[Imc-chicago-audio] Can Hip Hop Save Black Activism?

[Erin Polgreen]

MEDIA ALERT

August 18, 2006 | For Immediate Release

Bigger than Hip Hop

A PDF of this issue can be downloaded at http://www.inthesetimes.com/ 
pdf/InTheseTimes30-09.pdf

Can hip hop save black activism? In the latest In These Times,  
BlackCommentator.com Executive Editor Glen Ford, reporting from the  
2006 National Hip Hop Political Convention on the state of black  
leadership and the future of hip hop politics, finds that the answer  
isn’t so simple.

In “Bigger Than Hip Hop,” Ford argues that though there is a “black  
generational divide” separating old-school civil rights activists  
from the new school of hip hop politicos, the real schism has as much  
to do with culture, class, geography, consumerism and the  
corporatization of black media as it does age.

Featuring on-the-spot interviews with the grassroots activists,  
religious leaders, lawyers and advocates for social justice from  
around the country, The article takes a critical look at the black  
leaders of tomorrow, who hope that hip hop will grow into a movement  
as driven as the previous generations.

“The hip hop activists who have been set in motion are a conscious  
extension of the movement that came before,” Ford writes. “Their fate  
is to work on the unfinished business of the previous struggle. It’s  
a task that is indeed “bigger than hip hop.” See page 20.

In other news…
In “The Good War on Terror”, Senior Editor Christopher Hayes examines  
9/11 as the “Pearl Harbor of the 21st century” and charts how the  
nationalist ideology of the “Greatest Generation” has helped pave the  
road to Baghdad. “Making WWII the touchstone for martial combat  
allowed the militarists we politely call “neoconservatives” to imbue  
all wars with the same purpose,” Hayes writes. See page 24.

And CODEPINK NYC coordinator Nancy Kricorian puts Senator Hillary  
Clinton on notice for her “liberal” political alignment. Kricorian  
chronicles CODEPINK’s  hilarious efforts in “Bird-Dogging Hillary”  
across New York, demanding that the senator cease her support of the  
Iraq war. “The rituals of the campaign trail and fundraising gauntlet  
have given us a funny intimacy with her team,” Kricorian writes.  
Outside a fundraiser on the Upper West Side Of Manhattan, “One of  
Hilary’s secret service guys, whom some of us knew by name, winked  
and asked, ‘Will we be seeing you later?’” See page 48.
  For interviews or more information
Contact: Erin Polgreen,
Advertising and Marketing Coordinator
Phone: 773.772.0100, x225
fax:  773.772.4180
email: erin at inthesetimes.com

In These Times is a national, monthly magazine of news and opinion  
published in Chicago. For 29 years, In These Times has featured award- 
winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and  
government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and  
international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and  
ideas that matter. To read the full text of these articles, visit our  
Web site: www.inthesetimes.com.
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