Saturday Evening in Brooklyn Bridge Park: The 13th Annual Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival Finale Concert presents The LOX (Jadakiss, Styles P, Sheek Louch) at Pier 1

(Video courtesy Jamal Burke)

(More videos of the show with Rakim, DMX, etc. here)

Wednesday Afternoon in Crown Heights:12th Annual Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival's Hip-Hop Institute presents The State of Hip-Hop Journalism Panel at Medgar Evers College

(Video courtesy Black Fox Newz)

Tuesday Afternoon in Grand Army Plaza: The 8th Annual Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival presents the Bodega Education Initiative - "Fortified" - at the Central Brooklyn Public Library

This afternoon we were in the Dweck Center of the Central Library at Grand Army Plaza for this year's Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival's Bodega Education Initiative,

"Fortified with Minerals and Vitamins" -- at least the intellectually nourishing kind: a daylong symposium dedicated to critical discussion and analysis of Hip-Hop music, culture and business. We had a terrific learning experience and a wonderful time that was also presented courtesy of the Brooklyn Historical Society.

We find it increasingly hard to make time to bore people who come across this website with our tediously detailed reports on events we go to, but today's events were videotaped, and they'll probably be made available online soon by the great folks at Brooklyn Bodega.

Wes Jackson, president of Brooklyn Bodega and executive director of the Hip-Hop Festival, took to the podium to discuss how the Education Initiative started a couple of years ago with an idea for a 2010 symposium on the life and legacy of J Dilla.

The first panel, "It Was Written," lasted quite a while, but it was nevertheless interesting, both in the participants' discussion and their answers to questions from the audience. Music industry veteran Marcus K. Dowling came up from D.C. -- among other things, he's part of Listen Vision, D.C.'s oldest and largest recording studio, writer for numerous publications, and web editor for Brooklyn Bodega -- served as moderator, but he also made interesting contributions.

The two panelists were two of some of the smartest men in Brooklyn, both of whom we've admired for years: Nelson George, the author of numerous books and articles on music, but not just on music -- we've taught his memoir City Kid to college students -- and Johnny Temple, head of the wonderful Akashic Books (which recently published Nelson George's The Plot Against Hip-Hop and wears many other hats, among them one of the people behind the Brooklyn Book Festival.

They talked about a variety of subjects related to hip-hop culture, publishing, the music industry, the D.C. go-go music scene, effects of technological innovations, nuts and bolts of being a writer, "industry sharks," the 1980s, and more.

The second panel we saw much of -- unfortunately, we had to leave for a few hours before coming back for tonight's films -- was moderated by Wes Jackson and consisted of Young Guru, revered as "The Sound of New York," widely known for sound engineering, production and A&R; Dart Parker, who's worked as a music engineer, A&R director and scout, and artist manager; and attorney Mita Carriman, whose firm has served as counsel to artist and companies, and who also does A&R, runs sonicscoop.com and writes about music and technology.

The panel's theme was "Divisions of Labor and the Super Artist," and discussed, among other issues, the "do-it-all" artist (somewhat different than the DIY ethos of early hip-hop and punk), and why professionalism and specialization of labor in the hip-hop world has a variety of advantages.

And we totally missed the important third and final panel, on "The End of 98.7 KISS and the Legacy of New York Radio Locally and Globally," with Bob Slade, Jay Dixon, and Fred Buggs, but we hope we can catch it on videotape later.

We were, though, grateful to be on hand for a lot of today's Bodega Educational Initiative -- even the part when an, um, eccentric older woman interrupted the proceedings and took the stage to perform an impromptu song of her own devise. We applauded, hoping that would inspire others to join us and mollify this nice crazy person to move on to her next appointment, which it did. Security guards were on hand to get her on her way. . .

Tuesday Night in Bed-Stuy: Chillin On Da Corner Film Series Intro at Stockton Playground by P.S. 297

It was a gorgeously warm evening to walk from Williamsburg to the Stockton Playground in Bed-Stuy

for the spring preview and introduction to a great new neighborhood outdoor summer film series, Chillin On Da Corner & Beyond,

organized by actor and community activist Ephraim “Fetti” Benton,

who was being interviewed by TV along with his associates in putting together Chillin On Da Corner.


We got to Stockton Playground by P.S. 297 - on the block bounded by Marcy and Tompkins, Park and MLK Place - just before 8 p.m., when it was still light out.

Until it got dark enough to show the movies, only a few people sat in the audience.

Later on there wasn't a chair in sight. Probably several hundred people were around, though we're not good at estimating crowds.

Fetti thanked Rooftop Films for the screen and lots of other people and neighborhood organizations for helping to put the event and the series together.

It was such a great evening to be out in the playground. Other films this summer will be at other Bed-Stuy playgounds and Von King Park.



Before the film, kids were swinging behind P.S. 297, which also houses the Ethical Community Charter School.

Also there were basketball players,

climbing kids,

and people eating hamburgers and hot dogs off the barbeque.

Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ices; some will just eat burgers and helado.

It finally started getting dark enough so that we could discern the moon.

Ephraim Benton introduced the series and gave props to a whole crowd of people who helped with Chillin On Da Corner

among them Community Board 3; the NYPD; Xosha Roquemore; Dr Kim Best, President of the 79th Precinct Community Council; the Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union; Brooklyn Bodega's BIDH, Beyond Influencing Da Hood; and Black and Brown News; and closed with "I love you, Mommy."

The first film was the short trilogy of three stories Shades of Brooklyn Volume 1 by Sunshowa Films, directed by Daoud Abeid and Dahkil Hausif and shown on HBO. It's part of a forthcoming longer series of 18 slice-of-life stories about Bed-Stuy.

We found it both funny and true to life, with great dialogue. In the film's first section, "Temporary Insanity," boisterous teens bumrush a Brooklyn bound subway train and coerce their reluctant friend to dish his girl problemss. Meanwhile, in "Karma," on a Bed-Stuy stoop, an immature father is trying to refute the advice of an older friend after he explains how he blundered his way through a sex talk with his six-year-old daughter, and "The Longest Walk"

is a brilliant interior monologue by 17-year-old Allison (played by Xosha Roquemore, the character may be the girl of the same name mentioned by the boy in "Temporary Insanity") who has gotten all dolled up for the first time and discovers that the world no longer sees her as a little girl, but as a grown woman. The film was beautifully and skillfully shot in sepia and made us anxious to see more by the directors. After watching a piece on the Latino Film Festival, we all watched the amazing feature which premiered there in 2009 as Best Film: Inside A Change,

directed by BET Awards video director of the year nominee Rik Cordero
, which he co-wrote with Aaron F. Schnore and which stars Ephraim Benton, Karen Chilton, Donté Bonner and Darrell Vanterpool.

Check out this review at HipHopDX and you can buy the DVD here. Anyway, too tired to walk back to Williamsburg that late, we merely went up past the Marcy Houses down to the Flushing Avenue G train stop, where a cop greeted us at the entrance. Downstairs we saw why.

There was a wanted poster for the guy who robbed a woman last night at this station.

Anyway, we're really grateful to Fetti and everyone else who put together Chillin On Da Corner and Beyond, a great addition to Brooklyn's summer outdoor film series.

Thursday Night in DUMBO: The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival Photo Exhibit at Galapagos Art Space

The Fifth Annual Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival is this weekend. Saturday at Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park between noon and 8 p.m., there'll be a great show with some really big names: Pharoahe Monch, DJ Premier, Styles P, dead prez, Smif N Wessun, Grand Puba, J Period, Torae and Marco Polo, Tiye Phoenix, Keys N Krates, Brown Bag All Stars, DJ Parler, DJ Misbehaviour, Metermaids and lots more. For the full event schedule, go to the Brooklyn Bodega website.

Tonight there was a photo exhibit retrospective of the first four years of the festival at the wonderful Galapagos Art Space, which we don't get to enough since it located out of its smaller, older quarters which were near us in Williamsburg and moved to its postmodern, nicer digs in DUMBO.

We had a dinner appointment on Montague Street in the Heights and were pressed for time, but we dropped in to the photo exhibit at Galapagos, making a detour from the High Street station to represent our destination as the oldest, least cool-looking person in the poster for BHF, top (the befuddled presbyopic guy on the lower right).

Yep, we were the oldest, least cool person there, either in Galapagos or certainly in the photos of the 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Hip-Hop Festivals all around. But even at speed-through pace (at least as speed-through as a 58yo with orthotics can manage), the pics were worth the $10 donation. We hope to get to hear the music on Saturday, but for now here are some of the images from the festival's last couple of years we got from Brooklyn Bodega's Facebook albums.

Here's 2008, looking great:





And 2007, starting with the amazing Ghostface Killah:






And here's the poster for the second annual BHF, held at the current location, by the Tobacco Warehouse:

Their posters are so excellent. Here's the one for the first festival in June 2005:

And here's the set times for this Saturday:

12-1:30 DJ Misbehaviour
1:30-1:55 DJ Brina Payne
2:00-2:10 COTN
2:14-2:25 Eagle Nebula
2:30-2:40 Brokn.Englsh
2:40-2:50 Nyle
2:55-3:10 Donny Goines
3:15-3:25 Meter Maids
3:25-3:30 Kel Spencer
3:30-3:45 Brown Bag All Stars
3:50-4:00 Keys N Krates/DJ Parler
4:00-4:10 Tiye Phoenix
4:15-4:20 Chip Fu
4:25-4:35 Keys N Krates/DJ Parler
4:35-4:45 Marco Polo & Torae
4:45-4:55 Tanya Morgan
4:55-5:00 Homeboy Sandman and Shawn J Period
5:005:20 Smif-n-Wessun
5:25-5:55 J Period with Grand Puba
6:00-6:30 DJ Premier
6:30-7:00 Dead Prez
7:00-7:30 Styles
7:30-8:00 Monch

Again, for the full event schedule, go to the Brooklyn Bodega website. Up to six or seven thousand are expected. This borough is thorough!