Prison windows. Image via Flickr (cc) user weirdo513.

From illiterate street kid, to world renowned poet, Jimmy Santiago Baca has lived a long and winding path.  It was in prison that Baca connected with his Native American and Chicano heritage, and began learning the lessons of his people’s past. On this edition, Progressive Magazine editor Matthew Rothschild sits down with Jimmy Santiago Baca.

Special thanks to the Progressive Magazine.

Featuring:

Jimmy Santiago Baca, poet and educator; Matthew Rothschild, Progressive Magazine Editor.

For More Information:

Jimmy Santiago Baca
A Place to Stand
Progressive Radio Show
Safe Streets Arts Foundation
Red Lodge Transition Services
Friends of Red Lodge
American Indian Prison Pen Pals
Prison Education.com
The Progressive Magazine

Articles, Blogs, Reports and Videos:

Jimmy Santiago Baca Reads Selections from his Work Before an Audience at La Jolla’s  Sherwood Auditorium
Healing Earthquakes by Jimmy Santiago Baca
19 poems by Jimmy Santiago Baca

Music:

“Spirits Abandoned” by Dark Noontide

Oakland, CA Scraper krew, image courtesy of flickr user vkdir.

Communities across the country have embraced locally-grown food, fuel-efficient cars and other forms of environmentalism. While African-Americans haven’t been on widely credited, they are amongst the vanguard creating positive change. On this edition, we take you to a resettlement community in North Carolina, sustainable farms in Wisconsin and on a bike ride in California, where local black communities are making long-term impacts on the environment.

Special thanks to producers Zoe Sullivan and Alton Byrd.

Featuring:

Robert Pierce, marketing manager of South Madison Farmer’s Market, Madison coordinator for Growing Power; Shelley Pierce, staff member of Growing Power; Javier Vasquez, intern at Growing Power-Madison; Paris Mogo, agriculture extension officer in Nairobi, Kenya; Gary R. Grant, executive director of Concerned Citizens of Tillery, and other Tillery residents; Jenna Burton and Nick James, founders of Red, Bike and Green.

Audio Extras

Wisconsin farmers
In largely rural Wisconsin, the state’s Department of Agriculture says there are only 63 farms owned by African Americans, out of more than 73,000 in operation today.  But a few of those remaining black farmers are trying reconnect the black community with their not-so-distant past, and help improve their community’s health in the process.  From Madison, Zoe Sullivan has the story.

For More Information: 

South Madison Farmer’s Market Madison, WI
The Afri-Can FoodBasket North York, On Canada
Concerned Citizens of Tillery Tillery, NC
Red, Bike and Green Oakland, CA
Growing Power
Outdoor Afro
Life Is Living
Rooted in Community
The Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association
People of Kolor Everyday Ridin’
Critical Mass

Articles/Videos, etc.:

Pigford v. Glickman
Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University’s exhibit: “Remembering Tillery: Our Community, Our Own Land”

Music:

“Tibetan Serenity” by Travis Bigg
“I Shall Not Be Moved” by Joyful Sound Gospel
“Soul Pride” by James Brown

Jennifer Johns peforms outside of an Oxford, MS debate. Photo courtesy of flickr user greenforall.org

The arts have played an essential role in defining our history and our culture. Yet when economic times are hard, the arts are seen as a luxury we can do without. For many cultural activists, supporting and preserving the arts is fundamental to create social awareness, environmental sustainability and political change. On this edition, we bring you the voices of artists discussing their mediums and how they use art to change the world.

Special thanks to Michael Orange, Top Ten Social Speaker Series and Oakland School of the Arts, Black Box Theatre.

Featuring:

Moderated by Abel Habtegeoris, media relations manager at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights; Marc Bamuthi Joseph, artistic director at Life is Living, artist cultural activist; Jennifer Johns, founder of Go Live, singer, songwriter and Rich Medina, DJ, music producer and poet.

WEB EXCLUSIVES

Full panel discussion, ‘The God’s Must Be Crazy: Reviving the Black Supernatural Experience, Black Box Theatre, Oakland, CA on June 30, 2011. Note: contains explicit language’.

Q&A with panel, moderated by Abel Habtegeoris of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

—–

For More Information:

Life is Living
Youth Speaks
Word Strike
Top Ten Social
Go Live:Real Food
Rich Medina
Smithsonian Folkways
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Americans for the Arts

Books/Articles:

Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution: Music and Social Change in America by Dick
Weissman,

Culture Before Politics: In freeing creativity, progressives can once again
capture and carry forward our national imagination, by Jeff Chang
and Brian Komar | December 9, 2010

Artists in a Time Of War, By Howard Zinn

Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop by Jeff Chang

Arrest the Music!: Fela and His Rebel Art and Politics (African Expressive
Cultures) by Tejumola Olaniyan

Music:

Fela Kuti, Shakara, Album: The Best of the Black President (Deluxe Version)
Fela Kuti, ROYAT , Oct 2009

The Brass Liberation Orchestra at the Honk! Festival.

There’s an Emma Goldman saying that goes something like this: “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be a part of your revolution!” In the past decade, more and more political marching bands have been invigorating social movements. In some cases, they’re the protest themselves. On this edition, we look at how musicians are stirring up public spaces; from the streets, to supermarkets to your Facebook feed.

Featuring:

Sarah Valentine, musician, Hungry March Band; Daniel Lang-Levitsky, musician, Rude Mechanical Orchestra; Michele Hardesty, founding (and former) member of the Rude Mechanical Orchestra; Jenna Barrett, musician, Infernal Noise Brigade; I-Ching, musician, Infernal Noise Brigade; Grey Filastine, musician, Infernal Noise Brigade; Ronica Sanyal, vocalist and musician, Infernal Noise Brigade; Jamie Spector, founding member, Brass Liberation Orchestra; Sarah Norr, musician, Brass Liberation Orchestra; Ofir Uziel, musician, Brass Liberation Orchestra.

—

Marching to the Beat of their Own Drums

Marching bands from North Carolina to Portland, Oregon are bringing humor, politics, and a unique sound to the streets – many of them with a message of social justice.  Once a year, many of these street bands travel to Massachusettes for the Honk Festival. Sarah Danson has more about the festival, and the historical and political traditions that fuel their music.

—

The Life and Death of the Infernal Noise Brigade

While there are now dozens of street bands around the country and abroad, one from Seattle is known to have been an inspiration. The Infernal Noise Brigade debuted at the Seattle WTO protests in 1999. Jill Freidberg from KBCS in Seattle has their story.

—

Street Bands Bring Protest to the Internet through Flash Mobs

But some bands are getting more creative about making a political spectacle, by becoming the protest themselves, and using the internet to make their message viral. Making Contact’s Pauline Bartolone knows all about it. Her roommates are in a band called the Brass Liberation Orchestra in San Francisco.

—

For more information:

Brass Liberation Orchestra
San Francisco Bay Area, CA

Brass Messengers
Minneapolis, MN

Honk! Festival of Activist Street Bands
Somerville, MA

Hungry March Band
New York, NY

Infernal Noise Brigade
Seattle, WA

Pink Puffers
Rome, Italy

Rude Mechanical Orchestra
New York, NY

Videos, etc:

‘Don’t Get Caught in a Bad Hotel’ — BLO flash mob action

‘Caught in a Bad Hotel’ = The Future of Protest?

‘Hey Mackey’ flash mob action

Music:

‘Heavy Brass’ – Pink Puffers
‘Bella Ciao’ – Brass Messengers
‘Underground’
‘That Moanin’ Trombone’
Various songs by the Infernal Noise Brigade
‘Hey Mackey’ – Brass Liberation Orchestra
‘Bad Hotel’ – Brass Liberation Orchestra
‘BLO Secondline’ – Brass Liberation Orchestra
‘RomaRama’ – Brass Liberation Orchestra

Jason Smith Candlelight Vigil; Photo courtesy of Madeleine Bair

In May 2010, New York prosecutors issued an extradition request for Jamaican Kingpin Christopher Coke – gangster to some, local hero to others. The search for Coke triggered a government crackdown on the neighborhood of Tivoli Gardens in Kingston, leaving 73 civilians dead in a span of just a few days.

The majority of those victims were innocent and their loved ones continue to fight for justice and accountability, despite Jamaica’s long record of police violence and government corruption. Today we bring you a documentary on police violence in Jamaica.

Special thanks to Madeleine Bair for producing this story, with support from Jamaicans for Justice and the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

Featuring:

Paulette Wellington, mother of Sheldon Wellington, Earl Witter, Jamaican Public Defender, Carolyn Gomes, Jamaicans for Justice, Susan Goffe, Jamaicans for Justice, Monica Williams, mother of Jason Smith and activist, and Dr. Ademola Odunfa, Kingston Hospital.

— WEB EXCLUSIVES —

Victims Voices: Paulette Rose

For More Information:

Jamaicans for Justice
Jamaica Human Rights
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica

Articles and Books:
A Case Built in New York Against a Jamaican Kingpin
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Jamaica Report
Amnesty International Report 2003 – Jamaica
Amnesty International May 27, 2010, calling for an investigation
Jamaican Forces Accused of Killing Unarmed Men, New York Times
January Jamaica Gleaner article on Witter’s investigations

MUSIC:
Urban’s fight, The Drastics off the album-Chicago Massive
The Alarm, The Drastics off the album-Chicago Massive

Rinku Sen at Pop!Tech 2009 in Camden, ME

Racism in the American media goes back even further than the founding of the US. Now, media consolidation and shrinking news budgets are threatening to make things even worse.

On this edition, a discussion on Race and the American Media, from the 2011 National Conference on Media Reform, featuring Democracy Now’s Juan Gonzalez, Rinku Sen from the Applied Research Center, and the first woman of color to anchor a major network news show, Carole Simpson.

Special thanks to Free Press.

Featuring:

Juan Gonzalez, Democracy Now co-host and NY Daily News writer; Rinku Sen, Applied Research Center president and executive director & Colorlines Magazine publisher; Carole Simpson, first woman of color to anchor a major network news show & Emerson College Department of Journalism Leader-in-Residence

— WEB EXCLUSIVES —

Full length panel discussion on Race and the American Media from the 2011 National Conference on Media Reform, featuring Carole Simpson, Juan Gonzalez, Loris Ann Taylor, Rinku Sen & moderated by Joseph Torres

—–

For More Information:

Video and Audio archives of the entire 2011 National Conference on Media Reform
The Applied Research Center
Colorlines
Democracy Now
Free Press
The Op-Ed Project
Center for Media Justice
The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC)
New America Media
Save the News

Articles and Books:

Timeline of the Latino Press in the United States
Few people of Color in AlterNet’s Poll of Most Influential Progressives
The Pittsburgh Courier
Public Subsidies and Policy Interventions For News Media
Publick Occurrences-America’s First Newspaper

Music:

Patriotism by Company Flow
Shut Em Down ( Pete Rock Remix)- Public Enemy

Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks Source: www.globalcrisisnews.com

The controversy over WikiLeaks has deep implications for the future of free speech in the Internet era. Beyond journalistic and national security issues that stem from the website, other concerns need to be considered as well.

On this edition, we take you to a panel discussion focused on the importance of WikiLeaks within a legal, business and technology framework. Does the public have the right to know the secrets of its government? Should private companies keep commercial interests ahead of public interest? What role does the Internet hold for whistleblowers?

Special thanks to the Real News Network

Featuring:

Daniel Ellsburg, former State and Defense Department official prosecuted for releasing the Pentagon Papers; Clay Shirky, independent Internet professional and Adjunct Professor, Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University; Roy Singham, Founder and Chairman of ThoughtWorks; Peter Thiel, President of Clarium Capital and Managing Partner of Founder’s Fund; Jonathon Zittrain, Law and Computer Science Professor at Harvard University, Co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society; Paul Jay, CEO and Senior Editor of the Real News Network.

For more information:

Berkman Center for Internet & Society

Bradley Manning Support Network

Center for Democracy and Technology

Daniel Ellsberg’s website

Jonathon Zittrain’s Future of the Internet

The Real News Network

WikiLeaks

Retirement is for the rest and relaxation that eludes us during our working years. But some people use their golden years to work for change in their communities.

On this edition, we profile three elders who became activists in the second half of their lives. We visit Appalachia, New England, and the streets of Oakland, California.

From left: Margaret Gordon of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, Hubie Jones of Boston Children's Chorus and Bo Webb, of Mountain Justice. Credit: Civic Ventures.

Featuring:

Bo Webb, Mountain Justice Co-Founder; Hubie Jones, Boston Children’s Chorus Founder; Margaret Gordon, West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project Co-Founder and Co-Director.

Contributing producer: Shaunnah Ray

For More Information:

Boston Children’s Chorus
Boston, MA

Coal River Mountain Watch
Naoma, WV

Encore Careers

Mountain Justice
Whitesville, WV

Pacific Institute
Oakland, CA

Purpose Prize

West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project
Oakland, CA

Music:

Appalachian Waltz – Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Mark O’Conner
International Orchitis – 21^st Century Dub
Uberlebensgross – Boston Children’s Chorus
Dreams – Boston Children’s Chorus
Song of the Zaytoon Trees – Boston Children’s Chorus
Up to the Mountain – Boston Children’s Chorus

Gift economies in practice in Mali Credit: Photographer Andy Lin

This past holiday season, charitable organizations were hit with the troubling combination of increased need and dwindling resources. But in hard times, people find ways to take care of themselves, and each other. On this edition, we continue our series “How We Survive”, a look into how communities around the U.S. are responding to the economic crisis. This week… people meet each others’ needs, without charity, or even exchanging a dollar.

Featuring:

Danette Truso, Yvonne Pugh and Al Miller, Sobrante Park Time Bank participants; Paul Butler, Sobrante Park Time Bank co-administrator; Craig White, Center for Participatory Change staff member; Coumba Toure, Ashoma Fellow with Institute of Public Education; Shilpa Jain, former Shikshantar worker and gift economy participant; Larry Harvey, Burning Man Founder; Skip, Burning Man Elder Camp member.

Contributing Producer: Rachel Wallis with Other Worlds

—

Time Banking: A Community’s Route Around Poverty

by Megan Martenyi

During a recession, times are tough all around. But for many low income communities across the US, getting by has been a struggle for quite some time. Take Oakland, California for example, where unemployment and security have been a concern since before the housing bubble burst. That’s why one East Oakland neighborhood – called Sobrante Park – decided to try a different economic model in their community. Making Contact’s Megan Martenyi reports.

—

Appalachians say Community Support is More Important than Charity

by Tena Rubio

A study released by The Center for Participatory Change in North Carolina says horizontal giving – or informal giving based on already existing family or friend relationships – happens all the time among low-income and marginalized communities in Appalachia. The non-profit talked with over 100 Hmong people, African Americans, Latinos and white Appalachians, who said overwhelmingly that horizontal giving played a more significant role than vertical giving, which came in the form of charity from outside the community. Making Contact’s Tena Rubio talked to Craig White of the Center for Participatory Change, about their report.

—

‘Gifting’ in Mali and India – A Way of Life

by Rachel Wallis of the Other Worlds Collective

Advertisements fill the airways with messages to show love through the purchase of a diamond or a video game. Yet for many people around the world, giving happens all the time. The Other Worlds collaborative, a network of activists, artists and media producers, seeks to amplify the voices involved in gift economies. Rachel Wallis, media coordinator for the group, has more about a practice in the West African nation of Mali and beyond.

——

Burning Man’s ‘Gift Economy’

by Andrew Stelzer

No commerce is allowed at Burning Man. It’s one of the most unusual economic structures in the world–a ‘gift economy’. Making Contact producer Andrew Stelzer’s been there, and sat down with Larry Harvey, the festival’s founder, to find out how it all works.

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Burning Man Founder Larry Harvey

by Andrew Stelzer

The full length interview with Burning Man founder Larry Harvey, discussing the roots and details of how the festivals’ ‘gift economy’ works.

—-

For More Information:

Burning Man
San Francisco, CA

Center for Participatory Change
Asheville, NC

Freecycle

The Gift Economy

Giving Within Communities:
CPC’s Research on Horizontal Giving

Horizontal Philanthropy:
The Importance of Giving in Low Wealth Communities

Other Worlds
Albuquerque, MN

Shikshantar
Rajasthan, India

Time Banking Sobrante Park
Oakland, CA

Articles, Blogs, Films, Reports, Other

‘Sweat Equity / In this East Oakland community time really is money’
by Rob Baedeker, SF Gate

‘Reclaiming health: Residents battle to overcome health inequities‘
by Suzanne Bohan and Sandy Kleffman
Contra Costa Times

‘Oakland fences off Tyrone Carney Park, home of brazen drug gang‘
by Jim Herron Zamora, Chronicle Staff Writer

Cuba is ripe with change. The government is opening up to private enterprise, and has urged the US to ease trade restrictions. Even Fidel Castro is musing about everything from the economic model to the treatment of gays.

Magia Lopez (left) and Alexey Rodiguez (right) of the Cuban Hip Hop group, 'Obsesion.' Credit: Oriana Eliçabe

On this edition, we hear about hip-hop and change in Cuban society, and what people on the ground are saying about new phases in the Cuban revolution.

Thanks to Sujata Dey for producing this radio documentary.

Featuring:

Alexey Rodriguez, hip-hop artist, co-founder of Obsesion; Magia Lopez, hip-hop artist, co-founder Obsesion; Roberto Ruiz Rebo, filmmaker and journalist for Cuban television; Roberto Zurbano, editor of Movimiento, and worker at the Casa de la Cultura Latinoamericana in Havana.

For More Information:

Agencia Cubana de Rap
Cuba

Cuba Absolutely
Concord, Ontario, Canada

Cuba Now!

Cuban Solidarity Network USA
Chicago, IL

Cubarte (website about Cuban Culture)

Pastors for Peace
New York, NY

Union de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (Cuban Writers and Artists Union)
Cuba

Articles and Videos:

Interview with ‘Obsesion’ – Cuban Hiphop

‘Obsesion’ on Myspace

‘Obsesion’ on Youtube:

Music:

‘Los Pelos’ – Obsesion

Guasabara – Obsesion

‘Niche’ – Magia MC (Obsesión)

-‘Son de la Loma’ – trova music by the Barbados

‘26^th of July March’ – Augustin Diaz

Nueva trova music by Pablo Milanes

———–TRANSCRIPT————

(sound of video of rappers in Regla)

DEY: Alexey Rodriguez Rodriguez Mola and Magia Lopez Lopez groove to the hip hop beat just as well as anyone else, East Coast or West.   Their beats are catchy, their rhymes profound. But they are not from L.A. or New York, they are from Regla, Cuba, a poor community with a rural character, just across the bay from Havana.In the 19^th century, free black slaves immigrated to Regla and it remains a centre of Afro-Cubain culture.

In their video, Los Pelos, Alexey and Magia are dressed in large, bright, African-inspired shirts. They’re rapping on the pastel coloured, ragged streets of Regla.

Since 1996, Alexey and Magia have performed to crowds all over the world and on television.  Like most artists, you can catch them on MySpace or Youtube.   Despite restrictions, many Cuban artists have access to the internet through state agencies.

But the two are just as happy to be back in Regla helping their community. They are politically conscious rappers.  You won’t hear themdon’t rhyme so much about the Castros or politics, but  about the black experience, machismo, sexism, and inequality.  Alexey explains.

Alexei: We are very interested that people know that it is a black couple speaking.  Always, we take that subject, the subject of blackness is very, very ,very, very important to us.  When I picked up a book about Malcolm X,  We saw the book like Poof.  It was like “pow”  This was when we learned about much figures in the US like Black Panthers Ananda and Assata.  We learned many things, no?   And then, it was a little while very well, like, good,  why am I learning things about another country, when I know nothing about my own.   And then, my own country started to interest me.  It was a result of learning this history that I had much much more interest in my own country.

DEY:  In some ways, Alexey and Magia are modern-day Cuban revolutionaries trying to correct injustices.  They take after their forefathers, insurgents from the 1959 Cuban Revolution.

(Music, Son de la Loma)

DEY:  The barbados, or bearded ones, as they were called, also had a penchant for music and justice.

Son de la loma is one popular trova associated with Fidel Castro and his band of revolutionaries.  Trova was a musical genre played by guitar-wielding troubadours who criss-crossed the country.  Son de la loma was played on their own pirate radio station, Radio Rebelde.  It was played so much so that it was banned by the capitalist Cuban regime led by Fulgencio Batista.

Batista’s regime was seen by many as corrupt. The United States owned most of the island’s industries.

Roberto Ruiz Rebo: … before 1959, all the presidents in Cuba—the vast majority—were more interested in filling their pockets. And to fill their pockets, they had to serve the purposes of the United States.  You know, during Batista’s regime, there were a lot of assassinations on the street of the young people who protested in the street against the regime.  In fact, Fidel led one of the biggest movement that finally defeated the tyranny.

(26^th of July March)

DEY:  Fidel Castro and Che Guevara’s 26^th of July Movement aimed to bring ideals of equality to the island.

In 1957, the Marcha del 26 de Julio, or 26^th of July March, was composed by one of the members of the movement: Augustin Diaz.  The song talks of a time of liberty, peace and prosperity away from insatiable tyrants.

Musicians were recruited from amongst the top Cuban musicians of the day, those who played in luxury hotels: Carlos Faxes of the Faxes quartet and others.

The song had to be recorded clandestinely.  To get recording time, they claimed to be recording songs to distribute freely to radio stations.  They rehearsed in moving cars so that they wouldn’t be caught by the capitalist authorities.

The anti-Batista movement from which the song came was banned, and Castro, exiled.  But eventually, they returned and toppled Batista on January 1^st, 1959.

( Sound from old newsreel: (music) From his foxhole in the Sierra Maestra mountains, Cuba’s Fidel Castro emerges triumphant after two years of guerrilla fighting against the Batista regime.)

DEY: 39At first, Castro tried to maintain good relations with the United States.  He said he was more inspired by Roosevelt than Lenin.  But as relations soured, Cuba became an ally of the Soviet Union.  Property owned by Americans was nationalized, angering the US.  Eventually, in 1960, trade with Cuba was deemed illegal.

But Cuba’s revolution has still managed to improve the standard of living for its citizens.

Ruiz says the revolution has given people very tangible things.

Roberto Ruiz Rebo: Fidel has given us pride, has given education, has given the possibility of having medical assistant for every Cuban.  He has made sure that no Cuban goes to bed without having something to eat.

DEY:  In fact, since the revolution, Cuba has the lowest level of income inquality in Latin AmericaCuba ity in Latin America.  W. While Cuba is one of the countries with the lowest per capita GDP, it ranks high in the United Nations Human Development Index, which measures of poverty, literacy, longevity, and general well being.  And it has the second highest literacy rate in the world, at almost 100 per cent.

And while Americans have just started to implement key elements of universal public health care, Cubans have been able to see doctors free of charge in neighborhood policlínicos for decades.

(Ambient market sounds)

DEY:   Back in the Cuban market, there is talk of change in the air.  In 2008, Fidel Castro transferred the leadership to Raul Castro, his younger brother.  A wave of reforms were launched: more access to the internet, the end of prohibitions to own cell phones, televisions, cars and other electronic goods which were previously restricted, and new busses from China.   In spring of 2010, more reforms were proposed: foreign investors were needed to invest in golf courses.  While they still weren’t allowed to own the land, they were allowed to lease it for 99 years.  There is a bill before Cuba’s national assembly to allow small businesses in Cuba.

The American media has begun to speculate about the end of communism on the island.

Roberto Ruiz Rebo says people might criticize the system, but they are not dissatisfied with the socialist state.   Cubans have many internal forums for debate. and often, between Cubans and not on the microphone, they will talk about how there can be more openness, better management and less bureaucracy. But they will also say they do not want to be where they were before the revolution.

Roberto Ruiz Rebo:  Every Cuban can give you their own approach about this matter.  And knowing as well that Cubans very polemic.  They have opinions on everything.  Every one of us will have a different opinion.  What I think and I can say that is that most of the Cuban people appreciate what Fidel has done and what he is still doing for the nation

DEY:  And changes have already emerged.  Ruiz says they have even been welcomed— by Fidel Castro.

Rebo:  In fact, he said that we will have to change everything that needs to be changed.  And he said that that is a real revolution.  There are small changes. Although I think that sometimes we are afraid of the word change.  I don’t  know why.  Maybe because our enemies have used many times that word .  But these are real changes.  I think the big turn has been the fact that Cubans have discussed openly what they think about what are the failures of the revolution and what are their achievement.  And they have done that without any pressure, without any fear, and that is a big turn.  Because before there was not that possibility.

(Magia singing.)

0:03 MUSIC

DEY:  24Meantime, Alexey and Magia’s raps were born out of another major change.   It was called the “special period,” a harsh economic recession in Cuba in the mid-1990s caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s main supporter. Fifteen years ago, Alexey was what many Americans often see on the news: a Cuban trying to get out on a raft. Magia explains:

Lopez: It was the special period.  There was nothing to do.  There were shortages of everything: food, clothing. Our generation … we believe ourselves to be youth, no?  It was very dramatic what we lived.  There wasn’t a lot going on.  There was prostitution, pimping, drugs, and everything else going on.  So people were asking: what do we do now?    Hip hop is our movement.  Instead of drugs and violence, we could write songs, we could sing, and we could and listen to this music. So the influence of hip hop was very positive for youth.  We would think of nothing but hip hop.

0:14 Alexey was working as a tour guide, Magia was studying communications.  After they met and married in 1993, they both founded the group.  At that time, hip hop was exploding in the Alamar neighbourhood East of Havana. ?DEY: Lopez:

DEY:  Alexey felt that during the special period, it was hip hop that saved his life.

Rodriguez: With hip hop, I was able to precisely speak of many things.  It gave me a very important voice, and influenced my self-esteem, it have me to possibility to grow.  In this neighbourhood, I learned very much.  It gave me values.

And because of this I divide my life into before and after hiphop.  Now, I could have been dead or in jail or god knows what, but hip hop has saved my life and people of my generation from many things.  Or something could have ended up badly in another country, you never know.

DEY: Often, Alexey and Magia rap about the same problems that Americans progressives do: racism, sexism, machismo, inequality.  They have taken their raps to do work in prisons, at the World Social Forum in Venezuela and to the Apollo theatre.,  They often use the black experience: Afro-Cuban music and poetry.  And also orishas, an Afro-Cuban religion.  Now, they rap with help of Assata Shakur, the Black Panther who fled the States after being convicted of killing a police officer.   Magia was inspired by meeting her.

( Magia Spanish)

Lopez:  In this time, for example, we had the presence of Nayanda and Assata.  Now, these were people who as well transmitted to us many things.  Much wisdom.  About how the US hip hop movement was being coopted and manipulated by the the media.  They were like lights to us.

0:04 Magia and Alexey try to bring both of their points of view to the table within a debate.  They feel that it is important to defend what each of them believes to be true.  says that

Rodriguez: Truth is not absolute, but we want to defend our truth.  To defend our truth, as Magia says.  Maya and I don’t agree on everything, but the same, we reflect on a song so that people will have access to debate, which is a weak point in Cuban society.

DEY: Other Cuban hip-hop artists rap about the same thing – change.

(background room sounds of the Casa de la cultura latinoamericana)

Roberto Zurbano works at the Casa de la cultura latinoamericana in Havana. He is the editor of Movimiento, a Cuban hip hop journal. Zurbano says that rap came from poor black, neighbourhoods which were especially hit by the special period.

Zurbano: During the economic crisis, the Cuban revolution could not give the same opportunities as before.  The hip hop movement was born exactly in the middle of the economic crisis.  Then, they were people who generally came from poor working-class neighbourhoods in the city.  These youth were the asking for more revolution and wanted more social opportunities.

DEY: In the past, there has been some suspicion about hip hop.  Not only is it  an American art form but it also raises questions.

Lopez:  0:57 am  It is possible that the misunderstanding of hip hop culture in Cuba is because it is not a traditional form of Cuban culture. An as well, hip hop culture asks a lot of inconvenient questions.  Without a doubt, these young rappers have a level of consciousness, have a high revolutionary consciousness which wishes to transform reality.  They make a social critic of the problems which the revolution has and they are capable of doing this with the utmost honesty possibility.  This social criticism is very responsible and creative, as well.  It helps the revolution to take into account its own problems so then can confront them.

DEY:  But while Alexey and Magia may criticize, they see themselves as strengthening the revolution, not going against it.

Rodriguez:  In the end, we are two black hip hop artists who are revolutionary.  We are also defending this system and not another one. We are improving or criticizing this system and not another one.  Our songs are very critical but we also give proposals for change.

DEY: Zurbano says,  for this reason, the contemporary hip hop culture in Cuba has been compared to the singers of the nueva trova in the 1970s.

(song from nueva trova: Pablo Milanes)

DEY: The song is Si el poeta eres tu. Sung to Che Guevera, it is an example of nueva trova.  This music was used to transport Cuban ideals throughout Latin America.  Like the trova before it, it uses the old folk singing but adds politics.   But just like hip hop, it was inspired in part by American music: protest singers like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

Like the Cuban beat, Cuba itself is constantly changing.  With young people, people who never knew the revolution making up a sizable part of the population, there will be many debates to come.

( Music: “ciao linda”)

DEY:  And in this market in Havana, people are watching. Haut du formulaire

This is Sujata Dey for Making Contact in Havana, Cuba.

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Thanks for Spanish help:

Louise Brownrigg, Luz Maria Olguin,Eric Hamovitch, Daniel Inostroza, Roberto Ruiz Rebo, Cuban Translator, Isidro Rojas, Katherine Beeman, Caroline Turcotte, Oficina de la Prensa Internacional de Cuba, Technician Montreal: Neil Griffith