Contact Information: Kenavon T. Carter
512-659-5134
hiphopfirm@gmail.com
FREEDOM SUMMER: A Hip Hop for Justice Concert
On July 11, 2008 at the historic Victory Grill, the Austin chapter of the National HipHop Political Convention, PODER (People in Defense of the Earth and her Resources), the ACLU – Central Texas Chapter, and Another Option Productions will host Freedom Summer: A HipHop for Justice Concert.
This event brings together some of the Austin’s’ finest HipHop artists, social justice organizations and activists to entertain, educate and organize members of the community around issues concerning police misconduct, racial profiling and the impact of the war on drugs and the war on youth (via programs masquerading as anti-gang/anti-graffiti efforts).
- “Youth today are getting a raw deal: schools are closing on the eastside while more jails are being built and unjust war being waged, using them as cannon fodder. Our punitive criminal justice system sets up youth for failure. It is imperative we stop the madness and empower youth to organize for their future.” — Erika Gonzalez, PODER
Talented emcees such as Blacklisted Individuals, Element 7d, Global, Mirage, Rance Noble and Dred Skott, will rock the mic while licensed attorneys will present Know Your Rights and a Cop Watch Training for all attendees. Cliff Brown, the Police Monitor for the City of Austin, will inform attendees on how to file police complaints.
The Freedom Summer concert will also showcase artwork, poetry and spoken word pieces from the Young Scholars for Justice Network.
Chris Harris, producer/deejay of Concrete Schoolyard on KOOP 91.7 FM radio, hosts.
The Victory Grill is located at 1104 E. 11th St. Doors open at 7pm. Open mic, poetry and spoken word from 7-9pm. Speak outs, networking and deejay music will follow with HipHop acts/Know Your Rights trainings from 10pm-2am.
All ages are invited.
Tickets are $5 minimum, $10 preferred. All proceeds from the show will go towards scholarships for young people to attend the National HipHop Political Conference, August 1-3, in Las Vegas. Those wishing to donate to the scholarship fund can visit: www.nhhpcatxloc.wordpress.com where they can find out more about the Austin chapter of the National HipHop Political Convention.
For more information about the National HipHop Political Convention and conference, please go to www.nhhpc.org
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If we don’t stand up for the East Side, who will?
Time to say no to more group homes, halfway houses, sex offender housing, RV parks for hundreds of homeless people, other so-called “affordable housing” that just warehouses people with little or thought to the impact on the neighborhood, landfills, animal shelters, bus terminal storage facilities, etc. until ALL of Austin is asked to SHARE THE BURDEN for these type of facilities. Yes, they are needed. But why is every single of them targeted right on top of the East Side? They need to placed on a rotating basis in EVERY section of Austin on a fair and equitable basis.
Ask yourself why we don’t even have an Amy’s Ice Cream, a Cuilver’s, a Suzi’s, or countless other Austin businesses that have chosen every other part of Austin to expand and operate?
We are blessed with some great places such Tres Amigos, Fran’s, Amaya’s, the Dairy Queen on Manor Road, Gene’s Creole, La Boca Pizza and Eastside Pies, and Hoover’s but when you cross The Big Divide – Interstate 35 – it is as if you have entered another world. And you have.
A city employee said it best. “It’s simple. People ‘over there’ don’t vote in high numbers, they don’t participate as much in their neighborhood associations, and they won’t go to meetings. It’s simply the path of least resistance. And it will continue to be until that changes.”
This perception is having a terrible destabilizing effect on our schools. It is a major contributor to the problems at Pearce Middle School, Reagan and Johnston. Would you want to send your child to school if you knew they had to walk past a duplex filled with convicted sex offenders or a halfway house for just released parlees both to and from school? No way. This is driving our middle-class families out of East Austin and preventing others from moving into the East Side. And we all know that many of the new families that have moved into the area have no intention of sending their children to our public schools.
This is an issue of basic FAIRNESS and EQUITY. The East SIde is being played by the City of Austin and the developers and we need to STAND UP and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
The future lies in the young people of Austin. If they can be mobilized they can turn this city around overnight and create new candidates, new vision and a new multi-racial coalition that can really make some EARTH SHAKING changes in Austin.
Obama in the White House and CHANGE in Austin! It can – AND WILL – be done.
Steve Speir
Better Austin Today
Northeast Austin Democrats
Pct. 135 Chairman, Travis County Democratic Party
(512) 451-5412