Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival
Photos courtesy of Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival
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| Country and Region | United States — Connecticut |
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| Type of Festival | Dance, Music |
| Location of Festival | Hartford, Connecticut USA |
| Festival Address Information | Zee Santiago, Trinity College |
| Festival Description | The Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival, now poised for its third annual event on April 4, 5 and 6, 2008, sponsored and hosted by Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. The Festival is a coming together of artists, activists, pioneers, filmmakers, DJs, graffiti writers, and fans with one thing in common — to make a difference in the world through hip hop. The first and largest international hip hop festival in the United States, the Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival blends the wisdom of old school pioneers with the passions of hip hop musicians from the far points of the globe. Co-organizer and Trinity College student Zee Santiago said, “This is the first event of its kind that demonstrates how hip hop has become an international culture as well as an accepted academic area of study.” In past years, Trinity College has played host to hip hop luminaries such as Fab 5 Freddy, Jeff Chang (author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop), Byron Hurt (director of Hip Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes) and Charlie Ahern (director of Wildstyle). The event has elicited an enormous response and has been called “the best of the wave of springtime hip-hop conferences” by highly esteemed journalist Jeff Chang. Trinity College has been described as “a point of renaissance for Hartford” by the Trinity Tripod and the BBC reported that the students and artists involved “truly believe they can change the world through Hip-Hop.” The Trinity Tripod declared it “up to events like the [International Hip-Hop] Festival to pierce through the negative, capitalist-driven image now tagged to the Hip-Hop genre.” XXL magazine wrote of “an event that everyone could relate to, regardless of what country they came from or language they spoke.” Festival Sponsors include Trinity College, Nomadic Wax, The Temple of Hip-Hop Kulture and World Hip Hop Market. The festival will be free and open to the public. |
| Festival Dates | April 4 - 6, 2008 |
| Festival Links |
Festival Story:
Begun in the spring of 2006, the Trinity International Hip Hop Festival and Conference was created and is currently one of the most effective, progressive, and creative ways to combat the disunity, segregation, and violence of the city of Hartford. Through the historically education-oriented and politically revolutionary medium that is hip hop music and culture and from a global standpoint, the Trinity International Hip Hop Festival intends to unify and collaborate with the Hartford community, as well as the global International community in which we all live, in an educational, political, and social manner.
The goal of the Festival’s events is primarily education, understanding, and unity as previously mentioned. Hip Hop music and culture has become so universally accepted that all demographics have attended events ranging from dance workshops, to panel discussions, to performances by African, Hispanic, Caucasian, and African-American artists. In doing so, people of ages ranging from ten years old to sixty years old have been given the opportunity to collaborate in a productive and positive learning environment.
Festival Events:
Program schedule 2008:
- Friday, April 4th, 2008
- 1:00pm-7:00pm—Registration (Gallows Hill Lounge)
- 1:00pm-3:00pm—Class: Hip Hop History featuring Melissa Noelle Green (location Hartford High School)
- 4:00pm-5:00pm—Hip Hop Theater featuring Baba Israel (Washington Room)
- 5:00pm-5:30pm—Opening Remarks: Trinity College President James F. Jones, Jr. and Dr. Xiangming Chen, Trinity College’s Dean and Director of the Center for Urban and Global Studies (Washington Room)
- 5:30pm-6:30pm—Keynote Speaker: Bakari Kitwana “Can Hip Hop Make the Transition from Cultural Movement to Political Power?” (Washington Room)
- 6:30pm-7:30pm—Dinner (Mather Hall)
- 8:00pm-2:00am—Performances: Baba Israel (Australia/USA), Eternia (Canada), Blitz the Ambassador (Ghana), La Bruja (Puerto Rico), Shokanti, Chachi, Tem Blessed, & DjeDje (Cape Verde), Abyssinian Creole (Seattle), Self-Suffice & Trinity Alumni Crew (Hartford), Koba (Phillipines), African Super Crew featuring Baye Musa and Azbac (Senegal) plus Krukid (Tanzania), music by DJ Boo of the Juggaknots (Vernon Social Center)
- Saturday, April 5th, 2008
- 11:00am-all day—Workshop: Graffiti Mural Painting featuring Trust Your Struggle (The Cave patio)
- 12:00pm-1:00pm—Workshop: Beatmaking featuring Kemistree and Zaquan (Gallows Hill Lounge)
- 2:00pm-3:00pm—Panel Discussion: Born in The Bronx: A discussion on the Origins of Hip Hop featuring Grandmaster Caz, DJ Tony Tone, Grand Wizard Theodore and DJ Disco Wiz (Gallows Hill Lounge)
- 3:30pm-5:30pm—2-on-2 B-Boy/B-Girl Battle preliminaries hosted by PopMaster Fabel, music by DJ Disco Wiz (Gallows Hill Lounge)
- 6:00pm-7:00pm—Dinner (Mather Hall)
- 7:30pm-8:00pm—2-on-2 B-Boy/B-Girl Battle Finals (Vernon Social Center)
- 8:00pm-2:00am—Performances: Old School Pioneers featuring Grandmaster Caz, DJ Tony Tone and Grand Wizard Theodore (USA), Zimbabwe Legit (Zimbabwe/USA), Sam the Kid (Portugal), Jewish emcee Y-Love (presented by Trinity College’s Hillel House), Rebel Diaz (Chile/Peurto Rico), Pri the Honey Dark and Invincible of the Anomolies (USA), Queen Herowin of the Juggaknots (USA), spoken word collective iLL-Literacy, music by DJ Boo (Vernon Social Center)
- Sunday, April 6th, 2008
- 12:00pm-1:00pm—Film: Remixed in Japan presented by the Hip Hop Association (McCook Auditorium)
- 1:00pm-2:00pm—Panel Discussion: Asians In Hip Hop featuring iLL-Literacy, Koba, DJ Boo (McCook Auditorium)
- 2:30pm-3:30pm—Workshop: The Art Of Rhyme featuring Melissa Noelle Green (Gallows Hill Lounge)
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