The Hip-Hop Theater Festival Returns To New York City
Published: Tuesday - September 23, 2008
Words by Miles Bennett
Hip-Hop Theater Festival (Photo: hhtf.org)
The Hip-Hop Theater Festival (HHTF) brings their festival back home, as it kicks off this week at several venues across New York City. It aims to showcase the artistic form of hip-hop culture through fully-produced theater works, staged readings, educational panels, dance showcases and workshops.
On Tuesday, September 23 the festival kicks off at NYU's Skirball Center with renowned poet and spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph's much-anticipated the break/s. Inspired by Jeff Chang's 2005 award winning Can't Stop Won't Stop, the break/s is a breakthrough multimedia performance that explores the artist's emergence in a time of hip-hop globalization and trans-nationalism.
Then, for the first time, the Hip-Hop Theater Festival has partnered with the Public Theater to present an unprecedented tour across all five boroughs free of charge. In the play "Taking Over," the festival's founder and award-winning actor Danny Hoch takes on gentrification through nine expertly performed roles. As a native New Yorker who has witnessed firsthand the many colors, complexities and contradictions that reflect gentrification, Hoch presents a unique forum for thought and discussion. Past performances yielded top-notch reviews from its run at the Berkeley Repertory Theater.
On October 1 at the Skirball Center for Performing Arts, the HHTF will also present the Hip-Hop remix of Voices: A Peoples History of the United States. The project is a unique collaboration between Anthony Arnove and Howard Zinn, the authors of Voices and HHTF, as they set to ignite and honor the voices from America's progressive history of activism as read by some of today's hottest talent from the hip-hop generation. Uniquely fashioned as a night of theater, this one time event promises to be a unique fuse of multi-generational artists and performers, celebrating the courageous participants of history that gave birth to arguably the most powerful generation of Americans yet, the post-civil rights generation of hip-hop heads from Chuch D to Eminem.
"In the past, the Hip-Hop Theater Festival has focused on introducing the hip-hop culture to other cities. This year, we are extremely excited to bring the festival back home," states Clyde Valentin, event producer and executive director of the Hip-Hop Theater Festival. "It has been such an amazing opportunity to work alongside recognizable organizations such as NYU’s Skirball Center and the Public Theater to educate the city about the culture and art so ingrained in its history. With this collaboration, we believe this going to be our best festival yet."
The festival will run through October 11 at several different locations. For a complete list of events or more information, visit HHTF.org.
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