Following last year's highly successful First Annual International Hip Hop Festival at Trinity College, which made international headlines on the BBC for its efforts to "change the world through hip-hop," this year's weekend of hip-hop performances, lectures, films, and discussions from March 30 to April 1, 2007, will continue to celebrate hip hop as a unifying factor across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

The Annual International Hip Hop Festival on the Trinity College campus will welcome a diverse range of artists to Hartford from Africa, Europe, Latin America, Australia and the Caribbean, including Iraqi-born Narcy, Senegalese Omzo, the Brazilian Eli Efi, and French/West African super group Les Nubians.

While the musical performances promise to be a powerful component to the weekend’s activities, this year’s festival, sponsored by Trinity College, Nomadic Wax, World Up, and Sol Productions, will also offer a variety of scholars, authors, and industry professionals to lead academic-oriented hip-hop panels and workshops.

On Friday, March 30, the weekend’s events will kick-off with a lecture that will follow the screening of Hip-Hop Beyond Beats and Rhymes presented by Hip Hop Association. Filmmaker Byron Hurt and a variety of panelists will be present to discuss manhood, sexism, and homophobia in rap music and hip-hop culture. On Saturday, March 31, Jeff Chang, recipient of the 2005 American Book Award for his book, Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop, and most recently the author of Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-hop, will join a panel of contributors to the book, including the George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies at Trinity College Vijay Prashad; Juba Kalamka, a pioneer in the Bay Areas Homo-Hop movement; and Fable, of the famous Rock Steady crew.

International Hip Hop Festival coordinators have collaborated with many Hartford-area organizations, such as the Charter Oak Cultural Center, Underground Coalition, Sankofa Kuumba, The Rumbah Family Center, and the Artist Collective, to strengthen the involvement of the community. One of the featured workshops will spotlight Hartford-natives, B-boys, who will teach participants about the art and history of break dancing. There will also be a graffiti workshop to learn how to do mural painting hosted by a group of international writers (graffiti artists) from the world-renowned Trust Your Hustle Tour.

Schedule of Events

Time   Event     Location

Friday, March 30, 2007

4:00 p.m.  Welcoming Remarks   Cinestudio

4:30 p.m.   Beyond Beats and Rhymes, film Cinestudio

5:30 p.m.  Post-screening discussion  Cinestudio

8:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m. Performances*    Vernon Street

*Friday performers: Gabriel Teodros, Baba Israel, Rebel Diaz, Self Suffice, Eternia, Omzo, Bocafloja, Shu, La Bruja, DJ Boo and the Our Piece of The Pie Fashion Show. 

Saturday, March 31, 2007

10:30a.m.-noon Graffiti workshop: Trust Your Hustle crew Vernon Social Center

1:00 p.m.  Cuban Hip Hop: Desde el Principio, film McCook Auditorium

2:30 p.m.  “Our Latin Thing: Hip Hop Across the  McCook Auditorium

                  Americas,” lecture 

Panelists: Marinieves Alba of International Hip-Hop Exchange (IHX); Loira Limbal (aka DJ Laylo), producer of “Estilo Hip-Hop”; Ariel Fernandez (aka “DJ Asho”), a DJ and cultural critic from Havana, Cuba; Rodstarz of the trio Rebel Diaz, a Chilean MC raised in Chicago; Eli Efi a Brazilian MC/Activist from Sao Paulo Brazil, and Vanessa Diaz, a documentary producer and director of the film Cuban Hip Hop; Desde el Principo.

3:00 p.m-4:00 p.m.  Break dancing workshop: B-boys  Vernon Street

4:00 p.m-6:00 p.m. Jeff Chang, author of Total Chaos:

                  The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-hop, lecture Gallows Hill 

Panelists: Vijay Prashad, the George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies at Trinity College; Juba Kalamka, a pioneer in the Bay Areas Homo-Hop movement; and Fable, of the famous Rock Steady crew

8:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m. Performances*     Vernon Street

*Saturday performers:  Les Nubians, Foundation Movement, Eli Efi/ Laylo, Urban Word Poets, African Underground Allstars, Narcy, Bennchoumy and DJ Boo

Sunday, April 1, 2007  

1:00pm-3:00 p.m.  “Women in Hip Hop,” panel discussion  Gallows Hill

3:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. Trinity Student Forum/Block Party  Washington Room