Hip Hop Congress

Protesters promise hunger strike [Baltimore / Press]

Original Article from Baltimore Sun

Promising a hunger strike until their demands are met, about 40 city high school students and young adults rallied at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor yesterday evening to protest the City Council’s rejection of $3 million in funding for programs that would pay youths to help peers in need.

The protesters gathered at the harbor’s amphitheater, then marched peacefully a few blocks to the Legg Mason plaza, where they chanted slogans and listened to speeches. The group planned to spend the night at a nearby church and repeat the routine daily without ingesting anything but water and juice.

“We’re trying to get $3 million to fund Peer to Peer so 1,000 young people can be employed next year in a knowledge-based economy,” said Cherdaya Allen, an 11th-grader at Western High School who tutors high school and college students in math.

Peer to Peer is a fledgling organization that would serve as an umbrella group for numerous youth programs. If funded, the organization would allocate money to member groups that, in turn, would pay students to help others.

“We’re hungry for education, ready to be effective in society, making money to help others,” said Daimen Poole, a college student with Hip Hop Congress, which uses rap music to promote activism related to HIV, teen pregnancy and other issues.

On Wednesday, a City Council committee rejected a proposal to use interest from the city’s “rainy day fund” to fund Peer to Peer. Mayor Sheila Dixon has staunchly opposed the proposal, arguing that she has placed more than $14.5 million in the budget for about a dozen youth programs. More funding should be a decision for the school system, she said.

jonathan.bor@baltsun.com

Campus Progress 2008 National Conference

We’re proud to announce that Senator John Edwards will speak at the fourth annual Campus Progress National Conference! Sen. Edwards’ leadership on poverty and economic opportunity issues has inspired and mobilized young Americans. At the conference, he will address the challenge of fighting poverty and advancing economic mobility.

Other confirmed speakers include actor Ryan Gosling, who will discuss Africa, genocide, and child soldiers with notable activist John Prendergast; U.S. Representative Linda Sanchez of California; hip-hop artist M-1; spoken word poet Paul Flores; and musician Ted Leo, who will perform.

A panel on youth organizing will include Biko Baker of the League of Young Voters and Maria Teresa Peterson of Voto Latino. Campus Progress will announce additional participants in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

The Campus Progress National Conference is a unique opportunity to meet and network with other politically engaged young people. The conference is free for all attendees, and a limited number of travel and housing scholarships will be available. You must apply for admission, and each year the conference fills to capacity — so apply now!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Omni Shoreham Hotel
2500 Calvert St NW
Washington, DC 20008

http://www.campusprogress.org/common/2851/2008-campus-progress-national-conference-home.

Proposed Promoters Licensing Ordinance-More info about Tuesday 7:00 Come and support! [San Jose]

Hello San Jose Mayor & City Council Members:

This email is in regards to the proposed Promoters Licensing Ordinance that you will be voting on next Tues June 3rd.

Myself and over 100 promoters, musicians, entertainers, artists, and DJ’s have organized and started a group called the San Jose Nightlife & Entertainment Committee (SJNEC) once we found out about this proposed ordinance. We don’t object to the idea of the proposed ordinance, we actually understand the city’s safety concerns, but we find that the current wording is still vague and will hurt the live music scene in San Jose.

The ordinance does a poor job defining a promoter, and we find the costs of the license and the fines to be extremely high since they will be equivalent or higher than the entertainment permits that venue owners and managers are required to get. This ordinance is making promoters accountable for human behavior, which even in the best circumstances is hard to control. Plus the City of San Jose already have the venues to be held accountable for the events that take place in them. If this ordinance passes, there will be multiple accountability and it will be a game of pointing fingers. These are just some of the concerns that have come up.

We really would like to stress that the promoters responsibility is to promote an event up until the time the event occurs. Promoters usually do not have a say over what the patrons do or how they act. It is the venues responsibility to it’s screen patrons; yet in the event that the patrons choose to do something requiring police attention, this ordinance can hold the promoters responsible for actions committed by others. The bottom line is that each individual person is accountable for their actions, not the people that told them about an event. The venues are responsible for screening patrons; if any negative results occur from a patron, it should be the venues’ responsibility (as it currently is). If the aim of this ordinance is for true accountability, hold the patrons and the venue responsible for their actions. Promoters should not be included in the realm of responsibility when their job technically ceases once the event begins.

As you may know, other cities have similar ordinances being proposed to them, but so far (to our knowledge and research) only the San Diego ordinance has passed. But please keep in mind that the San Diego ordinance is only a few pages long; very simple, very easy:

http://docs.sandiego.gov/reportstocouncil_attach/2000/00-211%20Attachment%204.pdf

The Chicago ordinance (which is most similar to ours) has been postponed due to concerns about the vague wording:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/derogatis/2008/05/update_promoters_ordinance_tab.html

We find this sentence in that article to be applicable to us:
“no hard information and that it has not formally studied the extent of the alleged problem that the law was crafted to address; they had only the anecdotal evidence”

We have been told numerous times that the reason for this ordinance is because of violence at events in downtown San Jose; and the example given most is the shooting at the Ambassador that happened approximately five years ago. We would like to point out that there was no promoter involved with that venue or that event in which the incident took place; that was all the venue owners responsibility.

We came across this White Paper called “Why the Event Promoters Ordinance should be rejected” written by Henry Perritt, a supporter of the independent artist community in Chicago:

http://www.p2plitigationsummit.com/bios/perritt.htm

We figured you might find this to be very interesting and appropriate considering the San Jose proposed Promoters Licensing Ordinance. Here’s a link to this White Paper:

http://www.therecordindustry.com/why-the-promoter-ordinance-should-be-rejected.htm

Therefore, we want to stress how most cities are still struggling with their ordinances and the wording, as well as the definition of promoter, which are our concerns still.

We also have collected over 1700+ signatures on a petition that is against the current wording of the Promoters Licensing Ordinance from businesses that make revenue from the nightlife crowd, downtown patrons, and musicians, as well as regular citizens that appreciate the local music scene and culture.

I really hope that all of you will think about this Promoters Licensing Ordinance some more and vote NO on the current proposed version on June 3rd. I think it’s in all our interests for this ordinance to be reviewed and revised so that it the live music scene and culture doesn’t get hurt by it.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Thank you,
Barbara Wahli
SJNEC Delegate

The Birth of H2ONewsreel! [H2A]

H2O NEWSREEL!
H2A Partners With Third World Newsreel To Create Indie Distribution Label

May 30, 2008 (New York City) – The Hip-Hop Association (H2A) has officially partnered with Third World Newsreel (TWN) to form, H2O NEWSREEL, a distribution label offering the best in Hip-Hop Media, Education, and Culture.

TWN will continue to acquire, distribute and market independent media under the TWN brand. This includes more than 350 social issue titles, including historical Newsreels from the sixties. H2O NEWSREEL will operate as a separate initiative targeting the Hip-Hop culture and demographic.

The mission of the H2O NEWSREEL is to build an alternative media outlet that provides a cultural and educational balance, economic sustainability, and industry longevity by creating distribution opportunities to independent and established Hip-Hop artists, educators, and filmmakers that display and define the variety of images and stories that depict Hip-Hop culture. The H2A and TWN demographic reach combined is over 30,000 international educators, administrators, librarians, students, curators, organizers, writers, conference and festival programmers, social and health service providers, television programmers, and media artists.

TWN is an alternative media arts organization that fosters the creation, appreciation and dissemination of independent film and video by and about diverse communities, with a focus on people of color and social justice issues. It supports the innovative work of diverse forms and genres made by artists who are intimately connected to their subjects through common bonds of ethnic/cultural heritage, class position, gender, sexual orientation and political identification. TWN promotes the self-representation of traditionally marginalized groups as well as the negotiated representation of those groups by artists who work in solidarity with them.

Under this new strategic partnership, the H2O International Film Festival will expand from an annual event, to year-round exhibitions at different venues throughout the US and internationally. Through online partnerships, we will promote upcoming screenings, trailers and shorts. Filmmakers will also have a space to create their own profile page. Filmmakers whose projects are aligned with the H2O NEWSREEL mission will be selected to work closely with staff members on their marketing campaigns, programming and distribution goals, so that the H2A can offer more cultivation and resources. The Odyssey awards honoring our best filmmakers will resume in June 2009.

H2O NEWSREEL is poised to be the leading Hip-Hop multi-media independent developer and distribution outlet. It will acquire media projects and facilitate the creation of curriculums and study guides for the education and urban entertainment markets. H2O NEWSREEL will offer the most competitive percentage agreement to independent filmmakers and will split profits on a non-exclusive agreement.

Starting September 2008, H2O NEWSREEL will begin releasing its titles to the international educational sector. H2O NEWSREEL will launch with the release of ten documentaries including, Masizakhe: Building Each Other (US/S. Africa), Frekuensia Kolombiana (Colombia), and the H2O NEWSREEL award winning short series collection.