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Check Out Something New: Detroit's 1st Women In Hip Hop Conference

"Ever wonder where all the Women in Hip Hop have gone?" says Piper Carter, founder of The Foundation of Women in Hip Hop. "We did too so we decided to be proactive and honor the contributions of Women in Hip-Hop every week in an event we created in 2009 called "The Foundation: Celebrating Women in Hip Hop."

This year the Foundation will expand its awareness campaign by launching Detroit's first Women in Hip Hop Conference taking place June 16-19TH.  The three-day event will include a cipher, B-girl dance battle, film screening, workshops, and panel discussions.  It's part of The Allied Media Conference at Wayne State University.

The Women in Hip Hop Conference is a platform that will give artists, activists, and academics the opportunity to have an intimate, interactive experience with technology, art, music, social justice, and community.

"Our mission is to educate and empower the community through sharing love of the arts, inspire change and growth, build leadership, and influence the perceptions and roles of women in hip-hop for current and future generations."

"We bring together artists, activists and academics to stage new conversations about women of color and women of color feminisms across Hip Hop's cultural forms," says Carter. "Using Media to address the role, images, and treatment of women in Hip-Hop we critique and disrupt status quo narratives and present investigations about value systems and structures of violence and human value, the politics of aesthetics, and women of color."

The panel discussions will include The Poetics and Politics of Hip Hop Feminism: A Conversation with Aisha Durham and Ruth Nicole Brown.

The conference will also feature a concert hosted by Jessica Care Moore which showcases the next generation of women in hip-hop. The concert will include performances by:

  • Rapsody (Headliner) - international artist who recently won a Grammy for her collaboration with Kendrick Lamar on the song "Complexion (Zulu Love)."
  • Mama Sol & The N.U.T.Z. - Flint, Mich. based Hip-Hop/ Neo Soul band committed to breaking the self-destructive cycle of mainstream Hip-Hop. Their vision is for a world prioritizing education, responsibility and art. The band features a collective of four musicians, background vocalist, lead MC and a disc jockey.
  • Mahogany Jones - Detroit-based artist most noted for her appearance on BET's "106 & Park Freestyle Friday". She is also known around the world as a Hip-Hop Ambassador having served with American Music Abroad and other programs under the United States Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

The Women in Hip-Hop concert will take place at 7 p.m. on June 17 at the Garden Theater. Tickets can be purchased at bit.ly/rapsodyconcert. Limited $10 pre-sale tickets ending soon.

"Everyone should want to see more women present and represented in Hip Hop. Hip Hop is the most influential culture globally. Women have many stories of life, survival, conflict, resolution, & triumph that are currently not represented in the dominant media narratives. Women should have the biggest role in telling our own stories, defining ourselves, & supporting one another. Everyone should want to support more women's voices being represented so that not only young girls have access to more uplifting images of women, but so that everyone gets this experience," says Carter.

To register for the conference, go to alliedmedia.org/amc. Those who register for the conference will receive full access to the Allied Media Conference and be entered to win tickets to the concert.

Kristy Stanford is a Media Personality and Motivational Speaker. She is a recent graduate of Eastern Michigan University, where she studied in Electronic Media Film Studies and Comprehensive Communication. She enjoys doing interviews with different brands and businesses for her website KristyLoveMedia.com. Kristy also is an inspirational blogger and does photography and event hosting on the side.

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