PAUL SCHRAG: HIP-HOP HAPPENING >>>

It was a weird thing this past Monday night. A bunch of hard asses, poets, rappers and street organizers in a room with administrators from the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts, who really don’t know much at all about hip-hop. But that’s not the weird thing. What’s weird is the fairly natural conversation that ensued as BCPA officials shared the results of surveys conducted a few months back. The survey was conducted among dozens of community members, many of them drawn from all corners of Tacoma’s hip-hop family. Information was gathered to figure out how BCPA could safely and effectively host hip-hop shows.

Considering the seeming cultural chasm between participants, this first effort didn’t turn out half bad.

Participants gathering at Theater on the Square, including Fab 5’s Eddie Summlin, poet and emcee Josh Rizeberg, Felony Entertainment’s Ms. Jessy, JD from Way Out Records, and cable-TV sensation Rick Ross, dropped pearls and engaged BCPA officials in a search of common ground. Executive Director David Fischer and BCPA education and outreach coordinator (and brilliant poet, mind you) Lucas Smiraldo deftly managed the discussion and recorded feedback for future use. Fischer presented attendees with a cost breakdown that included sharing costs for use of BCPA facilities and a partnership proposal that included provisions to split profits between community producers â€" that means hip-hop gets to share. Fischer proposed starting small, at Theater on the Square, with a few shows per year. Build slowly, disprove fears about hip-hop, and bigger shows at larger BCPA venues could conceivably follow. Though no final outcomes emerged, something really nice happened â€" a seemingly odd group of people began to build. A list of names was taken, from which an advisory group, consisting of members of the local hip-hop community, will be formed. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

LINK: Previously in the Weekly Volcano