The Blockley is teaming up with GRIOT Urban & Social Consultants and RECLAIM Marketing to produce a monthly concert series and public awareness campaign to inform and educate the public about issues that are of concern to them…
This installment is dedicated to educating people about Solitary Confinement, Mass Incarceration, senior citizens and women prisoners. Focus will be on the Prison Industrial Complex and the associated conditions/treatment in prisons.
These community gatherings at The Blockley will feature EDUTAINMENT, information booths, craft vendors and phenomenal artists who are dedicating their art and social reach to these causes.
The first PSA will take place on Sunday evening, August 4th at The Blockley, and will feature legendary New York group The Last Poets, with support from Hakim Greene (of seminal 1990’s hip hop artists Channel Live), and Rahnda Rize a seasoned Philly neo soul favorite & afro-centric DIVA extraordinaire.
On Sun. September 15th fiercely conscious, socially aware hip-hop duo dead prez will bless Philadelphia with a spirited set of classic material as well as new music. This PSA is shaping up to be monumental in scope, and effective in educating the masses to the injustices that are plaguing the prison system.
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Aug. 4th 20013
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The Last Poets: Hip-hop history officially started in Harlem on May 16th, 1969 (Malcolm X’s birthday). Imprisoned after refusing to fight in the Vietnam War, Jalal Mansur Nuriddin began to blend spoken-word verse with street-corner beats, and befriended fellow inmates Omar Ben Hassen and Abiodun Oyewole. Shortly afterwards they would name themselves The Last Poets, based on the work of a South African writer who predicted violence would destroy the last generation of poets. The group was soon electrifying audiences at both the Apollo Theater and on local television.
The group debuted in 1970 with the album The Last Poets, widely accepted as the first ever hip-hop album. They followed with 1971’s This Is Madness, both discs placed high on the Billboard Hot 100 Album and R&B charts, thanks to their arresting fusion of politically outspoken lyrics and inventive percussion. Listen to these records today, and hear why Chuck D says, “The Last Poets are the birthplace of rap.”
September 15th,2013
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dead prez- is an American underground political hip hop duo composed of stic.man and M-1. They are known for their confrontational style combined with socialist and pan-Africanist lyrics. These lyrics tend to focus on revolution, veganism, institutional racism, critical pedagogy, police, capitalism, education, prison systems, religion, activism against governmental repression, and corporate control over the media, especially hip-hop record labels. Dead Prez made their stance clear on their first album, declaring on the lead song, “I’m a African” that the group is “somewhere between N.W.A. and P.E.”
The Blockley is West Philadelphia’s premier live music venue, located at 38th and Chestnut Streets. For more information, please visit www.TheBlockley.com
Press Release written by Brian Getz
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