White Plains, NY – Jamaal Williams must believe the world of hip-hop can bring a different voice to the work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King – he was willing to brave 40-degree temperatures in front of the civil rights leader’s statue at the county courthouse yesterday morning.

“You can tell I love hip-hop because it’s cold and I’m out here,” said Williams, a White Plains High School student and one of the rappers who wrote and recorded songs based on King’s guiding principles on non-violence. “We all like different groups, but we all came together to do this. It came out good. All we need is a place to perform and record our music.”  

That’s why the Westchester Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute for Nonviolence reached out to Cornell Carelock, a White Plains educator and hip-hop artist known as “Lord Judah.”

Carelock assembled a group of 18 young performers and songwriters to read and talk about King’s legacy of non-violence and social activism.

Once they had learned and searched their own worlds for resonance with the slain leader’s words, they wrote their own – set to rhythms that one of the 20th century’s most syncopated speakers would probably have appreciated.

“Too many people in this world with a taste for power, the sweetness of the game gets sour,” rapped Jirrell Abraham of White Plains, a Mercy College student who performs under the name “JCA.” They’ll shoot you in your face for power, but they become disgraceful cowards when you put them in the place of power.”

Abraham said he was glad to write and record his song “One Day” for the group’s CD, which the organizers are going to send to local schools with an eye toward performing for students and promoting educational programs that combine hip-hop and King’s perspective on changing society.

“Violence is an act of man – it’s something that we consider our own nature,” Abraham said after he finished performing. “Until people can change the way they think and their frame of mind. … It’s not like you can prevent violence completely in the world, but if you can do things to change that or lessen it, then that would be a start. This is one of those projects that is trying to convince people to do that.”

The group is expected to hold its first performance Feb. 9 at Manhattanville College in Purchase, featuring each songwriter’s own interpretation. With participants ranging in age between 12 and 18, organizers hope to spread awareness among middle and high school students.

“These young people love hip-hop,” Carelock said. “This is what they love to do. And we want to convince them that it can be used as a tool for education as well, to bring light to the principles that Dr. King set forth for us.”

Julie Carran, co-chair for Westchester’s King institute, said the idea was to also keep King’s ideas and work “in front of us” – the generations that marched with him and those that must carry non-violent change into the future.

“He inspired me (during the civil rights movement) and he still inspires me because of the ways he dedicated his life to confronting violence, racism and poverty,” Carran said. “Lord Judah is bringing Dr. King to young people and they are in turn telling us what Dr. King can mean for their lives today.”

Source:
Lower Hudson Online