Soweto

Wow. Don't even know where to start. So much has happened in such a short period of time. I have at least a dozen posts to do, but I haven't had any interet access for days and I can only stay in this cafe til dusk (which is a half hour from now). I still have soooo many flicks to post too.

But for now, I want to send a huge shout out to Soweto. All of us from the conference went out to the township yesterday for a weekly block party called Black Sunday. It was such an amazing day. Home-cooked roasted chicken and macaroni salad, kids running around (shout out to Sindi and Siya and crew!), tons of artists, and an open mike session. The highlight of the night was Prokid's performance, particularly his Soweto anthem. The park was packed with hundreds of people, all crowded around the make-shift stage. There were at least a dozen kids posted in a tree next to the stage, and when Prokid rapped they shook the branches in unison. Got a chance to kick it with all the people I met at the Hip-Hop Summit and eat and dance and sprawl on the grass.

Today we went to interview the coordinators of a grassroots hip-hop organization called R.I.S.E. They made us a beautiful lunch and told us about all the programs they have in the community. Will have to write more on that later, but it was really inspiring.