Hip Hop School of Palestine

Nadim Al Ayaseh, Artist & Media Activist : +970569094880, NadimAlayaseh@gmail.com

Mohammed Ghanayem, Artist & Media Activist : +970592794263, hajjcontroller@gmail.com

Moises Lopez, Hip-Hop Educator & Activist: +19178217682, ML3397@tc.columbia.edu

Statement of the Problem or Need:

• There are many kinds of Art that is marginalized in Palestine. Music especially, and Hip Hop precisely. That is due to many reasons. First of all, occupation, Palestine is an occupied country and its citizens did not get independence and freedom since a long time. Therefore, its people has many priorities to look for such as making a living, education and durability in the land. They will not have time or a potential to do an art work. But when they do it they do it creatively. Secondly, Palestine is a developing country. More than 25% of the Palestinians live under the poverty line. Hence, when a talented child or a young man tries to put his talent into practice he does not find the needed equipments available. Not only this, but in the West Bank a person finds it hard to publish an art work when done. Especially when this kind of art is not familiar to the society such as Rap & Hip Hop and Graffiti. Finally, the nature of the society, its traditions and customs that sometimes do not accept some types of arts. Therefore, there should be an organization or an establishment that deal with talented children and youth who are eager to learn and develop their talents as musicians and artists. Art in its different fields is marginalized disproportionately in occupied West Bank. Nevertheless, children, women and youth in the West Bank lived under siege and war for a long time and the violence affected their psychological state negatively. Therefore, we see in music such as Rap and Hip Hop and the arts related to it help this part of the society express the feelings they have and the ideas that was created because of the situation that they lived in.

Statement of the Problem or Need:

• Not only this, but people in the West Bank are closed to the outside community specially the young of them. Hence, Music can open the door widely for them to interact and exchange the ideas and the talents with other people in the other parts of the world and make their message reach the free people in the world. It is right that there is no freedom of transportation in Palestine, but nobody can prevent a child to sing, write or express his feelings. The people in Palestine are not cultured in many music genres. Therefore this project can help a part of the community to have a knowledge that can spread out the country. All this is regarding to the lack of the music organizations that supports or teach music. There are no musical schools in Palestine that teach any kind of youth music such as Rap & Hip Hop & Rock or alternative music. So this project will be the first that teaches the rules of rhyme, flow, writing methods and performance. We have experienced with some social work with children that they have no idea about the Hip Hop music and culture. In our teaching practices we can show how perhaps musical schools in Palestine do not teach Hip-Hop because there is this preconceived notion that Hip-Hop has the values and standards of USA. We must shift the perceptions.

Project Deliverables and Beneficiaries:

• Indeed, The project gives the opportunity to any Palestinian artist or talented person the ability to get the moral support to develop the talents and the experience he has. That is by providing the equipments needed and the trainings required in order to build a group of qualified musicians, rappers and writers. This will go through a process of trainings engaging professional or experienced trainers and musicians. The project will embrace the arising creative and talented artists and will give them the support to continue their artistic march in what serves the humanitarian work that supports poor people and who live under conflicts such as making songs about children in Syria, Gaza, Iraq, Bosnia and other places where there are repeated violations against humanity.

Project Deliverables and Beneficiaries:

• This will give the artists the motivation and the self confidence to keep working on themselves to get benefited and help others as well. Further, children who have disabilities or who suffer from chronic diseases can get benefited from the project by living an atmosphere during the project that can help them step away from pain. Such as children with diabetes, cancer and blind children. That will connect them and will make them an active and optimistic members in the society.

• However, we have many connections to other Palestinian rappers, Arab rappers and international musicians. Therefore, the talented people who is involved in the project can have a direct communication with them via internet and social networks and give them the chance to join in video making and songs writing. Nevertheless, the project will help the rising artists to publish their work locally and internationally in radios, social networks TVs and other media industries.

Strategic Context: • Because Art and Music can have a humanitarian message.

Therefore, the project can deliver a message to the world that have a motivational step towards peace and nonviolence using music as a tool that can represent humanity and love. Utilizing Hip-Hop as a way to represent the energy of youth and their ideas in resolving conflicts to believe in a better future for all. Nations can get to know each other through Art instead of conflicts and wars. Reality prevents us from living free. Our freedom is the words and the instrumentals that are mixed together to create the hope for success. With no discrimination between colors, religion and gender.

Time Factors:

• We should start the project before September, 2015 as quickly as possible. This include preparing the place, staff and administration committee. Training courses duration will range between 1 month to 3 months ( 1 to 3 ) meetings per week.

Project Expenses: • There is no fixed amount for the budget that is needed to run

the project. There are two different types of expenses needed. First of all, the implementation expenses for trainers and trainees who will teach and train in the project, this include transportation and salary depending on the period and the effort. The second type is the post-implementation expenses are for the rental of the place that will be used to do the trainings this includes water, electricity, phone and internet bills that is needed for running the project. These expenses help the continuity of running the project that will not stop at any point throughout the years. It is continual over the weeks and months.

Expenses/Funds needed for

• Place rental/building

• Equipments

• Transportation

• Bills

• Staff & Trainers Salaries

The requests: • Equipments (Broken down by element and additional section for overall materials

needed for project at large.)

• Breakdance equipments: Dance Floor, Mirrors, Instructors, mats, (List additional equipment)

• DJ Equipments: Turntables and additional materials. (List additional equipment)

• MC EQuipments: Beat Making lab including studio, and engineering equipment, and performance practice space.

• Graffiti: Walls, Sprays, instructors.

• Overall Materials:

• Trainers, organizers, key positions to start- coordinator, researcher, marketing. (Decide positions)

• physical center or space: “Establishment or physical center”, must be a center of healing, the war and negative emotions have affected us, we are focusing on removing the “Negative Psychological states”, we would like a space we can create art, music, a network space for events, performances, ceremonies, lectures, educational space, a platform website where they can network. (The physical location will include the materials and space to create music videos etc.)

The requests: • A network space via the internet that includes

social media etc. This could be included in addition to the physical space, in order for marketing, event calendar, and information storage.

The requests:

Starting from the administration room at the working apartment/building in Bethlehem that will organize the project from the zero point. The place of the organization will be close to where people live in the city of Bethlehem. Transportation will be easy to reach for participants, trainees and artists. The place will be open for people and for tourists and activists who visit Bethlehem, and not to forget that it will be close the holy places in Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

The requests:

However, the place should include the following rooms: • Meeting Room • Administration Room • Employees Offices • Sound Recording Studio Department • Media Department: Video Making/Editing Department • Guests Room (Including the reception) • Teaching Rooms (Basics, Theories, Culture, Poetry,

Leadership, History, Writing and History) • Break Dance Training Room • A square for Graffiti painting and learning.

Conclusion

• Moving from Bethlehem locally by bringing the staff and the artist needed to the organization to the surrounding cities in Palestine such as Hebron, Jerusalem and Ramallah and the marginalized villages. Moreover, a video conference and online workshops with Rappers in Gaza that is becoming familiar day after day because of using it as a way to resist against the war and the Israeli inhumane violations. And then using the unity of the Palestinian artists and trainees to make a cooperation and a joint work with other artists and Hip Hop fans in the middle east. Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan in particular. Subsequently we link the West with the middle east by using the language of music and words that unite the free people. We did not discover music, but music has found us. The doors have opened for us widely to the people all over world, and music has given us the knowledge about the other who is a human, just like you despite all differences.

For More info:

• Global@HiphopCosmiccircle.com