| Folk Arts - Folk & Traditional Arts in the Parks Hip-NicPostive Hip Hop Comes to Washington State ParksUnder a sunny sky, Saturday, August 11, 2007, about 300 urban young people from the Seattle area gathered at the Second Annual “Hip-Nic” Hip Hop Picnic at Saint Edward State Park in Kenmore. Event organizers planned the day as a mix of Hip-Hop culture and outdoor-recreation-themed activities.
During the afternoon, participants attended a variety of workshops. The DE Collective and Block Teamsters presented workshops in spoken-word performance, break- and Hip Hop dance, poetry composition, DJ production, and graffiti-style art. The Nature Consortium presented face- and body painting, kite-making and life-size origami. Seattle Trips for Kids provided mountain bikes and instruction in their use, and led participants on a ride around the park’s trails.
Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission’s own Inside Out Family-Youth Camping Program set up a mock campsite to interest urban young people in camping and to promote its program of free loan of camping equipment to urban families. The agency’s Human Resources Department, represented by its Diversity Specialist, Matt Gerard, gave a presentation on outdoor recreation careers and volunteer opportunities. Mac’s Smokehouse provided a barbecue lunch for registered participants and the park’s gym and pool were open for free use in the late afternoon.
A three-part evening program included a spoken word concert by some of the Seattle area’s outstanding word artists, an open mic session, and a concert of Hip Hop music by DE Collective and Block Teamsters performers.
Although to many people Hip Hop has a bad reputation due to the violence and misogyny celebrated in some of the more commercialized forms of rap, it has, since the 1970s, been a major form of creative expression among youth. Originating among young urban African Americans, Hip Hop has become worldwide, described in a recent National Geographic article as “the world's favorite youth culture” in which “just about every country on the planet seems to have developed its own local rap scene.”
Not so well-known is the movement of “Positive Hip Hop” also known as “Grass Roots Hip-Hop.” Divorced from the star system of its commercial cousin, it emphasizes positve values and the empowerment of urban young people, but genuinely reflects their experiences and concerns in a style relevant to their culture. At its fourth Annual Youth Assembly in 2007 the United Nations included a Hip Hop Summit Youth Council.
The first Hip-Nic, a smaller affair, was held at Saint Edward State Park in August 2006, but greater publicity and better organization increased participation by both outside organizations and youth audience in 2007. First brainstormed into existence by National Youth Congress founder and director Reco Bembry and Saint Edward Park Manager Mohammad “Ranger Moe” Mostafavinassab, the Hip-Nic is part of a wider effort by the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission to attract more ethnic and racial diversity to state parks and to outdoor recreation in general, and to interest young people of color in outdoor recreation and recreation-related careers. Increasing diversity and providing enjoyment, health, and learning programs are part of our state park agency’s 2013 Centennial goals.
Most of the performance-related activities at both the 2006 and ’07 events were recruited and organized by Seattle performance artist and community activist Laura 'Piece' Kelley-Jahn and her Think Big Foundation, which also publicized the event in its magazine, BRICK (By Real Inner City Kids). Paul Martin and Frank Galloway of the Inside Out Family-Youth Camping Program worked with Matt Gerard of Human Resources and Ranger Moe on the recreational and logistic components of the event.
The Hip-Nics are part of Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission’s Folk and Traditional Arts in the Parks Program and as such they are fiscally administered by agency partner Northwest Heritage Resources. Funding for the Hip-Nics comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Washington State Arts Commission, the Washington State Parks Foundation, and state parks’ operational funds.
The third annual “Hip-Nic” Hip Hop Picnic is scheduled for August 9, 2008. As more information becomes available, it can be accessed on State Parks’ Web site, www.parks.wa.gov , by clicking Events and News Releases.
Author Jens Lund has been a folklorist for 33 years and has worked in twenty-three states and Canada. Since 2004 he has managed Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission’s Folk and Traditional Arts in the Parks Program.
This article first appeared in the March 2008 edition of WPRA Today, a publication of Washington Recreation and Park Association. | ||||||
