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Current mood:  inspired Category: Friends
..tr>| A MESSAGE FROM HHTF'S "JOE in the FRONT ROW"
The second annual "I Got Five On It" campaign Actually, HHTF Fam, this message comes from our friend Fred Joiner, a supporter from DC who's rolled with the Hip-Hop Theater Festival: Washington, DC from jump.
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August Wilson 1945 - 2005 I believe in the American theatre. I believe in its power to inform about the human condition, its power to heal, its power to hold the mirror as 'twere up to nature, its power to uncover the truths we wrestle from uncertain and sometimes unyielding realities. All of art is a search for ways of being, of living life more fully. - August Wilson This quote by August Wilson perfectly captures how I feel not only about Hip- Hop theater in general, but the DC Hip-Hop Theater in particular. As I have been mining my memories of the Festival here in DC, three words immediately come to mind Community, Conversation, Tradition. The Festival from it's very beginning for me has always been about community. I am one of those DC transplants who decided to stay and make this transient city my home. What this has meant for me is that many of the people (particularly the artists) who I form strong bonds with (either through their work or personally) often leave this city for "greener arts pastures"; so when the Festival comes to DC it is indeed an arts event not to be missed, but for me it is also a family reunion of sorts. Even after all these years it is still a challenge to find the words to describe the feeling of seeing The Hip Hop Nightmares of Jujube Brown (2000), Kamilah Forbes' A Rhyme Deferred (2000) and Chad Boseman's Deep Azure on the stage for the first time. One of the things that excites me most about this community space that the Festival creates is not simply gathering for gathering's sake, but about the expansion of American theater in Washington DC and creating a richer, socially relevant dialogue using Hip-Hop as focal point. Having shows such as Marc Bamuthi Joseph's Word Becomes Flesh (2004) and the the break/s (2008) act as commentary on fatherhood and manhood, a commentary that opposes popular images and stereotypes put forth about Hip-Hop generation fathers of all races and ethnicities.  Another example of this type of engaged theater was a piece called In the Continuum (2006), this piece in particular was and is still extremely relevant in Washington where African American women make up 58% of all women in the city, but account for 90% of all new HIV cases in women in the district. Clearly pieces like those mentioned (and many others) broaden the scope of American theater and deepen the conversation that artists, past and present, have with one another and with the world through their work. These works as Wilson says "hold the mirror" up to help us "uncover the truths we wrestle from uncertain and sometimes unyielding realities." By incubating, developing and showing works by artists that seek to be in conversation with the their peers, their predecessors, and the local and global community at large, the DC Hip-Hop Theater Festival honors and expands the tradition of theater that is both timely in its attempt to comment on the issues of the day and timeless in that it exercises "its power to inform about the human condition". The work that we witness during the DC Hip- Hop Theater Festival is taking up the torch from playwrights like Georgia Douglas Johnson (whose home was just steps away from The Studio Theatre), who used her short plays as a tool for social change and to raise awareness around the issue of lynching, which in turn inspired other artists of the New Negro Movement to do the same. As a poet, artist and hopeful playwright, this is why I have supported, the Festival year after year, since its inception; this work continues to inspire me to create and engage. Additionally, the Festival satisfies and exceeds my demands of presenting creative work, by creating a community space, expanding the conversation in and around American Theater and in its form and content attempts to link itself to the past, and in particular to Washington DC's dramatic/literary past, playwrights like Johnson who have shown us how to produce timely body of work of timeless import, while not compromising on craft and quality. For seven years the Hip-Hop Theater Festival in Washington DC has been absolutely free to the public. Please make a contribution today, so that it can continue to be free for years to come. Sincerely, Fred Joiner
Poet Washington, DC
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GOT FIVE ON IT? Each year, we ask supporters of HHTF for Five On It! It's our annual appeal that allows us to bring Hip-Hop theater to the classroom and the stage.
This year our goal is to raise $30,000 in the month of November. If everyone on this email list gave just five dollars, we would make our goal. HHTF relies on the support from individuals. No matter how big or small, your contribution moves the work of HHTF forward. - $5 says you "Got Five On It!"
- $25 sends a New York City public high school student to a Hip-Hop Theater Festival production free-of-charge.
- $100 covers the stipend for a new Hip-Hop Theater Festival Youth Ambassador internship during the festival.
- $500 underwrites a panel of artists, educators, and public figures addressing the intersection of Hip-Hop art, race, class and gender.
- $1000 allows an emerging artist to present his/her new work at the Hip-Hop Theater Festival.
All contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law. If you prefer to send a check, please make your check payable to: Hip-Hop Theater Festival and mail it to the following address: HHTF
57 Thames Street 4B
Brooklyn, NY 11237
ATTN: I Got Five On It
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . THANK YOU Hip-Hop Theater Festival is made possible through generous support from Rockefeller Bros. Foundation, AT&T Foundation, The Union Square Arts Awards, The Ford Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, Time Warner, the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Curtis McGraw Foundation, The New World Foundation and individual supporters like you. HHTF is a participant in the New Generations Program, funded by Doris Duke Charitable Trust/The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group, the national organization for American Theatre. HHTF is also supported in part by Artography: Arts in a Changing America, a grant program of Leveraging Investments in Creativity, funded by the Ford Foundation.
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