Festival elevates hip-hop into realms of poetry and politics

By Young Chang
Seattle Times staff reporter

Members of the BYC Breakers, a break-dancing group, designed the graffiti art for the set of the "Back to its Roots" hip-hop festival.

To those who wonder, "What's happening with our youth?," Jacqueline Moscou offers some answers. The artistic director of the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center is overseeing a hip-hop arts festival this weekend. But don't expect any of what Moscou calls "rap crap": that is, the commercialized rap with the "shake your booty" lyrics, the sort that furthers the thug stereotype.

Instead, the hip-hop Moscou speaks of includes spoken-word performances dealing with subjects like war and politics, and dance numbers celebrating the art of creativity.

"The young community, they're really not getting a voice," she said. "You hear about crime and thugs but you really don't hear that these kids actually understand the war going on in Iraq."

The three-day festival, themed "Back to its Roots," aims to showcase art that resembles the original pre-gangsta hip-hop of the '70s.

Performances will be given by Esai, a spoken-word poet; a hip-hop duo named "The Silent Lamb Project"; Seattle's Finest, a hip-hop troupe that mixes gymnastics, tap, break dancing and modern hip-hop; "The Prophetics," a speaking duo that tackles subjects like war, peace and commercialism; and visual-arts galleries and workshops.

"It really does speak to the young people today," Moscou said of the program. "They're excited about poetry, music, they grew up on the media and they're excited about cross-pollinating media."

Moscou, director of the annual "Black Nativity" at Intiman Theatre, adds that placing hip-hop acts in a theater elevates them to the "status of the art."

The theater "is not a TV," she said. "You have lights, you have sound, it's a sanctuary."

Dax Carson, a 26-year-old choreographer with the BYC Breakers, a troupe that mixes break dancing and hip-hop, said the experience offers him a chance to put his art "out there."

" 'Cause that's what it's really about," he said. "The more experience you can accumulate, the better artist you can be, the more you can hone your craft."

Carson's ultimate goal?

"It would be great someday to maybe — once we have a real concrete production of some sort, something we really have down pat — to take it to the next level and go touring with it," he said.