From Brooklyn Beats to Beirut Streets: Upcoming N.O. Events

If you're in the N.O., check out these upcoming events -- this Friday and Saturday, Palestine Hip-Hop and Spoken Word, and next Friday, 3/27, "Return/Recover/Resist/Rise Up" Liberation HipHop Concert as part of the Patois: New Orleans 6th Annual International Human Rights Film Festival.

Palestine Hip-Hop and Spoken Word

Please don't miss the exciting Palestine Solidarity performances this Friday and Saturday, at 5:00pm by Nizar Wattad, Omar Chakaki and Mark Gonzales. These performers are legendary founders of Palestinian hip-hop in the US, and their performances have captivated crowds around the world.

Friday's performance is a short set, where they will be performing as part of a series of many performers, and Saturday is a complete show.

Omar Chakaki is an architect/Hip-Hop artist born in the Middle East, and the founding member of N.O.M.A.D.S., a Syrian-Sudanese-American hip-hop group.

Mark Gonzales is a poet, educator, and organizer. He has traveled from the refugee camps of Palestine to the streets of Havana to Def Poetry Jam on HBO. He was awarded a fellowship at UCLA to bring hip-hop into the university curriculum.

Nizar Wattad is a screenwriter and hip-hop artist born in the Middle East. He is a producer of Free the P, first nationally distributed Arab hip-hop project.

See more information about the performers at at http://humanwritesproject.org.

State of the Nation Performance Festival
http://www.sonfestival.org

1) Spoken Word | Friday, March 20, 5:00pm
St. Roch Market Neutral Ground of St. Roch Ave. at Marais St.

2) Performance | Saturday, March 21, 5:00pm
The Studio at Colton 2300 St. Claude Ave.

Brooklyn Beats to Beirut Streets by Human Writes Project
Spoken Word
Saturday, March 21
5-6 pm

An energetic, informative and often startling presentation in spoken-word and rhyme, 'Brooklyn Beats to Beirut Streets' traces the artists' development alongside the birth and growth of Hip-Hop, in a reading of the world through their words. This poetic performance is an intersection of cultures sharing space on a stage that gives voice to marginalized histories, challenges the audience to re-examine worldviews, and indicts individuals and institutions for historical atrocities committed in the name of democracy.

Human Writes Project is poet and educator Mark Gonzales (an Alaskan-born Muslim Mexican-American) and hip-hop artists Nizar Wattad and Omar Chakaki (hailing from Palestine and Syria, respectively). Sparked by the demonization of Arabs and Muslims after September 11, Chakaki and Wattad began performing hip-hop and spoken word across the USA in an attempt to counter widespread media bias. They met Mr. Gonzales at an awareness-raising benefit concert, and the three realized that despite vast differences in their upbringings, they were united by a particular world-view, informed by the emerging and rapidly evolving art from known as Hip-Hop.

"Return/Recover/Resist/Rise Up" Liberation Hip-Hop Concert

Friday, March 27, 9:30pm
Ray's Boom Boom Room
508 Frenchmen St
$10

The sound of liberation, from New Orleans to Detroit to New York to Gaza. Featuring: Wise Intelligent (from the legendary hiphop pioneers Poor Righteous Teachers), Invincible (Detroit hiphop star and Jewish anti-Zionist activist), Mohammad Al-Farra (From Gaza's first hiphop group Palestine Rappers), Sabreena Da Witch (The First Palestinian R&B Singer), Truth Universal (Trinidad born, New Orleans based, Afrikan liberation), and Dee-1 (New Orleans conscious hiphop), plus films and guest speakers.