One of the things I love about New York City’s underground hip-hop scene is that it extends beyond music and into community. In fact, most of the local hip-hop artists I know are teachers, educators, mentors or involved in the community in some form or fashion. This is best illustrated through Urban Art Beat, a music and art based workshop directed at under-served youth in NYC. Above is a video about Urban Art Beat.

With President Obama pushing to create millions of new “green-collar” jobs, being eco-conscious might not just be a good idea, it may become a lucrative one as well. But buying organic, starting your own garden and living the sustainable life can be expensive, and for many people, it might feel as though the green movement is a nice but unavailable crusade that has all but passed them by.

“While certain parts of the Bay Area are very eco-conscious, for people in some parts of the city, like Bayview-Hunters Point, they just don’t have access to some of the resources, the technology or information that would allow them to live in an ecologically conscious, self-sustaining way,” says Ambessa Cantave, who with wife Zakiya Harris founded Grind for the Green in 2007, an organization dedicated to bringing ideas on how young people can shape a green future for themselves and practical resources for sustainable living to underserved communities.

This Saturday, Grind for the Green kicks off the SF Youth Commission’s 2009 Youth Fest with a special Eco-Music Conference for young people 14-24 years old, at which Cantave and Harris hope to use the socially conscious messages of hip-hop as a way of introducing young people to the idea of living green. For the daylong event, San Francisco State’s downtown campus, located in the Westfield mall, will become what Cantave calls a mini green sphere of information, exhibits and walk-through activities. There will be all-organic food – served in compostable packaging – that you can munch on while taking in live hip-hop performances. Producer and San Francisco State University faculty Gian Fiero will share his insights about breaking into the music industry, but true hip-hop devotees will want to hear the keynote speech from M-1 – of the intense and socially conscious underground hip-hop group Dead Prez – all on sound systems and audio gear powered in real time by volunteers pedaling away on generators on loan from Rock the Bike.

“We want to bring youth into the epicenter of the sustainability movement,” says Cantave. “Hopefully this event will empower them by giving them the tools, giving them the information they need but don’t have widespread access to. We want them to understand why sustainability is important to their lives.”

After the conference, head on down to the Civic Center Plaza, where Youth Fest 2009 continues from noon to 6 p.m. with performances featuring homegrown hip-hop talents from Oakland’s Latino quartet Brwn Bflo to smooth and soulful San Francisco artist Melina Jones. And if you can’t make the conference, Grind for the Green will be back later this summer with a beat battle on Aug. 15 at Zeum and a free outdoor, solar-powered concert at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival on Aug. 30 at noon.

Source:
The San Francisco Chronicle

Dallas, TX – Healthcare remains a critical national issue yet first it is a personal one that requires an individual to be proactive. This July that issue of being proactive takes center stage as Rickey Smiley, Mayor Pro-Tem Dwaine Caraway, KBFB 97.9 The Beat, The City of Dallas and The MLK, Jr. Family Clinic launch their awareness initiative throughout the Metroplex with an annual event to educate the community on the epidemic of HIV/AIDS. The Second Annual Hip Hop for HIV concert will take place on July 12 from 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Palladium Ballroom.

Knowing your status and “testing for tickets” is the core initiative of this annual event specifically for the age group between 15 to 30 years of age. “Testing for tickets” allows those tested to know their status, be further educated on the disease and more importantly better informed on the social and medical services available to treat those infected or affected by HIV/AIDS locally, regionally and nationally.

Testing sites will be designated throughout the DFW Metroplex as Rickey Smiley, Mayor Pro-Tem Dwaine Caraway, KBFB 97.9 The Beat, The City of Dallas and the MLK, Jr. Family Clinic will collaborate with several community based organizations to begin confidential testing from June 12, 2009 to July 10, 2009. Anyone tested will receive One FREE Ticket to gain entry into the concert.

More than 1.2 million people live with HIV/AIDS and the most impact continues to be prevalent in the African American and Hispanic communities. In the third quarter of 2008, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, Dallas reported 402 new HIV cases and 366 new AIDS cases with 43% African American and 29% Hispanic. Globally more than 16 million people have died of AIDS and more than 16,000 people become newly infected each day.

The concert will feature international, national and local Hip Hop artists. During their performances these artists will further facilitate on the importance of being proactive, knowing your status and maintaining a healthier lifestyle.

For additional information contact Stephen Red Delasbour or Stephanie Nash @ 972-331-5400 or Log on to www.979thebeat.com.

Source:
Pegasus News

New Haven, CT – When Edo. G told hundreds of teenagers to respect the police, there were some audible snickers. Then he started rapping. Pretty soon the auditorium full of high-school students was on their feet with hands in the air, nodding their heads to as he preached nonviolence.

Hip-hop artist Edo. G, known offstage as Ed Anderson, performed at Yale on Wednesday along with another members of the Boston-based rap group, 4Peace. High school students from six southern Connecticut towns — including several New Haven high schools — filled Yale’s Woolsey Hall to hear Edo.G and his partner Twice Thou, a.k.a. Antonio Ennis. Through video, music, and questions and answers, the pair of rappers sent a message: stay away from guns and violence, or end up in jail.

Before giving the first-ever hip hop concert at Woolsey Hall, Edo.G and Twice Thou cleared up some misconceptions about police operations and criminal justice. They let a Hillhouse High student know, for instance, that putting a sawed-off shotgun in a locked trunk does not put it out of the reach of cops searching a car.

Wednesday’s concert (click on the play arrow at top for highlights) also provided an opportunity for three local teenage rappers to perform rhymes they created for the occasion. The three were finalists in the “Rap 4 Justice” contest, which challenged high school students to create songs that addressed a social justice theme.

The event was organized by Yale University and the U.S. Attorney’s office. In the words of one of the organizers, Yale music professor Tom Duffy, “we want crime and violence out of our cities and off of our streets.” He enlisted Edo.G and Twice Thou (pictured, right and left) — two rappers with tattoos, baggy jeans, and gold chains — to send that message in a form that it would be respected by teenagers.

School buses were lined up on College Street on Wednesday morning, dropping off students from New Haven, Bridgeport, Norwalk, Willimantic, and Waterbury. Peppering the audience of students and teachers were police officers from each town.

The concert began at 10 a.m. with an orchestral performance led by Duffy, who was later dubbed “T-Diddy” by Edo.G and Twice Thou. Wearing a tux with tails, Duffy led a Yale orchestra in a piece that he had written called “Who Am I?,” which featured a spoken word performance by T-Diddy himself.

The orchestral piece also served as introduction to Edo.G who took the mic to say a short message over a background of classical music. “You need to respect your parents, respect your teachers, and respect the police,” he said, drawing some chuckles and murmurs of disagreement from the audience.

“Yes,” Edo.G continued. “You need to respect yourselves and stop the violence, because we are here for peace.”

Duffy’s piece was followed by a “mini-movie” co-produced by 4Peace to educate teenagers about mandatory minimum sentencing. In the brief film — which captivated the audience (pictured) — 19-year-old Tyrell is arrested for gun possession. He thinks he’s going to do just a couple of years, but his case gets picked up by federal prosecutors and he ends up with a 15-year sentence, leaving his infant child and girlfriend behind.

In the Q and A following the movie, one teenager asked if the police could search a locked glove compartment. Another, a Hillhouse student in the balcony, asserted that if you had a “pump shotgun in the trunk” and you locked the trunk, then “they can’t pick you up.”

“If you think that, if you think that, you be getting locked up real quick,” Edo.G replied. “You’re friends are not lawyers, don’t listen to them.”

4Peace performed three songs with guest rapper Rizz Cooke, eliciting nods, claps, and whoops from the audience. They brought the audience to its feet for the last song, and had the hundreds of students waving two-fingered peace signs in the air.

Performances followed by teenage rappers Anthony Ramos of Bridgeport, Norman “Blizz” Tappin of High School in the Community, and Joshane “JB” Barton of Metropolitan Academy. All three won the chance to visit the set of the BET program 106 and Park.

After the concert, as teenagers gathered around the stage to ask the rappers questions, Paul Henderson (pictured), a security officer at Hillhouse High, passed his business card to Edo.G. Henderson said that he wants to try to get 4Peace to come back to New Haven for a concert at Hillhouse.

Henderson said that hip-hop is the way to deliver a message of nonviolence to teenagers so that they will listen to it. “It has an effect. That’s how you’re going to reach them,” he said.

Henderson mentioned the Hillhouse senior who had asserted that cops don’t have the right to search a locked trunk. “He believes that,” Henderson said. “He probably rolls with someone that do that. Now he knows.”

“They don’t know, and that’s why we’re here,” said Edo.G, relaxing on a stool at the side of the stage.

“It turned out well,” he said of the concert. “I’m ecstatic. I think the kids got it.”

Source:
New Haven Independent

Greenbrier, AR – High energy. Dancing. Hip-hop music. Teachers getting cream pie in the face. Students driving dragster race cars. Not the usual way to learn science by any stretch of the imagination but certainly a very effective way.

Sixth-grade science teachers Paul VanEvera and Debbie Moreland brought a hip-hop science concert to Greenbrier High School for a unique learning experience for sixth- through ninth-grade students. In two 45 minute programs, Middle School children traveled to the high school to be a part of and learn from an award winning hip hop science education concert. About 700 students attended both concerts.

Eric Olson of Orlando, Katie Adler of Philadelphia and JJ Hopson of New York were the three young, professional actors on-stage who directed the learning in this program called FMA Live. Hip-hop music was so loud with words that only a young ear could understand that it turned on both audiences and had them cheering at every new thing learned.

High energy dancing that would have left one breathless was no problem for these young people. They were selected from thousands of auditions, nationwide, to do two 12-week tours of the United States, reaching about 17,000 students on each tour, and have been doing this for the past three years. Each tour covers about 20 cities. Greenbrier was added to the list because of the perseverance of VanEvera and Moreland. Teachers and children from each audience were selected to help the stars on-stage who certainly knew their subject and how to get it across.

Olson said, “If our show was in every school classroom every day, it would be every kid’s best subject.”

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Honeywell partnered in 2003 to create FMA Live! and address key learning objectives identified by the National Science Education Standards. They recognized the need for future engineers and scientists and wanted to increase student interest and participation in the sciences. Designed to make science relevant to kids’ everyday lives, the program brings an authentic, live, hip-hop concert experience of unprecedented size and proportion to middle schools across the country. So far, the 10-person cast and crew has already traveled more than 63,263 miles covering 43 states and Canada, reaching more than 200,060 students at over 593 middle schools. This is fully funded by Honeywell with absolutely no cost to the schools.

FMA Live! was named for Sir Isaac Newton’s second law of motion (force + mass x acceleration). Newton’s three laws of motion and universal law of gravity were taught with music videos on a huge screen interspersed with live interactive science demonstrations to prove the points. Students Grant Webb, Ryan McKnight, Nick Baker and James Ward helped demonstrate inertia by opening the program stuck to a giant sticky wall. They took running leaps at the wall to see how high they could stick to the wall with their giant Velcro suits.

Go-carts were raced across the stage by Anna Cone, Marissa Hollenbaugh, Courtney Phillips and Sarah Thompson to illustrate action and reaction. The audience was divided into two sections to cheer on their favorite go-cart.

“Extreme” wrestling was one of the most fun events because it featured two teachers at each show dressed up in huge overstuffed “bumping” suits and they tried to knock each other down until one fell. The teachers were cheered on by their respective sides of the auditorium as they rushed at each other in great fun. Tami Burcham, sixth-grade math teacher, and Melissa Baker, para-professional teacher, were from the Middle School and Tommy Hunt, math teacher, and Johnny Passmore, student teacher, competed for the higher grades show.

A soccer ball that grew from regulation size to a six foot round ball showed force determined by mass multiplied by acceleration. Kenzie Wiedower and Kelly Gamelin were coached to kick the various size balls to illustrate the point as the audience cheered them on.

All three of Newton’s laws were demonstrated simultaneously when a futuristic hover chair collided with a gigantic cream pie in the face one for each Coach Tim McKelvey and Coach Blake Benton. Although the kids cheered and screamed loudly, the point of the scientific law of gravity was made really memorable.

Moreland’s sixth-grade science class was very enthusiastic afterward saying things like, “…deafening, but exciting. I thought the go-karts were really cool. I loved the dancing and singing.” They “loved how the pie-in-the-face showed action/reaction.” VanEvera said, “The kids learned a lot more than we could teach them in the classroom by just talking about it.”

Moreland and VanEvera said the program was perfect timing because they had just finished studying force in motion the past couple weeks. They commented, “Not only is this a great introduction for our sixth-graders; but it is wonderful reinforcement for seventh- and eighth-grade students.” Moreland said, “It’s great that this was a free program and will reinforce what they learn. The next time they see someone kick a soccer ball or something fun like this, they will remember Newton’s laws better.” The two teachers had been collaborating on bringing this program to Greenbrier since last Christmas when they found them online at www.fmalive.com.

Source:
Log Cabin Democrat

Brooklyn, NY – The Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival is an annual event celebrating Hip Hop Culture and the borough of Brooklyn as a premier cultural destination. Now entering its fifth year, the BHF has become a staple of Summer in NYC.

This year Brooklyn Bodega and F.O.K.U.S. reunite to produce, Brooklyn Hip Hop Family Day. On June 20th, 2009, babies, toddlers, young teens and families are encouraged to head down to beautiful Empire Fulton Ferry State Park for an afternoon of Hip-Hop, community building, and fun.

Family Day will take the main stage from 12 p.m to 4 p.m. From 4p.m. to 8p.m. Family Day will move to the North Lawn of Empire Fulton Ferry State Park while the main performances round out the day.

Children, families, teenagers, and kids are all welcome all day to this all ages event.

——

Family Day will feature music, performances, demonstrations, and seminars from a host of organizations including Black Girls Rock, Metropolitan Hospital, The Beacon Program, The League of Young Voters, CityYear, Brooklyn Crescents Youth Lacrosse Team, and SohNup Industries NYC to name a few. More organizations will be confirmed as the event approaches.

The mission of Family Day is to provide positive and inspiring programming for an often forgotten demographic, what organizers call Hip-Hop Families.

Wes Jackson, Festival Executive Director and President of Brooklyn Bodega, “Now that Hip-Hop is over thirty years old there are Moms and Dads who grew up on Rakim and Slick Rick. ‘My Melody’ and ‘Children’s Story’ are our classics. We were the original B-Boys and B-Girls. Now we are homeowners, car owners, taxpayers, business owners, and parents. We grew up with Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder as our soundtrack. Now, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and Mary J. Blige are the songs my kids hear around the house. We are a Hip-Hop Family. What is happening to Hip-Hop now is what happened to Rock-N-Roll in the 80′s. As the baby boomers aged, so did Rock N Roll culture and business. The same maturation is happening in Hip-Hop. Brooklyn Bodega, Family Day and the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, as a whole, is about ushering this new era. Family Day is our direct appeal to this growing segment of the Hip-Hop population.”

Source:
Hip-Hop Press

Tacoma, WA – From an open doorway on Tacoma’s Pacific Avenue comes an insistent hip-hop beat. In the darkened interior of the club, a circle of teenagers watches as each takes a breakdancing solo. In other rooms kids are sketching, spinning turntables and listening to headphones with a fierce focus. It’s all part of a Saturday morning L.I.F.E. class, run by local hip-hop organization Fab-5 – and for some of these teenagers, it’s turning their lives around.

With the L.I.F.E. classes, “we realized we could create a movement. Hip-hop has the power to move people into one positive direction,” says Jason Hulen, 30. Along with some friends from Pacific Lutheran University, Hulen started Fab-5 back in 2000 as an organization committed to holding positive drug- and alcohol-free hip-hop events for Tacoma youth. Realizing Fab-5 needed to give more attention to education, members began teaching in Metro Parks’ SPARX after-school program – and then Hulen got the idea for the L.I.F.E. classes.

Starting with just four weeks in spring 2005, the L.I.F.E. classes aimed at helping youth achieve skills and self-expression through all hip-hop art forms: breakdancing, legal graffiti, DJing and music recording, with lunch provided. Since then, the program has expanded with funding from major local foundations to its present 10-week format running April through June. Executive director Eddie Sumlin, 23, would like to see it run year-round.

“It’s more than just us being here doing music and art,” says Sumlin, who has worked at L.I.F.E. since the beginning. “It’s about mentoring, helping kids make healthy life decisions.” Sumlin also works as a college prep associate for the Northwest Leadership Foundation, and steers the L.I.F.E. students toward that goal.

And the evidence is that the classes work. Of the 15 paid instructors, some are former students, now professionals in their art form. Many are college-bound. Others credit L.I.F.E. for turning their lives around.

“I think it’s great,” says Mangley Ben, 18, a Bellevue College student who was introduced to the classes through a Fab-5 instructor while he attended McIlveigh Middle School. He now helps out in the breakdance classes. “If I didn’t go to this program I’d be in a really bad place now. It’s more than just dancing, it’s a life saver.”

The L.I.F.E. classes happen every Saturday at downtown dance venue Brick City. Youth from 8 to 24 years are grouped according to age and ability. Around 30 attend per day, so the teacher-student ratio is high. In separate rooms, each art form is taught with all equipment provided – this in itself is a huge opportunity. In the sound production room, the basics of layering on drum beats, turntable scratchings and vocals are seen through to a final CD product – skills that can lead to professional jobs. In the art room, students learn typography, design and drawing skills, and eventually get to practice with paint on an outside wall.

They’re also taught the legalities and ethical issues surrounding graffiti.

“This isn’t for the streets,” says Sumlin. “You’re not going to be out there tagging. We teach that if you’re focused, you can bring this into a gallery or get a mural commissioned, like our instructors have done. Or you can get into graphic design.”

And at L.I.F.E. classes, kids can also get some life skills.

“Students that have skill in dancing can compete,” says instructor Ash Cornette, 25. “There’s opportunity for travel, for networking, for social skills. That’s something that a lot of kids don’t have these days, with all the passive online talking they do.”

It’s a rare chance for youth from all backgrounds, ethnicities and localities to interact: Students come from all over the city and even Seattle’s Eastside, saying there’s nothing like it anywhere else.

And it’s just plain fun. Emahni Lavergne, 14, is one of three girls in the breakdance class on a recent day, and as she finishes up a solo, she’s smiling shyly. “I like it, I’m soaking it in. It’s friendly, they encourage you and help you out,” Emahni says.\

The final component, says Sumlin, is teaching the students how to plan a community event through an end-of-session performance that gives students skills in identifying local needs, booking venues and event organization.

“We try to teach them that it’s not just about them and art,” Sumlin explains. “It’s about serving the community.”

Source:
The Olympian

Northfield, MN – St. Olaf student Andrew Wilson ’11 has been named a Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation Scholar for 2009-10 and 2010-11. Wilson was one of only six private college students selected this year to receive the $15,650 scholarship that he will use to launch a community outreach project titled “Hip-Hop Anonymous.”  

Celebrating its 15th year, the Phillips Scholars Program recognizes and rewards outstanding Minnesota private college students who strive to make life better for Minnesotans with unmet needs through community service efforts. The program supports potential leaders with outstanding academic credentials who intend to dedicate a portion of their lives to community service. St. Olaf is one of 16 private colleges and universities whose students are eligible for the annual award, which is administered through the Minnesota Private College Council.

Wilson, a Northfield native, plans to create a new branch of the Northfield Union of Youth, known locally as The Key, that will use four elements of hip-hop culture — MCs, DJs, breakdancing and graffiti art — to provide Northfield youth with a chance to demonstrate their individuality in a community-approved way. “Hip-Hop Anonymous” will build on The Key’s mission to “provide power and voice to area youth and create a caring community,” says Wilson, who currently is studying in Australia.

Wilson hopes that his new program will help bolster positive opinions of Northfield youth. “We are as assertive and creative as ever and are just striving for a way to express it. Hip-Hop Anonymous will be that expression.” Wilson is planning to host free, public events at the Key once his project starts next academic year, including a “large-scale” event at the end of summer 2010 that he hopes will feature breakdancing demonstrations, graffiti art displays and spoken word/slam poetry/rap performances.

Source:
St. Olaf College News

There is nothing typical about Jorge Pabon. He may be a hip-hop D.J. and dancer from the mean streets of Spanish Harlem, but he keeps the lyrics clean and women dancers at arm’s length. As a teenager he emerged on the scene as PopMaster Fabel. But today he prefers to be called Shukriy, “the thankful one” — the name he took 20 years ago when he converted to Islam.

Now he is part of an “Islam and Hip-Hop” movement in the United States that is reaching out to Muslim young people via the hip-hop beat.

At a recent “Islam and Hip-Hop” concert in Harlem, young men in wide trousers and women in head scarves made waves in the air, trying to simulate Shukriy’s robotic movements. They did not touch each other unless they were a married couple.

Shukriy, 43, has come under fire from conservative Muslims who accuse him of sinning by dancing on stage with women or acting as D.J. for a mixed audience. Some argue that even listening to music is a taboo in Islam.

He dismisses such critics as the “haram police,” using the Arabic word for sin or taboo.

“I think it is absurd that some of the ultra-orthodox Muslims don’t see the chance of using hip-hop to extend the religion,” he said. “Hip-hop is the voice of the youth.”

He added: “I think, if you don’t like to see these things, then don’t come to the show. Allah will judge me.”

Rami Nashashibi, executive director of the Intercity Muslim Action Network, a nonprofit community organization in Chicago, said hip-hop of the kind practiced by Shukriy was becoming a global phenomenon among young Muslims, despite the critics.

“Hip-hop has become a space where young Muslims can express themselves and not feel like an alien, but feel respected,” said Mr. Nashashibi, who has taught courses on hip-hop and Islam at the University of Chicago. People like Shukriy “are the reason Muslims have been so respected within hip-hop.”

He added: “He was part of the hip-hop movement from the beginning. He is a very proud Muslim and a proud Puerto Rican.”

Shukriy turned to Islam after a career odyssey that took him from street corners around Times Square, where he danced for coins as a youth, to dazzling cities around the world as a professional dancer and hip-hop choreographer.

His résumé includes prizes like the Bessie Award for choreography in 1991 and the VH1 Hip Hop Honors in 2004. But with fame, he experienced misfortune.

“One day you walk on the Champs-Élysées,” he mused, “and the next day you find yourself on 123rd Street in Spanish Harlem with junkies.”

He said he has faced discrimination in his career, both because of his Puerto Rican background and as a Muslim.

Still, he said, “I am thankful for lots of things, but especially that Allah has showed me the right way for my life — and therefore my name is Shukriy.”

But at first his name was Jorge. He was born into a Catholic family in Spanish Harlem. His father left when he was 4 years old and his mother worked three jobs to support the family.

Like most Puerto Rican families then, they were quite religious. He went to Catholic school and to church every Sunday. But music and dance were also part of the culture, especially salsa.

“My twin brother, our two older sisters and I listened to music day and night, and we would all dance together,” he said. “It is in our blood, you know.”

As a teenager he lost the family’s passion for religion but not for music. “I started to hang out with other people from Spanish Harlem — it was a gang environment,” he said. They danced on the streets, tried new moves and had small competitions.

Then in 1980, he and a couple of his friends choose the corner of 42nd Street and Broadway as their stage. Large groups would gather to watch them perform. “Then some club owners came and asked us to dance in their places for money. And this was the start.”

He danced in the 1984 movie “Beat Street,” now a hip-hop classic. That led him to the stage of the Kennedy Center in Washington. In 1986 he was the first American hip-hop dancer to perform in Cuba. “The career developed so fast that I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

With other hip-hop dancers, he performed around the United States and in Berlin and Paris. But in the late 1980s, the film and music industries lost interest in hip-hop. The international assignments stopped and he fell into a depression. “From 1988 until 1989 I worked in galleries and a bicycle shop,” he said. He drank a lot, fought and nearly lost his bearings.

Two friends, also dancers, warned him that he risked throwing his life away. They started telling him about Islam, but he was not interested in religion. Still, when one of them gave him the Koran, Shukriy promised to read it.

“My plan was to prove them wrong, but actually the words touched my heart,” he said. Within a couple of days he became a Muslim. It was 1989.

When his family learned that he had converted, their reaction was “not good,” he said. His oldest sister broke off contact with him. His mother “thought I had stopped believing in God,” he said, until he bought her a Koran in Spanish and she read it.

He started to question many of the things he had done in his life. He stopped drinking alcohol and eating pork. But though he altered his behavior, he never changed his look: a long ponytail and a trimmed beard.

His focus today is teaching as an adjunct professor at New York University and in the Muslim community.

“I like to teach kids of all faiths as a tool for self-empowerment, cultural consciousness and an emotional and physical outlet,” he said. Lots of younger Muslims are fed up with politics and were especially troubled by the Israeli assault on Gaza. He sees dancing as a way for them to express their frustration.

He still performs at concerts and festivals, some of which he organizes with his wife, Aziza, who also converted to Islam.

“There are different ways of making a move in a dance,” he said. “And sometimes it is the same with religion. People have different interpretations and different ways to call people to Islam. I chose music.”

Source:
The New York Times

After a chance meeting, Penrod and local hip-hop artist Hush came up with the idea of a concert to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Penrod hopes to sell 2,200 tickets to the Feb. 5 show at downtown Detroit’s Fillmore Theatre. In addition to Hush, the benefit will feature rhythm and blues band Hot Sauce and Southern rocker JoCaine.

All the performers collaborated on a new song specifically for Joseph, “Keep on Believing,” that has become the family’s battle cry.

“They and the song are my voice,” Penrod says.

Joseph, 6, is a sweet-natured kid who is learning how to play the electric guitar, and who enjoys playing with his brother, Sam, 9, sister Katie, 12, and Charlie, a huge golden retriever.

Doctors suspected that Joseph had muscular dystrophy when they saw how he pushed on his thighs with his hands to rise from a seated position. It’s a classic manifestation of MD, which impairs the ability of muscles to repair themselves. Blood and genetic tests confirmed that he had a variation of the disease known as Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

“We tell people if you didn’t know, you wouldn’t know,” about Joseph’s condition, Penrod says.

“You don’t get to pick what you’re handed, but you do certainly get to choose how you handle it. Everything they handed us was about the history and the past of the disease. We’re going to make Joseph the future of it. We’re going to change the future of what this disease looks like.”

Joseph understands that his muscles don’t work quite the way they should. “We hope to move this along in terms of research and a cure, so he doesn’t really have to know,” Penrod says.

Every night Penrod and husband Jeff guide Joseph through stretches to inhibit scar tissue that could build up in his hip, thighs and calves.

She met Hush at an autism benefit, and was touched by his eagerness to contribute. She marvels that the musicians were willing to sit down with her and help her think big.

“It’s an eye-opener to know that you’re looking at a child, and he’s just a baby, and you know some point in his life, it’s going to get hard,” said Hush, himself the father of three boys.

The benefit is an all-ages show. “We’re encouraging people to bring their kids,” Penrod says. “Everybody wants to be part of something bigger than themselves. This is allowing the best in people to come out.”

Source:
FreeP.com