Making It Your Own in a Hip Hop World

 Today's guest blogger, Asad Jafri is the coordinator of Leaders of the New School, a project located in the south side of Chicago that brings together local youth with artists and mentors to address and help resolve community issues through hip hop and urban arts. Leaders of the New School was one of the Final Four grantees in the Case Foundation’s Make It Your Own Awards, and Asad met earlier this week with representatives of the other 20 program finalists.

I'm personally not a fan of generic labels on an entire generation, but if I had to pick a broad term for the generation I fall under, it would be the Hip Hop Generation. I'm part of a generation that is ready to make change happen collectively with the limited resources around us. That also means I was organizing in my community before I knew what community organizing was. 

With the framework of hip hop culture -- one rooted in indigenous cultures of the world, birthed in the South Bronx of New York, and revolutionized as a movement around the world -- the only logical method to bringing diverse communities together was through a “citizen-centered” approach. Though I understood this from experience, it took the Case Foundation and the Make It Your Own Awards to help validate and articulate this particular concept of civic engagement.

After a year-long process of submitting a project idea, winning $35,000 to start it, and beginning the first phase of implementation, I finally had the chance to meet staff from the Case Foundation as well as the top 20 Make It Your Own finalists out of an overwhelming 5,000 entries. In addition to the wonderful relationships made and valuable knowledge gained from this gathering, I had a chance to reflect on what a citizen-centered approach meant in a rapidly changing world. 

Just as in hip hop, where the advances in technology have tremendously impacted the culture, I see the direct correlation between civic engagement and technology, namely through the internet. For example, prior to this week’s gathering, the only method of communication amongst Case Foundation staff, consultants, and the finalists was through e-mail, phone, and web conferencing.

And as I think about it further, I realize that just as our music is going digital, much of our social interaction has become reliant on technology that’s significantly younger than I am. I feel much more productive responding via e-mail, publicizing through social networking sites, and even working over text messages than traditional meetings and forms of communication. 

So, as we continue to explore how we can make positive social change in our world and inspire others to do the same, it’s imperative for us to not only take advantage of technology, but actually begin innovating and developing new ways of communicating that are effective tools of civic engagement. 

However, I must say that it won’t be easy. Just as much of the quality of music that I enjoy in my vinyl records is lost in the convenience of MP3s, we must be careful not to completely replace our “real life” interactions with each other with something that is convenient but lacks the quality of individual relationships.