Warriors, Dreamers, Educators

Week 45 : Notes

Hip-hop feminism can be seen as part of Black feminism, the fight for social change in a capitalist system that insists on inequalities based on race, class, gender and heteronormativity.  It is a ‘theoretical and practical enactment of intersectional, sex positive and inclusive feminist ideas and concepts that draw on critical analysis of gender roles within hip hop culture’. (Reyhan Şahin).

After Lizzo, US-American singer, rapper and songwriter opens the programme, we meet Jamaican-American author and award-winning journalist Joan Morgan, who coined the term hip-hop feminism back in 1999 in her book When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost. Queen Latifah US-American singer, songwriter, rapper and actress and hip-hop role model, called “Queen of Jazz-Rap”, was the first female hip-hop artist to be nominated for an Oscar. Alia Sharrief, Nebula Nabila,Maria, Guillen Valdovinos and Ahlaam Abduljalil go on tour in California hosted by  Saeeda Islam to battle against the stigma attached to hip-hop  in the Muslim Community.  Mina La Voilée, Sengalese rapper and member of Genji Hip Hop, an all-female collective that uses rap to fight cultural stereotypes and gender violence does the same. Alice Coelho, Jennifer Loiola, Mariana Alves are the group Pearls Negras, who rap about their lives in the favela Vidigal in Rio de Janeiro. Afghan rapper Paradise Sorouri fights against violence against women, something she has experienced first-hand and Rebeca Lane denounces the unpunished femicide pandemic shaking her country, Guatemala.Queen Latifah’s U.N.I.T.Y. deals with domestic violence, street harassment and the male-dominated hip-hop culture’s widespread disrespect of women. The same is true for former US-American teacher MORAL COURAGE as she fights to end sexism and misogyny in hip-hop. Listen to the all-female group En Vogue as they end this programme with their song which is anti-prejudice and a call to Free your mind.