Trinity International Hip Hop Festival :: April 4-6 (Hartford, CT)

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Hartford, Connecticut – The Trinity College Temple of Hip-Hop organization is hosting the third annual Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival on the weekend of April 4-6 at the Trinity College campus. Festival Sponsors include Trinity College, Nomadic Wax, Sol Productions, The Temple of Hip-Hop Kulture and World Hip-Hop Market. The event is free and open to the public.

The festival is the first and largest international hip-hop festival in the United States, blending the wisdom of "old school" pioneers with the passions of hip-hop musicians from all points of the globe with a mission of bringing people from all backgrounds and cultures to common ground.

Hip-hop garnered a lion's share of negative publicity in 2007 – DJ Drama was arrested for selling mixtapes, Don Imus pointed a finger at hip hop's misogyny and rapper T.I. was arrested on gun charges spawning a nationwide dialogue over the future of the culture. Among the highlights was the Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival, which was recognized world-wide. The event is sponsored and hosted by the first college chapter of the KRS-One created national organization, the Temple of Hip-Hop. Events and guests will include music artists, activists, pioneers, filmmakers, DJ's, and graffiti writers.

Co-organizer and Trinity College student Zee Santiago said, "This is the first event of its kind that demonstrates how hip-hop has become an international culture as well as an accepted academic area of study."

In past years, the College has hosted hip-hop luminaries such as Fab 5 Freddy; Jeff Chang, author of Can't Stop Won't Stop; Byron Hurt, director of Hip Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes; and Charlie Ahern, director of Wildstyle.

Schedule of Events

The 2008 festival will kick off Friday afternoon with a hip-hop theatre performance led by Baba Israel, and opening remarks from Trinity College President James F. Jones, Jr., and Dr. Xiangming Chen, the Dean of the Center for Urban and Global Studies. This will be followed by a keynote address from Bakari Kitwana (author of The Hip-Hop Generation and Why White Kids Love Hip Hop) entitled Can Hip-Hop Make the Transition from Cultural Movement to Political Power?

Artists scheduled to perform Friday night include Baba Israel (Australia/USA), La Bruja (Puerto Rico), Shokanti with Chachi and crew (Cape Verde), Abyssinian Creole (Gabriel Teodros & Khingz - Seattle), Self-Suffice (Hartford), and a Senegalese "Super Crew" featuring several top Senegalese MCs backed by Nomadic Wax's African Underground live band. The performances will be hosted by Canadian lyricist Eternia and Blitz the Ambassador (Ghana) backed by DJ Boo (of the Juggaknots).

Saturday's activities will kick off with a panel discussion about the early years of hip-hop with old school pioneers Grandmaster Caz and Tony Tone from the Cold Crush Brothers, Grand Wizard Theodore and DJ Disco Wiz. Pop Master Fabel of the legendary Rock Steady Crew will host a 2-on-2 b-boy battle Saturday afternoon with music provided by DJ Disco Wiz and a $500 prize on the line. West coast crew and Trinity-alums Trust Your Struggle will present a graffiti workshop and collaborate with other invited artists to create an all new mural in the center of campus. The beat-making workshop will give budding producers tips on how to make hip-hop beats led by Connecticut production team Kemistree and Zaquan.

Saturday night's performance schedule includes Zimbabwe Legit (Zimbabwe/USA), The Perceptionists (Mr. Lif & Akrobatik – USA), Sam the Kid (Portugal), Jewish emcee Y-Love (presented by Trinity College's Hillel House), female super-group Anomolies, spoken word collective iLL-Literacy and Rebel Diaz (Chile/Puerto Rico). Performances will again be hosted by Eternia and Blitz with DJ Boo.

On Sunday, hip-hop educator Melissa Noel Green will present "The Art of Rhyme," a workshop. Global hip-hop DJs will spin at the "Chill Out Lounge" during the course of all three days culminating with an open mic session for MCs on Sunday afternoon.

The event is free and open to the public. For details and schedule information, go to http://trinityhiphop.org