The Hiphop Library Project

Los Angeles , California ~ Oakland, California ~ Atlanta, Georgia

Chicago , Illinois ~ Boston, Massachusetts ~ Detroit, Michigan

New York , New York ~ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Hiphop Library Project (HLP) is an interactive program that collaborates with local libraries, youth, community and arts organizations, creative artists, historians and educators to archive and create the history of youth art and political movement in their own communities. HLP facilitates and collaborates with youth to explore how information, art, social movement and political issues flow throughout and within their neighborhoods and the world. HLP interlinks knowledge, art, and history because these interconnections reflect the cultural relationships that survive throughout the life of communities and nations and that must be renewed and transformed with each passing generation in order for a community to survive and thrive.

Background

There is an educational crisis in urban communities as many youth drop out of school and do not to live up to their intellectual potential for a range of different reasons. While journalists, politicians, and educators alike decry this state of affairs, many have failed to recognize that Hiphop culture has enabled many young people to learn important intellectual, creative, and political skills. The intellectual potential of Hiphop has been ignored in part because of biases against both youth and Hiphop culture and in part because Hiphop youth have not had the full opportunity to display the wide range of their abilities.As part of revisioning Hiphop and youth culture, HLP is exploring the educational potential of Hiphop and documenting and developing the intellectual wealth of urban youth.

Youth throughout the world listen to the artists and audiences who participate in Hiphop culture. They are united around the notion that hard work, fairness, awareness, honesty, and competitiveness are at the heart of Hiphop creativity. These youth are not afraid of the intense evaluation and scrutiny that come from Hiphop; they thrive on it and demand it. They know that in order for artists to perform and produce creative works, they must possess skills that only come from constant practice, investigation, hard work and creativity. Though many youth are intimately aware of what it takes to perform and critique within Hiphop culture, most believe that there is no connection between Hiphop and other artistic, social and political movements that have been a part of black and urban communities throughout the US. This is true for many reasons, but perhaps the major cause is that much of the history of these communities have been destroyed, ignored, and undervalued by the society at large. In every major urban area of the United States, monuments to the civil rights movement and black power movement were regularly destroyed and dismantled under the guise of the urban renewal efforts of the 1970s. To make matters worse, historically important schools and churches have moved or been removed and artists and musicians have been replaced by pop idols who never ate, visited or walked down the streets of black and poor neighborhoods. As historical institutions, as centers of information and ideas, and as symbols of the universal right to equal access to knowledge, the public library plays a central role in this project.

In order to recognize and develop the intellectual gifts of Hiphop youth and to explore the potential of Hiphop culture, the HLP will train a national team of HipHop Youth Scholars to do the following: to develop their intellectual abilities, especially research and writing skills, and to investigate the interests that Hiphop culture has inspired; to apply their knowledge and curiosity to the preservation and celebration of history and art in their communities; to facilitate a dialogue and build relationships in their communities across age, ethnicity, gender, class, culture, and taste; to enhance the role that Hiphop culture plays in the educational, cultural, and historical sustenance of youth and community; and to encourage youth to apply the intellectual skills that they will develop in HLP to all areas of their lives, especially the pursuit of their education. To these ends, in addition to conducting extensive library research and fieldwork (including participant-observation, surveys, and interviews), Hiphop Youth Scholars will develop programs such as exhibits, lectures, public dialogues, and events to share their knowledge with their communities and to claim recognition of their intellectual worth.

The Library of Hiphop

While Hiphop’s followers are intent on reinvigorating and exploring every sector of their community and history to get at the truth and what is real, the only institution that continues to retain the information and the heritage that can increase the power of their mission is the local library. It is one of the few established institutions of knowledge that makes the connection between memory and documentation of the past and also reflects the importance Hiphop attaches to seeking out knowledge – the truth – and presenting it for all to witness. In fact, the local library is considered by many youth to be a place where people of all backgrounds have access to knowledge and empowerment and that supports those seeking ‘real’ information regardless of appearance, race, gender, age, income, neighborhood, etc.

The goals of the project are to validate and encourage the contributions and efforts of youth and adults whose curiosity, creativity and commitment have persuaded others to support their communities and other youth. HLP recognizes that youth possess a vast resource of knowledge, creativity and hope and ultimately they are the vital answer to building a future. Through the research, collection and artistic representation of community history, HLP encourages self-esteem, responsibility and awareness and promotes collaboration and community building through the discovery and presentation of the history and art that make learning an essential part of everyone’s life. Through the genius of Hiphop’s youth and the power of learning, HLP will redefine what it means to be of this world - one community, one library, one brilliant young person at a time.

Components of the Hiphop Library Project include:

• Hiphop Youth Scholars - training a national team of young intellectuals
• Training of facilitators, mentors, and advocates in communities
• Collaboration with Local Libraries
• Collaboration with local youth, art, and faith organizations
• Reclaiming local Hiphop history through library research and fieldwork
• Development of local Hiphop Archive collections
• Development of local folklore and cultural history research
• Creation of Community Maps documenting the location and movement of culture
• Creation of Hiphop History Portals on the HipHop Archive web site
• Digital Reclaiming and reframing of historical places, movements, communities and moments in history
• On-line journal of youth research, writing, and art
• Exhibits, Lectures, and Events curated by HipHop Youth Scholars