Hartford, CT (Top40 Charts/ World Hip Hop Market) - KRS-One, an iconic hip-hop artist, activist, and pioneer, will headline the 2010 International Hip-Hop Festival at
Trinity College, in celebration of the fifth year of the largest festival of its kind in the United States. The weekend-long festival, free and open to the public, features performances, lectures, graffiti artistry, and a break dance battle with a $1,500 grand prize.
A Bronx, N.Y. product, KRS-One ('Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everybody') has had three Billboard Top 100 singles and has cemented himself as a hip-hop icon with his influence on the art, his outspoken criticism of violence in hip-hop, and his passion for hip-hop as a political movement. In 2008, KRS-One (Lawrence Parker) was a recipient of a BET Lifetime Achievement Award, in recognition of his work as a pioneer of hip-hop music and culture, and for his effort toward the Stop the Violence Movement, which he formed in 1988 in response to excessive violence in hip-hop.
In addition to a performance by the internationally acclaimed KRS-One, Trinity welcomes The reMINDers, a husband and wife duo (Belgium/Congo/U.S.); Nomadic Massive, a multilingual and multicultural Montreal-based group; Anita Tijoux, a Chilean emcee and vocalist; DAM, the first and foremost Palestinian group; Shokanti (Cape Verde); Wage"ble" (Senegal); Flex Mathews (Washington, D.C.); Trinity alums, Self-Suffice and Zee Santiago; DJ Nio (Italy); and DJ Boo, as well as artists and educators, Readnex Poetry Squad, and DJ H20, representing Haiti, Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the United States.
The festival will include an academic panel entitled 'Global Moves: Social Change Through Hip-Hop,' featuring panelist Toni Blackman, a former cultural ambassador for U.S. state department; Gaston 'Cenzi' Gabarro, a Chilean producer and activist; Marie-Agnes Beau, founder of the French Music Bureau; and Jaro Cossiga (beatboxer, Czech Republic). The panel will be moderated by Vijay Prashad, George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies at Trinity College. The City of Hartford Youth Services is sponsoring youth oriented workshops hosted by Readnex Poetry Squad entitled, 'Hip Hop and Poetry Saved My Life,' and the Sundance Festival-nominated film, Slingshot Hip Hop, will be screened, followed by a panel discussion with the film's director, Jackie Reem Salloum, and the Palestinian group, DAM.
In addition, local graffiti artists will be producing murals, and for the third consecutive year, the festival will hold a 2-on-2 international break dance (b-boy and b-girl) battle with a $1500 grand prize. The competition will be judged by Trac2, a pioneering b-boy.
For a complete schedule of events, artist bios, and more, visit www.trinityhiphop.org.
About the Trinity College International Hip-Hop Festival and Temple of Hip Hop
Trinity College is home to the first student branch of the Temple of Hip Hop, which formed after the First International Hip-Hop Festival in 2006. The Temple of Hip Hop, created by KRS-One, is a national organization created to maintain and promote hip hop as a genuine political movement and culture, and was created on the Trinity campus in the spirit of the mission of the festival. It encourages deejays and emcees to teach people about the culture of Hip, to write more socially conscious songs, and encourages radio stations to play more socially conscious hip-hop.
Past performers at the Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival include Somalian artist K'Naan, who's single 'Waivin' Flag' has been remixed and chosen as the official anthem of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, as well as Ghana's Blitz the Ambassador; Zimbabwe political activist Comrade Fatso; French/Cameroonian Les Nubians; Portuguese star Sam the Kid, old school legend Grandmaster Caz; among many other international artists and academics.
About Trinity College
Founded in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1823, Trinity College (www.trincoll.edu) is an independent, nonsectarian liberal arts college with over 2,200 students from 42 states and 41 countries. It is home to the eighth-oldest chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in the United States. The faculty and alumni include recipients of the Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur award, Guggenheims, Rockefellers and other national academic awards. Trinity students integrate meaningful academic and leadership experience at all levels on the College's celebrated campus, in the Capital City of Hartford, and in communities all over the world.
