What does the Culture mean Globally? The Trinity International Hip Hop Festival
From Cape Town to Hartford, the Trinity International Hip Hop Festival proves the culture's power extends far beyond charts and streams — uniting artists, activists, and changemakers from around the world for 20 years.
Hip-hop is well into middle age and, contrary to some opinions, its untimely demise as being irrelevant is not upon us. While some use the metrics of sales, market share, and data analytics around streams, likes, and views, there are other measures that demonstrate how important and relevant the culture still is, especially in countries outside of the United States. Building institutions that create workable solutions beyond simply capital, and creating new strategies to address many issues, is also a part of its value. Earlier this year, in April, I had a chance to return to the Trinity International Hip Hop Festival in Hartford, Connecticut, which takes place each spring on the campus of Trinity College. The festival is organized by a student group, The Temple of Hip Hop, a national hip-hop organization with chapters around the country. Based in Newark, the organization is currently under the faculty advisement of Dr. Seth Markle and cultural/spiritual advisor David Tavares, also known as Minister Server. The festival runs over the course of four days, and has workshops, panel discussions, film screenings, art exhibits, breaking battles, and live performances that occur on campus and at various sites in the greater Hartford area.
This year was a celebration of twenty years of existence, which meant that many alums of the Temple and past community contributors, including me, were invited back to reflect on, reminisce, and witness the festival in its current form. Two of its original founders, Magee McIlvaine and their friend Jason Acevedo, were underclassmen in 2006; they built on the work that the Temple of Hip Hop had done with artists in the community, and pulled stakeholders together from the campus and Hartford community to host the first festival. Since then, the festival has grown tremendously, going from a two-day to a four-day event, and bringing to the campus hip-hop pioneers and legends such as KRS-One, Kool Herc, MC Lyte, and Rakim.They’ve brought international legends as well, including K’anaan of Somalia, Anna Tioux of Chile, Bocafloja of Mexico, and Emil YX of South Africa amongst countless others.
The power and significance of the festival can’t be overstated, as it is still the only festival in the United States that centers not only international rap artists and breakers but also community organizers, scholars, and activists from around the world. The gathering in and of itself is proof that the culture’s reach and relevance still hold considerable weight; it continues to attract some of the most important figures in the culture from other parts of the world.
Over the past two decades, the festival has celebrated and lifted up countless changemakers who not only identify as “hip hoppers” but use the skills, talents, and values they learned from the culture to impact their communities in transformative ways. One of those individuals is Emile Jansen, known as “Emil YX,” a b-boy, emcee, and author of more than 50 books, essays, and writings. Emil is from Capetown, South Africa, and was based there for many years until moving to the States several years ago. However, his Heal the Hood project, which he started in 1998, has worked with thousands of students for almost thirty years, utilizing hip-hop cultural practices and traditions to help students with personal, professional, and academic development. As a founding member of the legendary South African crew Black Noise, Emil transformed his love and knowledge of the culture into a powerful organization giving vital services to elementary, high-school, and even postgraduate young people through entrepreneurial projects teaching life skills and practical business skills.
In his presentation during the festival, he showed the audience a video “mixtape” series that middle-school students had produced and distributed in their community for fundraising. This was one of many projects he outlined, and he spoke about bringing in younger members of his b-boy crew to serve as facilitators and administrative staff. With the ethos of the culture based in innovating and using knowledge of self to create and distribute creative works that both inform and entertain, Emil explained how it was his introduction to, immersion into, and practicing of the artistic elements of hip hop, fused with his political training and experience, that led him to form the Heal the Hood project. The focus is on using the culture to address particular needs of his community, which is not dissimilar from the mission of the Zulu nation, of which he is also a member.
This year’s festival highlighted several other important international figures, including Dumi Right, one half of pioneering Zimbabwean hip-hop crew Zimbabwe legit, the first African hip-hop group to be signed to a major label. Dumi’s story as an educator in the States, the impact hip hop has had on him, and his path toward working with students were reflected in his presentation. Additionally, a documentary screening on Afro beats in Cuba from Clenched Fist production showed how the culture helps in expressing the realities that those on the island endure. These are a few examples of how hip hop helps people from around the world not only reimagine their realities but reshape them through the cultural practice of hip hop.
The throughline for the festival—celebrating the impact hip hop has, locally as well as globally, and how the impact goes beyond its corporate and commercial value—has been the reason for the festival’s longevity. If hip hop was going to not only survive but thrive, it was inevitable that, like all of the black cultural exports, it would take root across the world and prove just as powerful abroad as it has been at home. Hip hop has offered new ways to educate, spread awareness, deepen community connections, and build strategies to address social justice issues, and even community material challenges. The Trinity International Hip Hop Festival was the first of its kind to bring together not only artists but also the changemakers and activists whose commitment and contributions to the culture have manifested such change for their communities.
