This is an article penned by Shamako Noble of Hip Hop Congress several years ago-back in October 2005 to be exact. With the current state of affairs bringing forth everything from increased poverty to gentrification and dwindling opportunities impacting not just the Bay Area but all our respective cities, what he penned has just as much relevance today as it did when he first wrote it.. Its a Call for A Bay Area United that applies to many of our cities..
As you read this column and soak up some of the info.. folks may want to click the link below check out this recent article penned by Shamako, The Rise of Silicon Valley Bay http://www.siliconvalleydebug.org/articles/2014/03/14/rise-silicon-valley-bay
A Call For A Bay Area United (Oct 2005)
Inspired by so many things like the recent Zion-I,Team, Mr. Fab, Crown City Rockers show, the growth of Distortion to Static, Katrina, and Millions More Movements, I recognize that it may truly be time for a Bay Area Movement.
This article is not about Democrat or Republican, although it will address some issues brought up by both parties as well as some of the movements they are committed to. This series is not about Bloods or Crips, Nortenos or Surenos, Guns, Rap, Graff, etc. It is about our communities, our cultures, our children and our elders. These are simply suggestions or thoughts for what I believe may already be occurring on many levels. In the coming weeks, I will continue this series getting into more depth on each topic.
Please excuse the length of the first, as the
remaining will be more consolidated in dealing with each topic specifically with more supporting evidence, facts, statistics and the like. The final piece will be the one that ties the vision together for a more community connected Bay Area. To anyone already doing the things I’m talking about, good looking out and keep it moving. We support you.
The areas I will focus on will be: Youth Services, Hip Hop and Media, Philanthropy, and Political Activism
Youth Services:
1. Defining the problem(s): Youth Violence, Gangs, Health Care, Drugs, Education, etc. Although many of our community’s problems are unique, many of them are shared. Also, see number 3 in political activism.
2. Identifying potential solutions, resources and establishing those willing to put in the work. We have much more in our favor than we currently recognize. Right now, we are working on a master list of Bay Area Youth Organizations for all of us to share collectively. I believe that many of us are already doing considerable networking. Let us continue to do so.
3. Drawing the bridge between regions so that although localized areas are focused on localized problems, the Bay Area as a whole is focused on networking and utilizing youth resources and information.
4. If we make the world bigger than our regions and ourselves, it will be easier for us to transition that understanding to the youth. Too many of our youth don’t know enough about what is beyond their borders. How can we honestly tell them that the world is bigger than what they see, and we don’t even show them what is across a bridge?
5. Take the idea of Hip Hop and Education, but more importantly the spirit of ‘by any means necessary’ in education seriously. The Bay Area is one of the country’s most active groups in that respect with groups like 5th Element, Sisters of the Underground, The Academy of Hip Hop, Trinity Wolf Productions, Unity Care and many more leading the helm. Even in this ‘liberal’ area, there is still too much of a divide and hesitation on the part of many educators and administrators to recognize the importance or relating to, challenging and embracing the experience of the student. This is risky and fearful at best and dangerous and negligent at its worst.
Hip Hop and Media
1. Hip Hop must stop dividing itself. Leaders, activists, artists of all elements must come together as a unified social, economic and political force organizing under a collective banner of the empowerment of the poor, marginalized and disenfranchised of the Bay Area. New or Old, Graff Writer or DJ we are much more useful to each other collectively than we are separately.
2. De-regionalize our mentalities, our markets and musical movements. The Bay Area boasts one of the highest numbers of independent artists in the Unites States of America and the truth is that a lot of those artists just don’t know each other or know of each other. This undermines our collective strength and our ability to truly stimulate the culture of our region. So to some extent, let’s stop being San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, East Palo Alto and
Richmond. Let’s just be the Bay.
3. Prejudice directly connected to labeling must end and we must begin to view titles such as ‘conscious’ or ‘gangsta’ as almost, if not completely, counter-productive. Granted, they may refer to some degree of a musical style, but Hip Hop is Hip Hop and even before that (and perhaps more importantly), human expression is human expression. If there are specific issues that we wish to engage in the music of individuals or a certain ‘market’
then let us do so as a community with shared interests and common goals.
4. We must take collective ownership for our economics, cultural conditions and media savvy. The Bay Area has one of the most ripe Independent and College Radio Markets in the world today. We need radio DJs like T-Cash and others who are willing to embrace not only the universal struggle of independent artistry in the Bay Area, but that are willing to recognize their importance and responsibility as community beacons of information and good music. When the commercial radio stations are not willing to do it, we need college/independent radio stations that are. Also, please refer to the previous point.
DJ Luicidal and D’Labrie & Sellasie
5. We must take the collective initiative to stay informed and to keep others informed. The Bay Area, with folks like Adisa Banjoko, Davey D, Jeff Chang, Vanessa Nisperos, Kenny May, Boots, Emcee Lynx, Balance, Ren the Vinyl Archeologist, E-40, Shock G, DLabrie, Rahman Jamaal and many more, clearly has one of the most fertile grounds of Hip Hop and social thinking that this country has to offer. However, all anyone can do is make this information as readily available as possible. It is our collective responsibility to keep others and ourselves as informed as we can in our busy schedules.
6. Let’s begin seriously drawing bridges between, African-American, Latino American, Native American, LGBT, Women, Pacific Islander, and poor and working-class white communities. Realistically, most of these groups have Hip Hop music distinct to their communities, and although we cannot simply expect to make fans out of thin air, perhaps the more we can make people aware of the music, the more we can make them aware of the issues.
7. See above: #5 under Youth Services.
Philanthropy and Social Venture Capitalism:
1. There are dozens of organizations and activists out there right now doing amazing things that are scrambling desperately for money. The structure in which philanthropy is designed currently forces the activist, organizer, non-profit etc., to find the money, apply for the money, and then compete for and with the money. That’s fine when it comes to certain services that are not of an urgent nature. However, our children are dying, being mis-educated, undereducated misled and cornered into situations that are not healthy for themselves, their families and their communities.
There are organizations that are on the front lines of poverty, of culture, and of youth advocacy and activism and they need your help. They can prove they’re effective, and they can give you good documentation for your tax purposes. However, if you have it in your foundation budget, start hiring community activists already on the
frontlines of these communities to help guide you. Don’t build a stadium or center in the community, find out what the community is doing, if they need your help and then offer. Stop starting new programs and start supporting the ones that already exist without a bunch of hoops and strings.
2. Take aggressive, proactive collaboration and outreach seriously. When I say that, I don’t simply mean reach out to those with whom you are comfortable. I mean reach out even to those with whom you are not comfortable and know nothing about. If you find you don’t understand something about a community, be proactive in learning more. Do not be satisfied until a true state of equity in opportunity and standard of living is in place. Recognize that there is no one individual, group, foundation or organization that is
going to solve the entirety of this collective problem.
In other words: stop competing with each other and stop making good organizations and good people compete for small dollars that only make small dents. Work collaboratively with other foundations, and other foundation collectives to begin to target issues with the right amount of dollars, and take seriously the search for organizations to funnel those dollars through. Groups like the PCF in the peninsula and RFC in the South Bay are models for that kind of work.
Political Activism:
1. Let’s continue to build on the momentum established in 2004 during the election. However, let’s do so with a more determined and defined strategy. If there is still a Bay Area LOC, and a South Bay LOC, let’s recharge them and get them involved in state and local issues. Let’s connect with the labor unions, the teacher unions, the independents, and the greens. Let’s begin to take each other’s lives more seriously than we take each
other’s politics.
2. To representatives, tell us, as a community, what you need from us to make happen what you want to make
happen. If we recognize our collective power, and even further if we recognize that working together, you (the rep) can leverage our collective power to make a difference, what specifically would you need us to do? Organize, vote, protest and rally, e-mail or phone calls? Let us form a true leadership with grassroots, universal concepts that seeks to empower and galvanize the whole in an inclusive but uncompromising manner and utilize that to make use of or expose the highest value of political process.
3. We pretty much know our issues; let’s get married to them. I don’t think that there is too much confusion here. We know that education, health care, poverty, violence in the home and the hood, prison/industrial complex, housing, the environment and other violations of basic rights to life are at the core of this discussion and that although that may take different forms in different regions, it’s essentially going to come down to similar things.
Let’s find our common bonds, and apply collective leverage. If we can’t figure it out in a week, then let’s take a month. If we can’t figure it out in a month, then let’s take a year. Let’s work on it until we get it right and recognize that any time invested in this endeavor is time well spent.
Like I said, this is the beginning but if there is anybody out there feeling this, please don’t hesitate to hit me up and let’s get this moving. My thinking on this matter has evolved over the course of years, and I’m sure it will continue to do so. However, there can be few things more important right now than productive, honest dialogue and quick, effective short, medium and long-term action.
Shamako Noble is a co-founder and current President of Hip Hop Congress and Co-Executive Director of
R.E.F.U.G.E. (Real Education for Urban Growth Enterprises). He can be reached at shamako@hiphopcongress.com