Symposium: African HipHop - A lesson for european democracy

While the Arab Spring was sweeping numerous governments out of office between 2010 and 2012, in the predominantly Muslim country of Senegal, a sensation with little western media coverage, but of quite a vociferous nature unfolded. President Abdoulaye Wade, who, by making changes to the constitution and intimidating his opposition, was primed for re-elected for the third time in a row as president and vice-president simultaneously, but was hindered by peaceful demonstrations. The leading powers behind the initiation and execution of the democratic resistance was the people’s movement Y’en a Marre, which was founded by Senegal’s famous intellectuals, artists and musicians. The movement pursued a peaceful, yet effective protest strategy and thus has become the most powerful expression of the country’s discontent. They used the vocabulary of hip hop culture, rapping political messages in French and Wolof (the country’s mother tongue) and thus creating a form of protest they referred to as urban guerilla poetry. The activists went to public places in the capital, entered overcrowded busses and winding alleyways to reach the youth with their songs and choreographies that oscillated between martial arts and break-dance. The symposium African Hip Hop – A Lesson for European Democracy? will engage in the strategies of the Y’en a Marre activists, in their artistic methods and translatability of these strategies into a European context. In cooperation with Hamburg Hip Hop Academy and protagonists of the movement from Dakar, the symposium elaborates on questions like how can art develop political positions without becoming part of politics? How does the Senegalese hip-hop culture manage to maintain its diversity, popularity and influence without any noteworthy financial support? How does the European scene react to that? What specific situation in Senegal lead up to the development of a healthy and vital cultural scene that, due to its moral incorruptibility has an immense influence on the youth. The symposium will take up the task to initiate the exchange between artists and intellectuals from Africa, Europe and North America upon the mentioned questions, and also to introduce young people to the political aspects of hip-hop. Artists and intellectuals will present views on body politics, political art and artistic intervention in lectures and discussion panels. The theoretical part of the congress will be complemented by dance and beat-box battles, so the many dimensions of hip-hop culture can be explored. Hip-hop choreography, music and video documentation of former and current movements will be shown in »open spaces«. Thus the symposium is thought to welcome everyone to a collective reflection about the coexistence of hip-hop, politics and art in theory and practice. Jens Dietrich Yolanda Gutiérrez

PROGRAM FRIDAY, 6.2.2015 14:30 Workshop with Akua Naru 16:00 Opening of the symposium (Yolanda Gutiérrez / Jens Dietrich) 16:15 Bakari Kitwana (journalist, activist and political analyst): TIMELINE OF THE POLITICS OF HIPHOP 16:45 THE FUTURE OF HIPHOP: discussion with Akua Naru (hiphop-artist), Bakari Kitwana, Falk Schacht (music journalist and hiphop-artist); moderation: Michel Abdollahi 17:30 Falk Schacht – Akua Naru: SEXISM IN HIPHOP 18:15 LOCAL ACTIVISTS, GLOBAL ACTIVISM. discussion with Bakari Kitwana, Fran Ilich (mexican media artist, essayist and novelist), Djily Bagdad (senegalese hiphop-artist and activist (Y'en a Marre)); moderation: Michel Abdollahi 19:30 Political Bodies von Yolanda Gutiérrez / Jens Dietrich (15 Euro, erm 8 Euro)

PROGRAM SATURDAY, 7.2.2015 11:00 Niels »Storm« Robitzky (choreographer and HipHop-ambassador): HISTORY OF URBAN DANCE 12:00 BEATBOX BATTLE: Preliminaries 12:45 Lecture Performance with Niels »Storm« Robitzky – Sangoné Vieira – B-Boy Ben-J (hiphop-dancers): AFROPOP AND BREAKDANCE: NEW STYLES IN SENEGALESE HIPHOP 13:30 BEATBOX BATTLE: Quarter final sign-in 14:00 Lunch Break 15:00 WORKSHOP with Baïdy Bâ und B-Boy Abdallah (hiphop-dancers): AFRO-KRUMP AND AFRO-BREAKDANCE 15:00 WORKSHOP with Pere Joseph Vilaplana: WHEN THE BODY SINGS WITH HIS DANCER VOICE 15:45 Djily Bagdad: REVOLT AND ENGAGEMENT USING THE EXAMPLE OF Y’EN A MARRE 16:15 WORKSHOP with Niels »Storm« Robitzky 16:15 Fran Ilich: NEW MEDIA, NEW NARRATIVES: SUBVERSION IN CYBERCULTURE 16:45 Fran Ilich – Djily Bagdad –Amadou Fall Ba (cultural operator, artivist and social entrepreneur): THE ARTISTS AS ACTIVIST; moderation: Michel Abdollahi 17:15 WORKSHOP with Lamine Diagne (dancer, dance-educator and choreographer) 17:15 Koyo Kouoh (curator and founding artistic director of RAW Material Company art center in Dakar): THERE IS NO ESCAPE FROM SHAPING SOCIETY: ART AND NON PARTISAN POLITICS IN THE PUBLIC REALM 18:00 OUTLOOK with Koyo Kouoh and Amelie Deuflhard 18:30 BEATBOX BATTLE: finals ​19:30 Political Bodies by Yolanda Gutiérrez / Jens Dietrich (15 / 8 Euro)

full programme here (PDF)