Dec. 15, 2018 – 4th Annual International Hip Hop Activism Conference

4th Annual International Hip Hop Activism Conference
December 15, 2018
10am – 7:00pm
Warehouse 508
508 1st Street NW
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA 87102

Free and Open to the Public. All Ages.
Sober and Family Friendly Event.

We will have childcare provided by Free Access to Movement Childcare Collective

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SCHEDULE
Workshops are an hour for the presenter.
Panels are an hour with two presenters getting 20 minutes each and questions and answers at the end for 20 minutes.

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ROOM 1 – 10:00am – 11:00am – WORKSHOP

Tactics and Strategies for Dismantling the School to Prison Pipeline
Anthony J. Ncella II

  • ABSTRACT: This workshop and presentation will discuss briefly what the school to prison pipeline is and talk about the recent book released from Dr. Nocella, “From Education to Incarceration: Dismantling the School to Prison Pipeline” (2018). Dr. Nocella will provide the audience of all ages tactics in organizing in ones community including hosting public events and streetline demonstrations. This workshop and presentation will be interactive, skill based, and tactical and strategic with handouts for building a campaign for social change.
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  • BIOGRAPHY: Anthony J. Nocella II, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor of the Department of Criminal Justice in the Institute of Public Safety at Salt Lake Community College, is the editor of the Peace Studies Journal, Green Theory and Praxis Journal, and Transformative Justice Journal. He is also co-editor of five peer-reviewed book series. He is the National Coordinator of Save the Kids, Executive Director of the Institute for Critical Animal Studies, and Director of Academy for Peace Education. He has published over fifty peer-reviewed book chapters or articles and over forty books; with two of his book translated in different languages.

Room 1 – 11:00am – 12:00pm – PANEL

1. Class Struggle in African (Black) America

All African People’s Revolutionary Party

  • ABSTRACT: Hip-hop is about the hustle, the survival, and the show: faking it till you make it. The struggle to create your own space by any means necessary undergirds the culture, as do conspicuous displays of material wealth and consumption. An artform that began with frank discussion of institutional poverty, street-level drug deals, and making a name for yourself on the streets has evolved into brags about real estate investments, dabbles in high fashion, and lavish lifestyles on yachts and private jets. The Culture has alway been about getting money and getting yours, but somewhere along the way, hip-hop became hyper-capitalist. Does this shift accurately reflect the conditions of the those who first created the art form and who ensure its survival to this day? Let’s talk about the Class Struggle in African America.
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  • BIOGRAPHY: The All African People’s Revolutionary Party (AAPRP) is a permanent, independent, revolutionary socialist Pan-African political party based in Africa with chapters all over the African world including Europe, Canada, the Caribbean, and throughout the US and here in New Mexico. The AAPRP’s objective is revolutionary Pan-Africanism, which we define as one liberated, unified, and socialist Africa. The AAPRP understands that all people of African descent, whether they live in North or South America, the Caribbean, or in any other part of the world, are Africans and belong to the African Nation.  When Africa is free, Africans everywhere will be free.

Room  2 – 11:00am – 12:00pm – WORKSHOP

Revenge of the Mountains: An Online Game to help NM Youth Navigate the Healthcare System
Sonja Larson

  • ABSTRACT: If you are sick, hurt, or need information on reproductive health care where do you go? Emergency room? Urgent care? A school-based health center? How will you pay for it? How will you get there? A few years ago some Albuquerque young people were wondering these same questions and set out to find the answers. Along with Young Women United, they organized 120 young people and sent them out to different clinics then surveyed their experiences. Based on that survey, it was identified that there was a need for more information on what types of health care options are available to young people in New Mexico. This session presents an online choose-your-own-adventure game to help youth navigate the healthcare system in Albuquerque and New Mexico. Players choose through different scenarios they might have in a real life situation without the real consequences, and are guided towards the most helpful options.
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  • BIOGRAPHY: Sonja Larson is a senior at Amy Biehl High School and youth organizer at Young Women United. She was born in Albuquerque New Mexico in 2001. Since her sophomore year of high school Sonja has been a part of Circle of Strength. Circle of Strength is the youth group at Young Women United; an organization that advocates for reproductive justice and has had a major impact on her life. Although Sonja is considered shy by many, she has been working becoming more outgoing and becoming a better leader. Sonja enjoys playing rugby, spending time with her friends, and studying anthropology.

Room 2 – 12:00pm – 1:00pm

Lunch  – Free Vegan Food will be provided

Room 1 – 1:00pm – 2:00pm – PANEL

1. Compassion Rules Everything Around Me: Where Hip-Hop and Veganism Intersect
Tony Quintanta

  • ABSTRACT: Since its beginning, the hip-hop culture and movement has maintained a theme of rising up against the systems that keep certain groups of people down, and spreading messages of empowerment to those same groups of people. Groundbreaking hip-hop tracks such as Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” have encouraged us to challenge the status quo. Many emcees such as Wu-Tang Clan and dead prez have pointed out that part of the process of fighting the power, so to speak, is taking the best care of ourselves that we can. This theme of working to better ourselves naturally overlaps with veganism in terms of how we eat to nourish our bodies, as well as how we vote with our dollars to create A Better Tomorrow for ourselves and for future generations. This presentation takes a deeper look at how a vegan lifestyle aligns with the hip-hop movement.
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  • BIOGRAPHY: Tony Quintana is an educator, emcee, and activist. He has worked in Health Promotion/Disease Prevention for over 8 years, and has conducted health education programs on a wide variety of topics including HIV, diabetes, fitness and nutrition. Tony earned his Master’s degree in Community Health Education and Bachelor’s degree in School Health Education from the University of New Mexico. He also holds several fitness certifications from the American Council on Exercise including Medical Exercise Specialist, Health Coach, and Group Fitness Instructor. As an emcee and show promoter, Tony (also known by his stage name I.Q. the Professor) has been very active in the local hip-hop scene in Albuquerque, NM where he co-founded the Conscious Eating and Hip-Hop event series, and is a co-founder of the Dezert Banditz hip-hop crew.

2. My Experience as a Vegan of Color
Victor Flores

  • ABSTRACT: Veganism can often be incorrectly stereotyped as a white movement or a white lifestyle. Come and listen to Victor Flores share his family’s journey into veganism and dispel some of those myths that if you go vegan you won’t be able eat your traditional dishes or that you won’t be able to participate in family gatherings. Get resources on where and how to start into veganism, learn some of the reasons on why we should all be considering going vegan and sample some delicious food!
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  • BIOGRAPHY: Victor Flores is the Greater New Mexico Community Events Coordinator for Vegan Outreach, an international non-profit organization working to end violence towards animals. Victor and his partner Karla Reyes, have founded different groups, produced various events and done numerous talks and workshops regarding the topic of veganism and animal rights. They reguarly sample vegan food, including vegan versions of typical comfort foods, and serve full meals at a variety of events. Some of these venues and events include the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the Indigenous Comic Con, University of New Mexico, Central New Mexico Community College, Santa Fe Community College, New Mexico State University – Alamogordo and El Paso Community College. Always proud to share his Mexican culture, Victor is not shy to share his background and relate to many who might not consider veganism. He has recently co-founded Plant Powered Events, an organization that promotes a variety of different vegan themed events, including the Plant Powered Pop Up Market, an otherwise typical pop up market but with a twist, no animal products are sold at this market! With Plant Powered Events, Victor and his collaborators hope to normalize veganism and the fact that vegans can eat the same foods and enjoy the same fun activities as everyone else only without using animals. With Vegan Outreach, he is also one of the co-founders of the series Conscious Eating and Hip Hop, produced the first Vegan Taco Takeover in the area as well as the first vegan mac n cheese competition and the Santa Fe Vegan BBQ Battle. Most recently, Victor is also producing El Paso’s Best Vegan Tamal event reaching out to the Mexican community in the border area.

Room 2 – 1:00pm – 2:00pm – WORKSHOP

Fresh Seeds
Eddy Cardenas and Renee Chavez

  • ABSTRACT: This workshop will engage youth with music. Afro Indigenous Tribal Rythms Drum and Percussion together with a Beat Machine Workshop to create culture contempo music, a perfect HIP HOP anthology experience! This workshop will be led by Eddy Cardenas, he will implement the beat machine and lead a group dialogue on Hip Hop Culture and Music, its history, Afrikans Roots and the heart of Tonantzin, (Mother Earth). Co facilitating the workshop will be Renee Chavez, she will implement Bass drums, djembes, congas, sekeres (beaded hard-shell gourds) and bells to provide an Afro Beat bass line with full rhythm section complete with Pre Columbian-timing embleshments.
  • BIOGRAPHY: Eddy Cardenas, Fresh Seeds Organizer and Manager of the Silk Screen Studio at LPI. Eddy grew up in the HIP HOP Culture of the 90s in Los Angeles.
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  • BIOGRAPHY: Renee Chavez, teaching artist and Liaison Officer at LPI. Renee is from NM originally and grew up in the HIP HOP Culture of the 80s. Renee has worked as a teaching artist in Miami, Fl for the past 18 years teaching Afro Indigenous Dance and Drum.

Room 1 – 2:00 – 3:00pm – WORKSHOP

1. Ready To Live, From 93 til Infinity: On Engaging Hip-Hop as an emotional wellness model
Napoleon Wells

  • ABSTRACT: Since its inception, hip-hop has functioned as a kind of cultural and practical journal, a means for the vulnerable,  those subject to cultural erasure, to project their voices out, society-wide, highlighting the various present and historical traumas confronting those living and growing in our inner-cities. Over time, hip-hop has moved past complex and developed story-telling toward a mindful, self-awareness of the emotional functioning of the communities that birthed and nurtured it. This presentation will examine this emotional maturation in hip-hop, seen in works such as “Ready to Die”, and outline means for individuals to use these as models for emotional processing, while then developing skills for using rhymes, beats, meditation and playlists for purposes of developing positive affirmations, guided imageries and other hip-hop based mechanisms essential to wellness.
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  • BIOGRAPHY: Napoleon Wells is a Clinical Psychologist, Professor, and member of the HipHoped movement, focusing on using hip-hop as a means for promoting advocacy and wellness for students and educators. He earned his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and is a trauma and anxiety disorder specialist. Dr. Wells has performed the TEDx Talk, “The Cure for Racism” and was this past year’s HipHopEd Science Genius Conference keynote speaker.

Room 2 – 2:00 – 3:00pm – WORKSHOP

2. Reflections on Hip Hop Pedagogy, the Hip Hop in the Schools Project and Youth Engagement
Carlos M. Flores

  • ABSTRACT: This panel presentation will share the history of the project, through the words, performance, and stories of partners. The panel members will share their experience of their early involvement with the project, their progression through writing exercises, slams, hip hop summits, and performance in community events to their involvement in the training developed in 2016 for Project Facilitators. Along the way, the panel will discuss work in hip hop pedagogy and critical pedagogy; as partners have met and discussed critical themes, including race, class, colonization, and the corporate control over our lives. The discussion will address their journey through hip hop and youth engagement to the present, and will include experiential and group activities with the audience. Through performance, exposition, experiential work, and interactions with the audience, session participants will get a sense of how YEP works and how it changes the nature of educational exchange. The project offers alternatives to public education in the dynamic interchange that is at the heart of creating a true learning environment. Many of the schools have welcomed the Hip Hop Project and have made space for project efforts. The panel will consist of three youth partners in a panel of four.
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  • BIOGRAPHY: Carlos M. Flores, Coordinator of the Youth Engagement Project, works with youth engagement through community projects. One key project is Hip Hop In the Schools. Since 2008, youth partners have worked with me to take poetry and rap workshops into the schools, where youth share personal stories; narratives about the community, and perform in the schools. Through mentorship, peer to peer education, slams, and community presentations, youth in Albuquerque have educated about youth agency, youth struggles within the social milieu. As a social worker, educator, organizer, hip hop lover, I am inspired by the truth of youth partners.

Room 3 – 2:00 – 3:00pm – WORKSHOP

Graffiti and Banner Making
Cyrus aka Bird-noise

  • ABSTRACT: This graffiti and aerosol workshop will consist of can control techniques, stenciling techniques, and lettering with 3D styles. These techniques can then be used to help create banners and be used for activism, which is the theme of the event.
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  • BIOGRAPHY: Cyrus aka”Bird-noise” has been creating Art since he could hold a marker. His style of Art is a mixture of spontaneous movement and playful expressive character. Cyrus is a community event organizer, has been involved in Theater, Poetry, Art and Dance in Albuquerque Public Schools, contracted for Children Youth and Family Department doing workshops, and recently instructed an Aerosol art class at Sandia Pueblo school. Moses is also a Certified Natural Therapeutics Specialist and respects the medicinal power of Art.

Room 1 – 3:00pm – 4:00pm – PANEL

1. Know Your Rights
James Altamirano

  • ABSTRACT: This presentation will discuss the constitutional implications when dealing with police. It will provide a step by step analysis of dealing with cops, whether in a vehicle or on foot,  or in your home. This presentation will provide information to help avoid being arrested, and what to do in the event of being arrested. There will also be a quick rundown of protester rights.
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  • BIOGRAPHY: James Altamirano is a lawyer and rapper from Albuquerque. He is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine School of Law. James has worked with a wide array of clients against police and prison institutions, working to increase police transparency and reduce the violent impacts of the criminal justice system. James has represented a variety of nonprofit organizations, including a needle exchange and a mobilehome owners association, in an attempt to provide equity to the victims of capitalism. He has also performed as a rapper across the Southwest, Midwest, and West Coast.

2. Building Bridges Between LGBTQ and Hip Hop
Tiffany Moore

  • ABSTRACT: The talk with explore similarities of LGBTQ and hip hop communities, and how they are essentially one in the same, and how we can proceed forward with a new attitude towards inclusion and diversity within inclusion and diversity!
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  • BIOGRAPHY: Tiffany Moore is a recently out and proud trans woman, a 39 year old army combat veteran, boom bap mc, hip hop purist, and advocate for transgender and non-binary rights and inclusion. Her soul purpose is to help LGBTQ hip hop heads find their voice and their footing in the new, progressive, and all inclusive world of hip hop. She works to make the world of hip hop a safe and inclusive place for LGBTQ individuals, especially our trans brothers and sisters and my non binary siblings.

Room 2 – 3:00pm – 4:00pm – WORKSHOP

Gender and Sexuality 101
Myra Llerenas

  • ABSTRACT: This workshop is designed as an introduction to the difference between sex assigned at birth, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. By understanding the many parts that make up a person’s identity we can create an environment that is inclusive of everyone and avoid making assumptions about people. Participants will also learn about different terms and be connected to different LGBTQ resources that support young people.
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  • BIOGRAPHY: Myra Llerenas is the Education Project Manager for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Myra manages programming and delivers comprehensive sex education in schools and in the community to participants of all ages. Raised in Las Cruces, Myra brings over 6 years of professional experience working with social justice advocacy, LGBTQ education, and community-based programs. A self-identified queer gender nonconforming Latinx, Myra strives to be a catalyst for social change.

Room 1 – 4:00pm – 5:00pm – WORKSHOP

Community Organizing
New Mexico Learning Alliance and Fight for Our Lives

  • ABSTRACT: Participants will learn about cycles of oppression, systematic racism, liberation and how to utilize community organizing as a strategy for making change in their community. Throughout the workshop participants will hear personal stories from youth and adults who have experiences systematic racism and oppression as well as participate in an engaging activity to brainstorm and develop a solution based action plan.
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  • BIOGRAPHY:
  • Adult presenter: Emma Jones-LANM
  • Youth presenters: Janelle Ramos Astorga- LANM, Isabella Bake-LLNM, Jonathan Alonzo-FFOL, and Citlali Alexandra Tierney-FFOL
  • The Learning Alliance believes that the children of New Mexico should have access to the best education possible. We will work together to ensure that all students in New Mexico—regardless of race, cultural heritage, academic ability, location, or economic class—have choices upon high school graduation that allow them to fully participate in their communities, the workplace, and across the multi-national state of New Mexico. We achieve this mission through Education policy advocacy, and grassroots youth organizing.

  • Fight for our Lives is an ABQ based Network of student activists in Albuquerque who work to empower and uplift our communities through civic engagement and nonviolent direct action. The group was grown out of the March for Our Lives movement, but with the belief that safety in schools does not look like armed teachers, metal detectors, zero tolerance policies, or schools that closely resemble prisons. Safety to us looks like prevention, intervention, and support services that arm our teachers with therapists and counselors who are trained in de-escalation, behavior health, and crisis intervention.

Room 2 – 4:00pm – 5:00pm – PANEL

1. The DNA of Hip Hop
Glenn ‘Daddy-O’ Bolton

  • ABSTRACT: The History of Hip Hop has origins that can be traced to Africa from the call and response of the drum along with the amazing and intricate rhythms, as well as the chants and messages. Showcasing the masters and history of the groove is the heart of this workshop, using the music as our guide. The DNA of Hip Hop’s Greatest Beats is a two-hour music/spoken/rap/turntable/ photo/video presentation of some of Hip Hop’s most important records covering a span of two decades, from 1978 to 1998, handpicked by Daddy-O. How these songs, artists, samples, loops and the legendary players behind the grooves all changed the world. Daddy-O presents along with a visual backdrop of photos, video vignettes that accompany artist and producer interviews. The presentation offers forensic accounts of why certain songs and its sample were chosen, and gives the audience a true insight into the DNA of Hip Hop. The live demonstration of songs will give the audience a behind the curtain historical yet entertaining peek. Welcome to the dissection and evolutionary journey of some of the best Hip Hop music of our time.
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  • BIOGRAPHY: Glenn ‘Daddy-O’ Bolton is a rapper, producer, DJ, A&R executive, and member of Hip Hop band Stetsasonic. He has acted as A&R exec for Sony and Warner Music Group. and as music supervisor/talent director on numerous film soundtracks. As Senior Director of A&R at Universal MCA he was responsible for heavyweights like Mary J Blige, Immature, Gladys Knight and others. He’s produced Barry White, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Queen Latifah. Living Colour, the B-52’s, Jeffrey Osborne, and Chante Moore. Discovery wise, his talent roster includes Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown. He serves as curator for the official Smithsonian Hip-Hop Anthology.

2. Thinking Beyond the (Boom) Box: Indigenous Culture + Health + Hip Hop
Anthony Fleg

  • ABSTRACT: This presentation will present NHI’s work to fuse hip-hop, health, and indiginous culture. We will give participants ideas and inspiration toward ways that they can use their hip-hop identity to promote mind, body, and spirit wellness.
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  • BIOGRAPHY: Anthony Fleg is a hip-hop grounded family physician who serves as the partnership director for the Native Health Initiative. For the last 10 years he has collaborated with hip-hop artists in various venues and mediums to promote health.

Room 1 – 5:00pm – 7:00pm

  • Cypher and Open Mic

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CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

With the rise of socio-political and economic conflicts from the rise of hate organizations to mass reforms of the criminal justice system; Hip Hop is reacting in a powerful meaningful manner such as the publishing of hip hop studies books; organizations and movements having art and music centered within protests, rallies, conferences, teach-ins, panels, and workshops; and educators teaching Hip Hop culture as a significant and legitimate culture that can give expert and important perspectives and analysis on current affairs.

Hip Hop activism in the 11th element of the Hip Hop culture. It is promoting activism with hip hop influence, style, culture, perspective, and theory. Hip Hop activism about addressing some of the fundamental socio-political issues that Hip Hop discusses.

This conference is especially interested in presentations in the manner of a (1) panel, (2) workshop or (3) roundtable on the topics such as:

  • Racism
  • Decolonizing
  • Sexism
  • Classism
  • Homophobia
  • Ableism
  • Statism
  • Commodification
  • Appropriation
  • Technology
  • Environmental Justice
  • Food Justice
  • Youth Justice
  • Gender and Sexuality Studies
  • School to Prison Pipeline
  • Prison Industrial Complex
  • Corporatization of Education
  • Systemic forms of Oppression
  • Social Justice and Critical Pedagogy
  • Hip Hop Pedagogy
  • Critical Race Theory
  • Standardization of Education
  • Gang Injunctions
  • Saggin Laws
  • Truancy and Curfew Laws

Please submit presentation proposal with the following information:

1. E-mail subject title – 4th Annual Hip Hop Activism Submission
2. Biography – 80 to 100 words
3. Description of Presentation – 200 words
4. Title of Presentation

Submit all of that as a Word Doc. attachment via e-mail to: noyouthinprison@gmail.com

Deadline for submissions is December 1, 2018, but early acceptance is granted for travel grants and international travel permissions. All presentations are peer-reviewed.

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