UNCA Festival de Hip Hop Nativo

About the Festival

Overview

During the weeklong residency, hip-hop Indigenous artists, graffiti artists and DJs will meet on the campus of UNC Asheville (Antokiasdiyi, Cherokee territory) to share and exchange their music and language with our community. This is a unique opportunity for the university and community to engage with contemporary Native American and Indigenous musicians. The three main rappers and artists will visit from Chile, Mexico and the US. In decolonizing academia, this week will provide an alternative space to learn about Indigenous land-based ways of being both in North America and Latin America. We are partnering with the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and local hip hop artists and community leaders.

Importance and Impact

After years of involvement in a variety of trans-Indigenous projects (i,e anthologies, cultural exchanges, conferences) among artists and writers from various native nations of Abiayala (the Americas), we have realized the importance of Indigenous hip-hop in dismantling stereotypes about indigeneity. In bridging popular culture, political agendas, and spirituality, Indigenous youth have embraced rap, punk, and heavy metal since the early 1990’s. Rappers such as Mare (Zapatotec), Luanko (Mapuche), and Tzutu Baktun (Maya Tzutuhil), and poets such as David Aniñir (Mapuche), have explained through their poetry/lyrics how singing and improvising are part of their “being indigenous”. In their music, themes such as empowering women, environmental concerns, nation-states’ violence against protectors of water, braid all around powerful beats. All of these themes have been part of the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Minor, and the 414 Critical Perspectives on Contemporaneity Series, in which Juan Sanchez has been involved for 5 years. The NEH and Global Studied Program are sponsoring this event, along with other campus departments. The new course LA 378-Race, Identity, Belonging and Cultures In the Americas has been supportive in adding contemporary Indigenous experiences to the curriculum. The artists will be guest-speakers in Humanities Program, the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Minor, and Language and Literatures classes.

Fotos del evento:

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