Hip Hop Artist Goes All In For Political Prisoners
On Saturday, January 19th, widely acclaimed emcee and activist Jasiri X will do a special performance spotlighting the plight of longtime wrongly held political prisoners, many of whom were members of the Black Panther Party.
The performance will be a part of the 17th Annual Dinner Tribute to Black Prisoners and their Families organized by the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee. It will take place at the Martin Luther King Labor Center, 310 West 43rd Street, near 8th Avenue. It will take place from 3-7pm with dinner served promptly at 4pm.
The theme for this year’s dinner tribute is ‘Transforming Solidarity: Working Together To End Political Imprisonment and Mass Incarceration.’
Jasiri X first burst on the national and international Hip-Hop scene with the powerful hit song Free The Jena 6 which was played on more than 100 radio stations and was named Hip-hop Political Song of the Year. His recent piece Trayvon was also a showstopper across the country as many rallied to protest the killing of Trayvon Martin last year.
Jasiri’s debut album, American History X, was named Album of the Year at the Pittsburgh Hip-Hop Awards. A six time Pittsburgh Hip-Hop Award winner, Jasiri recently became the first Hip-Hop artist to receive the coveted August Wilson Center for African American Culture Fellowship. A founding member of the anti-violence group One Hood, Jasiri also started the New Media Academy to teach young African-American boys how to analyze and create media for themselves. He is the creative force behind the groundbreaking internet news series, This Week With Jasiri X. He uses Hip-Hop to provide social commentary on a variety of issues. His videos have been featured on websites as diverse as Allhiphop.com and The Huffington Post and Jasiri has been a guest on BET Rap City, The Michael Baisden Show, Free Speech TV, Left of Black, and Russia Today.
Coming on the heels of a major concert in New York for Native American political prisoner Leonard Peltier, which featured prominent stars of film, stage and music including hip hop artists like Common, many are hoping that more prominent hip hop artists will begin to lend themselves to important issues of struggle.
“We need to multiply the Jasiri X’s out here for the people big time,” said Zayid Muhammad, the Committee’s press officer. “We know the skullduggery of the industry makes artists leery of such commitments, but look at the Harry Belafontes, the Sidney Poitiers, the Ossie Davis and Ruby Dees of the 60s, that is a huge part of that legacy too.”
Jasiri will be joined by Malik Rhasaan, key organizer of Occupy The Hood and the fiery emerging scholar and filmmaker Johanna Fernandez, for this moving tribute.
Tickets for this affair are $40 in advance and $45 at the door. Proceeds from this event go to the commissaries of the political prisoners who are represented by their families at the dinner.
For more information on this moving event, please call 718 512 5008 or mxcc519@verizon.net. To contact Jasiri X email him at jasirix@gmail.com...
Submitted by:
THE MALCOLM X COMMEMORATION COMMITTEE
PO BOX 380-122
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 11238
718-512-5008mxcc519@verizon.net
“We have a common oppressor, a common exploiter, and a common discriminator…Once we all realize that we have a common enemy,
then we unite, on the basis of what we have in common…"
then we unite, on the basis of what we have in common…"
Malcolm X—Message to the Grass Roots
https://theblacklist.net/
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