Vices to Verses: A New Era of Hip & Action was a conference at the U of M "featuring workshops, performances, discussions, and educational events centered around how hip hop pedagogy, activism and culture can educate, empower and transform communities." The 3 days of the conference included "I Used to Love H.E.R: Bring back the Love, exploring hip hop feminism and women's roles in hip hop culutre. Day 2 focused on "Remixing Borders, Transcending Boundaries", focusing on using hip hop as a tool to create unity. Day 3 titled "Us", focused on hip hop's power to heal and transform individuals and communites. The conference also included a live concert that took place at the Cabooze. The guests featured Dead Prez and also included Ill Chemistry, Toki Wright, Maria Isa, PosNoSys, the Tru Ruts crew and many others. The energy and people of this night were simply amazing. The highlights for me was Ill Chemistry, they blew the roof off of The Cabooze and captivated the audience with their amazing energy and perfromance. Maria Isa was on fire for her performance and sang all my favorite songs, she was accompied by drums and an MC that ripped the mic. Sabreena da Witch was someone I had never heard of but her voice and energy were simply amazing!!! She sang in Arabic and her voice was out of this world. Dead Prez were the final act and brought the crowd together instantly. Their revolutionary music was on point that night, and they sang all my favorite songs celebrating 10 years of their first cd "Let's get Free". My favorite songs of the evening were "They Schools", "Mind Sex", and the classic hip hop song "It's bigger than Hip Hop". The crowd was invited to join the stage during the performance of "It's bigger than Hip Hop" and celebrated the conference and what it stood for. They ended the night with the crowd on stage all singing together..Al Greens "Let's Stay Together". It was an amazing night, full of great people and an energy that cannot be matched.

Posted on April 15, 2010 by April w/ Musikal Visions Photography