National Hip Hop Political Convention

Last week I posted a provocative piece noting that the 2008 National Hip Hop Political Convention seemed to be getting bad reviews in private, and almost no reviews in public. I asked "what happened?" and threw in my own - and self-acknowledged ill-informed - guesses in an effort to spark a conversation. Troy Nkrumah, the organizer of the 2008 NHHPC responded in an email. Here's what he wrote. Published with permission:

Well at least you got your premise correct: the admitting that you have no idea what you are talking about.

I think where u went wrong in your analysis is in your numbers count.

The thousands that you count at the 2004 convention is the count of the folks who attended the free concerts in the park. Those were never members or voting delegates.

As one of the voting delegates and as the head of one of the largest delegations attending the 2004 convention (having brought out about 60 people from California), and as one of the organizers of the 2008 convention I feel I am in a better position to speak on the differences between the convention then yourself, who ever you are.

So let's see, not that this is in anyway a competition for participants in one years convention of another's but if the contexts are taken into account then maybe one can have a more clear understanding of the differences.
For instance:

• 2004 convention was working off a budget of over $350,000 much of which went into paying big name rap artists to participate (as entertainment) as well as national publicists.
• 2008 convention worked off of a $50k budget with no rap artists paid to put on any concerts.
• 2004 had an entire city govt supportive of it in Newark while 2008 had an entire city government opposed to the event.
• 2004 Newark as a geographical area is within 6hrs drive of about 20 major metropolitan centers where as 2008 Las Vegas is only within driving area of 3 larger metropolitan areas.
• 2004 the country was not in a recession and gas prices were at about $1.75 today we are at depression levels and gas is at a $4.00 level causing not only driving but also flying costs to be the highest in the country's history.

I can go on and on with the differences that effected the turn out of the two conventions. .. But it is not really relevant. The important point to note is that you misunderstand the actual numbers of participants as opposed to number of people who showed up for the entertainment side of things. We had 500 young people show up at a bboy battle that was part of the convention.. . So if you count the 3000 that showed up to see free concert with wyclef, busta rhymes and slick rick (and many more) in 2004 then also count the 500 that show up to support a dance event that was used as a youth alternative to violence in las vegas. Get the numbers right or do not use them. There were not 6000 or 1000 delegates at the 2004 convention. There was more like 400 max. I got the pictures and access to the delegate rolls.

And lastly, maybe the reason that no-one will give you the negative comments or feedback you seem to be so eagerly looking for is that because, even with the smaller turnout and the disorganization of workshops (which was partially a result of people partying at night and not showing up on time to the convention) maybe the quality of the discourse and trainings over shadowed the problems with the disorganization and lower turn out. Some seek quality over quantity.

Whatever the case is that you could not get a comment, maybe it would have helped if you just came onto this listserv and asked for a few well ground positions before you stated your not so well grounded position. Many of the folks on this listserv were present.

And for the record, the discourse on electoral politics was excellent in my opinion because it raised some much need dialogue that will not be heard at the corporate run DNC that you found to be more important to attend.

But hey that's just my opinion, I admit its probably somewhat biased but I await others less biased positions as well.

I know I’m at the DNC and should be writing about the Democratic Convention. But I've got a lot of time offline early this afternoon due to the DNC Youth Council press conference, and this is as good a time as any to bring this up. So before I dig in to covering the DNC, I want to talk about another convention: the National Hip Hop Political Convention.

This post is late in coming – almost a month late, in fact. The reason is that I didn’t want to be the one to write it. In fact, I tried pretty hard not to be that person and there are two very good reasons why I shouldn’t be writing this post:

1. I didn’t attend the National Hip Hop Political Convention in Las Vegas.
2. I’m not terribly involved with any of the Hip Hop voting groups and don’t have a good handle on what is happening within those communities outside of the information I can glean that is publicly available on their websites, and through the commentary of people like Jeff Change and DaveyD.

I asked at least 5 separate people who were at the Hip Hop Convention and got two answers: a reluctance to slam the convention or no answer at all. Nevertheless, I don’t see the point in hiding what happened – that’s not going to make anyone who was disappointed by the convention feel any better. It’s not going to make anyone a smarter activist. And it’s not going to do anything to make sure that in 2010, when we might actually have a shot at implementing pieces of the Hip Hop platform established in 2004, convention participants will be ready and organized to push that agenda.

So since no one else seems to want to say it, here goes:

What happened to the National Hip Hop Political Convention?

In 2004, the convention boasted thousands of participants, many of whom registered at least 50 voters as a precondition to receiving full voting rights in establishing the Hip Hop Platform. While there were frictions between the different generations at the convention, the major consensus coming out of Newark was that the Hip Hop community established a vision for a Hip Hop policy agenda, and took the first steps in creating the field infrastructure required to push that plan at the voting booth.

Fast forward to last month, and only a few hundred people showed up at the convention: about 10% of the number from 2004. There was no voter registration requirement this time around. The panels and workshops were chaotic and from what I heard not well attended. How bad was it? I don’t know because no one who attended or organized it is saying anything – good or bad. After the convention in 2004, news coverage was high, at least in the progressive media and online. Today it’s crickets and tumbleweeds.

Well, not all crickets and tumbleweeds. There was one panel that grabbed a lot of headlines, and perhaps is illustrative of what went wrong with this years’ convention: the panel on electoral politics, which (d)evolved into an all-out brawl over the meaning, ownership, loyalties, and effectiveness of Hip Hop-based organizing.

You can listen to the panel for yourself here (I'd embed it, but Odeo's code is breaking the site), and Davey D does a good job summarizing the panel here.

You can judge for yourself, but I pull a couple things out of this.

• Most of the core constituency of the NHHPC – particularly those willing to engage in block to block organizing and electoral politics - are pro-Obama and are choosing his campaign as a vehicle for their activism.
• Among those who are left, there is no real consensus about electoral politics and voter registration work in the field. This means the real promise of the convention is also gone. They no longer have the numbers or consensus with which to organize effectively at the ballot box on a national scale.
• Rosa Clemente’s rant strikes me as extremely wrong headed. The Green Party has proven to be extremely inept at long-term political strategy and party building. Why is that a more acceptable vehicle for electoral activism and what does the Hip Hop generation owe to the Green Party? Additionally, I don’t really understand her beef with Tides Foundation or the youth groups funded by foundation money. Yes, some of them are very much within the Democratic party sphere of influence. Others less so. And Tides funds a lot of progressive and social justice groups who would likely be surprised to know they were mere pawns of the Democratic Party money-men.
• Finally, most people are tired of celebrity driven-campaigns within the Hip Hop community.

So basically – from my arm-chair quarter-backing, three times removed perspective – there is something of a growing consensus within the community that celebrity campaigns are not the way forward. Electoral activism is regarded equally suspiciously in so much as it merely feeds the better of two evils (Democrats), but some kinds of community organzing needs to be done, whether it is for the Greens or in local elections. But, 90% of the conventions’ previous supporters are no longer in its network and are likely out there supporting Obama and working through his campaign. That seems to be regarded as a bad thing by most of the folks on the panel.

With all that in mind, I have to ask: is the Hip Hop Convention relevant anymore? Is it ready to die? And if not, how do you get it back to where it was four years ago? Like I said, I’m really not the person who should be writing this piece. I wasn’t there and I don’t know what really went on. But someone needs to be talking about this, I think. With 3,000 members organizing in their communities in 2004, the NHHPC was a potential force in electoral politics. Now it seems like it’s a bickering community missing the game as they fight amongst themselves for what is left of their membership.

If anyone who organized the National Hip Hop Political Convention, or can speak on behalf of the Hip Hop organizing community would like to respond to this post, I’m happy to give you room on the front page of the site to rebut what I’ve written or talk solutions. You can contact me here.

Bumped. This is great reporting on the conference and raises lots of question. --Mike

The big question of this conference, at least out of the personal dialogue generated amongst attendees, seems to be asking if the upcoming election will actually change anything drastic in this country. Over lunch yesterday, myself and members from GenVote and Ruckus Society spoke of this. How much of a say do we actually have in this country when the only presidents who ever have a chance of winning are Republican or Democrat? We spoke of what little difference there actually is between these two parties, and we spoke of how all of us didn’t believe in nor support the corporate agenda of both parties.

And what does this mean in the context of the Hip Hop Political Convention, in which we are encouraging young people, particularly the hip hop community, to vote in this upcoming presidential election?

At Genvote’s voter registration workshop yesterday, absolutely no one showed up. Upon first examination, this either means that everyone attending this conference is a registered voter, or that folks who are not registered were not inspired to at this convention.

After the day’s end, I came to another conclusion: this convention was poorly organized. And while I believe the zero turnout of the voter registration workshop does have something to do with a lack of interest, it was also difficult to attend workshops, as they were hours behind schedule and in different rooms then the convention’s program specified.

This convention’s speakers include Cynthia McKinney (for later today) and Rosa Clemente. Clearly, this convention supports the Green Party. While the Green Party’s beliefs definitely coincide more so with mine, and most of the individuals I spoke with at the convention, than the Democrats or Republicans, most folks seemed like they would rather vote for Obama.

Why? Well, a seemingly unusually progressive man (at least in a presidential candidate context) is running for president on the Democratic Party, and actually has a chance of winning. Moreover, he’s a man of color. And yet Cynthia, for those of you who do not know, is a black woman. The lack of hype or hope for her election that many people are expressing seems to be due to her Party – the Green Party. Individuals have been expressing little to no faith in the possibility of a Green Party presidential candidate winning in this political climate of the United States. And she is a woman of color, to boot. And so is her VP. If folks are making such a fuss over a light skinned man of color running for president, how are they are going to possibly handle two women of color (brilliant and capable as they may be) as real possible candidates?

But back to the conference –

As unorganized as this convention has been, the people the organizers brought in have been amazing. I went to two incredible workshops yesterday (and one academic workshop I was not impressed by).

After stopping by the voter registration room, in which no one showed up, I headed to Ruckus Society’s nonviolent direct action planning workshop. Both were happening at the same time. Turnout in general for this convention seemed to be pretty low, but this workshop had a couple folks attend. [An interesting side point – what does this signify when individuals would rather learn about direct action methods rather than registering to vote?] I found this workshop to be incredibly helpful, and I gained a lot of valuable insight into methods for successful direct action.

Earlier in the day, I went to that plenary I mentioned in my last blog on Hurricane Katrina. I was, as I expected, blown away by Mayaba Libenthal and Robert Horton. I never realized the extreme connections the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina has with neoliberalism. I learned so much by hearing these two individuals speak. Mayaba is a part of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, and both are a part of Critical Resistance.

The mediocre workshop I attended had an impressive title: “Conscious Contradictions: New Modes of Sexism, Racism and Consumption in Rap and Hip Hop”. I was very disappointed by the extremely academic and alienating language this workshop used. One attendee even rudely asked the presenters to stop saying “um” so we could actually get something done.

At night, I attended the convention’s Awards Ceremony and Social.

There were cops everywhere. Cops were driving around the resort where the social was taking place, there were a bunch of nervous cops standing outside the ballroom. I even saw a helicopter circling the hotel! When I spoke to a couple of people about the large police presence, I asked if something was going on. Yes, they all responded – we’re here. This is for us, the hip hop political convention.

Now I live in New York City, where there are aggressive police everywhere, but I was genuinely surprised by all this. The cops were behaving like some sort of criminal activity was about to go down, or was happening. They were scared of us. Maybe this has something to do with racism, and the racial composition of the convention attendees and organizers, or maybe it has to do with a fear of the hip hop community in general. Either way, it blatantly showed me how frightened people are of this community, and what a threat this community holds when it is politicized and conscious.

And so, despite its unorganized nature, this convention has been helpful in generating important dialogue about the upcoming election, hip hop, and the power of people coming together to create change. I am glad I attended, and I have been inspired by the amazing work people are doing across the country. I still have a lot of questions unanswered, but starting a conversation on these questions is undoubtedly the first step to figuring them out.

I'm happy to announce that starting next weekend, Craig Berger (aka bergerc84) will be joining us as the weekend blogger at Future Majority. Craig has consistently produced top-notch stuff on his user blog and it just seemed ridiculous that everything he wrote got promoted to the front. So welcome, Craig, to the FM team. Those interested can read a bit about Craig on the About page.

• Another FM community member, Maria Arettines, is blogging from the National Hip Hop Political Convention in Las Vegas this weekend. We'll hear more from Maria once the convention gets started.
• Meanwhile, Jeff Chang has a few thoughts about Ludacris's new song about Barack Obama, as well as the opening day of the Hip Hop Convention.
• Over at his personal blog, Bondelli has 34 +1 indispensible tips for those looking to organize and promote their work online.
• The jobless rate is at a four year high, putting a whole lot of young people looking for summer work in a pinch.
• NBS has hired Luke Russert, son of the late Tim Russert, to be one of their youth correspondents during the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. Luke, if you're out there, get in touch with us for the low-down on all the youth organizing at the Democratic Convention in Denver and in the general election.
• Washington Post blog The Sleuth thinks that the voter registration group HeadCount is going to have the most rocking party at the DNC.
• Advancing the Story has an interesting and useful critique of MTV's Street Team '08 citizen journalism program.
• Youth vote hero Joe Garofoli of the San Francisco Chronicle pens a piece about the proxy battle for the youth vote that MoveOn and Let Freedom Ring are waging on the airwaves of MTV.
• The bloggers at Pushback continue to have an interesting discussion about the proper role of celebrities in engaging young voters.
• Fox News less successfully attempts to tackle that same topic.
• Rock the Vote notes that voting rights are human rights.
• ThePolitico tracks an emerging trend: growing interest among young people in becoming "green lobbyists."
• A young Republican pens an open letter to John McCain asking him to up his game in reaching young voters.

• Speak of the Devil. Just a few days after I posted about MTV airing attack ads on Obama, MoveOn counters with their own positive ad on the network. It's awesome that they're countering so quickly, but truth be told, I'm not at all wowed by the ad and found it pretty easy to tune out. Judge for yourself and let me know what you think:
• Wiretap has the lowdown on a panel on the youth vote organized by the good people at S.A.V.E. Tom Friedman was on the panel, apparently making only slightly less of an ass out of himself. Dispatch Politics has more.
• The Miami Herald profiles Party Politics, a Drinking Liberally style company down in Florida that is engaging young people at nightclubs using open-bar mixers.
• The Chronicle of Higher Educaction throws some legitimate cold water on Obama mania and what it means for long-term civic engagement.
• Fox News reveals that McCain has youth chairs in 30 states. Here's my question: what the hell are they all doing?
• Just how much of your salary each year goes to Iraq? Progressive Future has a new widget that will tell you, along with what else that money could have bought.
• Non profits in New Mexico are fighting back against harsh election laws that restrict their work and discourage voter registration.
• The Hip Hop Caucus is launching a voter registration drive.
• The National Hip Hop Political Convention is this week in Las Vegas. I'm working on getting someone to live blog. Hopefully that will work out.
• Broadband penetration will hit 77% by 2012. So long digital divide . . .
• The GOP now has an Obama smear site set up to look like Facebook. It might be clever if People for the American Way hadn't already done the same thing to the GOP primary candidates almost a year ago.