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The hearing on the Woodlawn Resolutions to be considered a week from now at the Greater Chicagoland Hip-Hop Plebiscite will be noon-5 p.m Sat., Jun. 17, at Malcolm X College, 1900 W. Van Buren St., Chicago, the exact room to be announced.

Sponsored by the coalition of Greater Chicagoland organizations planning events for Chicago Hip-Hop Heritage Month and the 2006 National Hip-Hop Political Convention, the hearing will kick off a movement for establishing the Plebiscite as a means of advising, consulting, petitioning, and charging the Illinois and Chicago local organizing committee delegations on what local and national hip-hop issues the heads and electors of Northeastern Illinois, Southeast Wisconsin, and Northwest Indiana want introduced, debated, voted on, and ratified in the convention’s platform and agenda by its National Assembly.

At the hearing, input will be digested and recorded toward revising and expanding the Woodlawn Resolutions, or resolutions of Greater Chicagoland hip-hop’s concerns. At the Plebiscite, occurring Jun. 24 in the auditorium of Bessie Coleman Branch Library in the Woodlawn community, a people’s assembly will discuss, debate, and ratify those resolutions, organize, a Greater Chicagoland Hip-Hop Vigilance Committee, and elect officers to two-year terms to ensure that those resolutions and those ratified by the several caucus meeting the week of the convention.

Those caucuses will include the following:

Sun., Jul. 16, Hip-Hop Caucus of World’s Religions, a meeting of clergy, lay leaders, and others concerned with observance of conscience in hip-hop to discuss, debate, and ratify a draft document on interdenominational cooperation to advance hip-hop politically (this will not be a nebulous discourse on spirituality in hip-hop, it’s a Gandhi, Malcolm X, and Dr. King thang).

Tue., Jul. 18, National Hip-Hop Journalists Caucus, a meeting of media workers to discuss, debate, and ratify a draft document on establishing ethical and labor standards and fairness in hip-hop journalism, as none currently exist there in practice (especially with payola and sectional egos very much in effect).

Fri., Jul. 21, National Urban Performing Artists Caucus, a meeting of MCs, vocalists, managers, agents, and other entertainment industry heads to discuss, debate, and ratify a draft document establishing a very pragmatic, realistic, and empowering national labor policy for hip-hop’s performing artists (save “good hip-hop vs. bad hip-hop” for a venue better suited for intellectual masturbating, and see Russell Simmons and Kevin Liles for science about “how to get on,” and the existing draft document has received a seal of approval from Wendy Day of Rap Coalition).

Sat., Jul. 22, National Hip-Hop Elements Caucuses & Town Meeting, a meeting of heads in the five elements of hip-hop to discuss, debate, and ratify a draft document on a national policy for the hip-hop arts, letters, and sciences (the main emphasis will be to get our grants and other public funding on for those areas).

Sun., Jul. 23, National Urban Filmmakers Caucus, a meeting of urban filmmakers to discuss, debate, and ratify a draft document on a national policy for hip-hop filmmaking (yep, urban filmmakers are doing it for themselves in the new millennium, since non-filmmakers, especially those prone to intellectual masturbating and other counterrevolutionary exhalations, just don’t get it).

For further information on the Jul 17 hearing, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .