POLITICAL PARTYING: THE CASE FOR CULTURAL ACTIVISM

On the other hand, the types of events I would organize for the Hip Hop dance group were completely different.  These events were shows designed purely to entertain.  There was no message, no underlying theme of social justice or equality – it was just good, old fashioned singing and dancing.   We would put on these events in the largest performance hall the campus had to offer, and come show time, the line would be out the door.  Inside, there would be so many people that it would be standing room only, and people would be sitting in the aisles or standing in the back.  And…not to brag, but…these shows were absolute hits.  We knocked them out of the park.  Standing ovations.  Roaring applause.  Rave reviews.  Every time we did a show, more people would join the organization because they wanted to be a part of the magic.  We were unstoppable.

I told myself that there was something wrong here.  Why the hell couldn’t I get anyone to come to the political events that were of utmost importance for justice in the world, and yet, when I put on an event that is pure entertainment, so many people show up that I break fire codes?  And it’s not like the political events were obscure or hard to understand.  They were urgent and often had a direct correlation to current events.  Attendance/participation could mean the difference between certain laws getting passed, or even certain people receiving services they desperately needed.  And it wasn’t that we hadn’t put in the effort.  This was community organizing at its core…grassroots campus political activism in its purest form.  We worked our asses off day and night canvassing the campus and spread our message far and wide.

Turns out that even though people knew that engaging in political activism was the “right” thing to do, it was difficult for them to bring themselves to participate because it was just so damn depressing.  When we advertised these events, we told the truth: we never made it sound like it was going to be fun, but that it was heavy subject material, and that it was going to be a shitload of work.  Because we believed that we could attract people by appealing to their conscience, by showing them that it was the right thing to do.  I still believe that deep down, the students at my college truly believed in social justice and honestly wanted to do good in the world, but the way we were framing it was very negative.  Everything was NO.  We were ANTI- this; we were AGAINST that; we were NO to this; we were HELL NO WE WON’T GO to that, etc.  And we believed that people would agree with us and want to join us out of some innate, higher sense of justice.

What was so appealing about the dance shows was the overwhelmingly positive framing of the events.  There wasn’t a single aspect of the marketing of these events that was negative in nature.  And not only were these shows were marketed as fun and entertaining, but they were marketed as spectacle.  People knew that when they came to these events, they would be witnessing something remarkable, and this created an excitement that couldn’t be contained.  Positivity is contagious, you see, and word would spread like wildfire across campus until peer pressure alone took over for all our marketing efforts, and we no longer even had to do or say anything.  At one point, people didn’t even know what the event was about, but they’d be damned if they were going to be left out of an experience that all their friends were participating in.

It was simple: people love positivity, and they hate negativity.  But the problem is that radical progressive activists live in negativity.  They have learned to embrace it because they deal every day with the ugliness and harshness of reality.  It’s an honorable cause, really…In order to fight for justice for the downtrodden, they have accepted the fact that they must stare negativity in the face all the time.  And in fighting the good fight, they become accustomed to talking about the depressing state of our world.  But they forget that those who are not as hard-boiled prefer to distance themselves from the macabre.   They forget that not everyone is ready to face the demons that are out there.

It became evident to me that there was a fundamental problem with the way we framed our progressive movements for social justice.  We were framing them in a way that actively undermined our efforts at community building.  By being so negative, literal, and alarmist (and I’ll admit, a little judgmental), we were driving people away from our causes.  If all we were going to do was talk about depressing facts, alarming numbers, and the sorry state of affairs in the world, then no one wanted to have anything to do with us.  Especially if we were going to ask them to share their views on sensitive topics and then challenge them on their own opinions, language, and rhetoric.  I couldn’t then – and can’t even now – possibly think of a better way to keep people away.

An epiphany.  I was doing a better job at “community organizing” with the Hip Hop shows than I ever could have dreamed of doing with the political events.  In fact, bringing people together to celebrate art, culture, and expression was perhaps the oldest and longest-running form of community organizing in existence, and perhaps the strongest way to build bonds between people.  Nothing draws people together like culture, and nothing builds friendships like the sharing of a positive experience.  The bonds created under these conditions are almost unbreakable.  I had struck proverbial gold in terms of community organization.  I had figured out how to bring people together.

All that was missing was the message.

Interestingly enough, I would later learn that this was essentially the same trajectory of Hip Hop culture many decades ago.  Today, we know Hip Hop culture to have many forms, one of which is as a vehicle for a political message of liberation and social justice.  Artists like Dead Prez, The Coup, and other “conscious” rappers use Hip Hop as a means to galvanize their community and spur them to action.  However, those of us who have studied the history of Hip Hop know that it started out simply as party music.  Hip Hop was born in the block parties of poor Black neighborhoods in the Bronx in the early 1970’s.  In noting this, Jeff Chang, author of “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation” concluded once in a speech: “You have to have the party before you can have the politics.”

I formed the organization “Rama” as a means to achieve this end.  To blend the party with the politics.  Because culture, art, expression, creativity, and positivity are important to people.  These things appeal to what is truly human inside of all of us.  And if you can touch that part of peoples’ souls and provide them with a positive experience, they will come back to you again and again.  Not only that, but I believe that to create something is more powerful than to destroy something.  Destroying things, deconstructing things, and tearing things down are all easy to do.  Much harder is to create something new from scratch.  It is harder to grow something from the ground up, but when you do, what you create can be stronger than any destructive force.   Such is the nature of art, of creativity, and such is the nature of culture, for culture is all about the positive formation and solidification of bonds between people.  Culture makes us stronger when we share in its creation together.

The analogy I like to think of is a tree planted in a sidewalk.  When a tree is planted in a sidewalk, the concrete often limits the growth of the tree.  To try and free the roots, what is stronger?  Using your fists to try and break the concrete?  No.  The roots themselves – while seemingly weak compared to rock-hard concrete – slowly grow their way to the surface and push the concrete out of the way over time.  The concrete is strong, but it is no match for the life-force of the growing tree.   It is always amazing to see the roots of a tree bursting through a sidewalk that cannot contain this living, growing being.

We were put on this earth to create.  Whether that’s creating life through birth or creating beauty through art, these hands of ours were designed to make this world a better place for our children and our children’s children.  And that can only be done through creation, not destruction.  Positivity, not negativity.  By engaging in cultural expression, we engage peoples’ sense of humanity, compassion, empathy, and love.  And in doing so, we create an atmosphere where people will actually want to contribute to and be a part of movements for social change.  And these movements built on love and creation will grow to become the strongest movements we have ever seen, bursting through the concrete of oppression and creating a better world.

So let’s get together and party.  With purpose.