimed at the Evergreen student community next Friday, February 29^th, at 3:00pm, location TBA. Hip Hop Congress will also be screening “It’s Bigger than Hip Hop: The Truth Behind the Evergreen Uprising” for the student body at that time.

To reach Evergreens State College’s Hip Hop Congress, contact Founder Noah Theeman-Lindberg by emailing teschhc@gmail.com or by phone at (303) 618-6703.