Hip Hop Congress

NATIONAL TOWNHALL MEETINGS TO EXPLORE THE HIP-HOP GENERATION’S STAKE IN THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION [Rap Sessions]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATIONAL TOWNHALL MEETINGS TO EXPLORE THE HIP-HOP GENERATION’S STAKE IN THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

February 18, 2008 (New York, NY)—Rap Sessions: Community Dialogues on Hip-Hop announces a national tour focused on hip-hop, youth civic participation and the 2008 Presidential Campaign.

Rap Sessions presents its third annual national discussion tour, which unites a diverse panel of leading hip-hop activists, artists and youth politics experts to engage youth and community leaders in candid, compelling conversations about ways hip-hop generation voters can organize to have an impact on this year’s election.

Targeting the hip-hop generation and their younger millennial siblings, these dynamic and provocative discussions are designed to inform young voters on the candidates, the issues, and prepare them to participate fully in the upcoming election.

“The 2008 Presidential Election is the most important election of this generation’s lifetime,” notes Bakari Kitwana, the Executive Director of Rap Sessions and the author of The Hip-Hop Generation. “The goal of these gatherings is to educate youth on their civic rights and responsibilities, and, equally important, to help young voters understand ways to place their issues on the national agenda.”

Reflecting on the record young voter turnout in caucuses and primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire and across the United States, as well as groundbreaking turn-outs in 2004, Kitwana added: “The hip-hop voting bloc will be a defining factor in 2008. We want to be sure that our young people are informed on exactly what’s at stake for the hip-hop generation and not be lulled to sleep by the hype of gender, race or simply voting for voting’s sake.”

Beginning in March, Rap Sessions’ interactive community dialogues will convene in ten cities across the United States.

• Jeff Johnson, BET’s Cousin Jeff Chronicles, director of Truth is Power and author of Let’s Get Free: Strategies for Organizing the Hip-Hop Voting Bloc;

• hip-hop political organizer Angela Woodson, co-chair of the 2004 National Hip-Hop Political Convention and director of Faith-based Initiatives for the Ohio Governor’s Office;

• hip-hop artist M-1, one half off the innovative hip-hop duo dead prez;

• public policy analyst Dr. Maya Rockeymoore, author of A Political Action Handbook for the Hip-Hop Generation and the former chief of staff for Congressman Charlie Rangel;

• Billy Wimsatt, co-founder of the League of Young Voters and author of How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office;

•hip-hop activist Rosa Clemente, The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Black August and The Hip-Hop Caucus.

Bakari Kitwana, the moderator of these discussions, is co-founder of the first ever National Hip-Hop Political Convention and the former editor of The Source. His bookThe Hip-Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture has been adopted as a coursebook at over 100 colleges and universities across the country. A consultant for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Kitwana has been acknowledged as an expert on youth culture and hip-hop politics by CNN, Fox News, CNBC, BET and other leading news outlets. His writings have appeared in the Village Voice, The New York Times, The Nation, Savoy and the Boston Globe. Currently Artist-in-Residence at the Center for the Study of Race Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, he teaches a course in the political science department entitled, “The Politics of The Hip-Hop Generation.” Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop: New Realities of Race in America is his most recent book.

For more information about Rap Sessions, log onto: www.rapsessions.org

Press Contact: Mona Finston, Mona Finston PR, 212-724-6117, email mfinstonpr@earthlink.net.

March
11th; Boston, MA
12th; Fairfield, CT
25th; Bethlehem, PA

April
3rd ; San Francisco, CA
5th; Chicago, IL
8th; San Luis Obispo, CA
9th; Los Angeles, CA
18th; Milwaukee, WI
19th; Madison, WI
29th; Marquette, MI