Asheru performs in Capetown, SA for “Equal Education For All” Rally
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This was a moving moment, I had the honor of performing alongside HHP in support of several thousand student protesters in Cape Town, South Africa. Organized by Equal Education (EE), a community member organization that advocates for quality and equality in the South African education system and engages in evidence-based activism for improving all of the nation’s schools. On this day, they assembled students in Capetown to rally to increase the number of libraries in the nation’s schools. Currently there are only 8% of schools with suitable libraries, so they took to the streets demanding EQUAL EDUCATION FOR ALL!!! It was amazing to see these students take to the streets, determined to make a political change thru non-violent means. After this performance, the students grabbed picket signs and marched to Parliament House to make their list of demands felt. The whole experience was eye-opening and reminiscent of the videos we used to watch on the civil rights movement 40 years ago here in the States.
From the Equal Education website:
Equal Education held a hugely important and completely successful event on Human Rights Day, 21 March 2010. This event represents the full arrival of a major new force in South African civil society.
Asheru Performance at the Kennedy Center, February 18th …FREE!
As part of the Guerilla Arts Green Line Initiative, Asheru will be taking the stage at the Kennedy Center’s Millenium Stage for a FREE show on Friday, February 18th at 6pm.
Asheru Returns from 2010 World Cup Tour of South Africa…
Some of you are aware that I have made several travels to South Africa this year, and courtesy of my comrade, fellow Guerilla Artist and Bloombars artist-in-residence, Hip Hop Pantsula (HHP), I had the honor and privelege of visiting during the unprecedented, African hosted, 2010 World Cup. On this most recent trip, I was able to participate in some world changing, once-in-a-lifetime events – from attending the opening World Cup soccer match, to performing at fanparks and other World Cup games and festivities across the country. I was also able to participate in some community outreach efforts with some Capetown youth, courtesy of Grassroots Soccer organization, and performing at the popular Hip Hop event, Party People, and another show as part of the Red Bull Music Academy in Capetown (see more pics in the travel photo album below).
This time around, I was also able to throw on my educator hat and meet with several NGOs, as well as community and corporate organizations to promote the Hip Hop Educational Literacy Program (H.E.L.P) and the Guerilla Arts programming efforts to better serve youth in Johannesburg. Currently I am still working on follow up and securing partners in this effort to bring our unique and innovative style of arts education to the youth community.
I also had the honor of meeting some incredible people, from entertainers, to journalists, to writers, educators, and artists of all media. To spend time with other young, progressive minded people allowed me to realize how much we all have in common as a world community…We all have hopes and dreams and ideas to make this world a better place. Regardless of where we live, many of the problems that we face in our respective communities are still the same – teen pregnancy, poverty, illiteracy, poor school resources, rising dropout rates, youth crime and incarceration, rising school dropout rates, etc. I am hoping to be a part of the global community and movement that is dedicated to bringing some effective solutions to the problems we face. Look out for some Guerilla Arts/H.E.L.P. collaborations to take place in South Africa in the VERY near future…
To see travel photos & videos, please visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wethewilling/
G.A.B.
July 2010
Asheru in Capetown, SA performs for “Equal Education for All” Rally
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This was a moving moment, I had the honor of performing alongside HHP in support of several thousand student protesters in Cape Town, South Africa. Organized by Equal Education (EE), a community member organization that advocates for quality and equality in the South African education system and engages in evidence-based activism for improving all of the nation’s schools. On this day, they assembled students in Capetown to rally to increase the number of libraries in the nation’s schools. Currently there are only 8% of schools with suitable libraries, so they took to the streets demanding EQUAL EDUCATION FOR ALL!!! It was amazing to see these students take to the streets, determined to make a political change thru non-violent means. After this performance, the students grabbed picket signs and marched to Parliament House to make their list of demands felt. The whole experience was eye-opening and reminiscent of the videos we used to watch on the civil rights movement 40 years ago here in the States.
From the Equal Education website:
Equal Education held a hugely important and completely successful event on Human Rights Day, 21 March 2010. This event represents the full arrival of a major new force in South African civil society.
Today, more than 10 000 people gathered on the Grand Parade in Central Cape Town in support of Equal Education’s Campaign for School Libraries and Human Rights Concert.
Those assembled marched on to Parliament where they delivered a Memorandum endorsed by more 50 organisations, petitions signed by 65 000 people, and copies of EE’s research report into school libraries, to the Director-General of Basic Education, Mr. Bobby Soobrayan.
Equal Education is campaigning for every school in South Africa to have a fully functional library. At present, this is only true for 8 percent of public schools. Phathiswa Shushwana, a grade 10 learner at Luhlaza High School and a member of Equal Education, gave a brilliant speech emphasising that education is a basic right and that poor areas are in desperate need of libraries, as learners in these areas don’t have books at home. She added that libraries improve literacy as well as motivate students.
COSATU General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, pledged COSATU’s full support for EE’s campaign, and said that every school ought to have a library, a laboratory and proper infrastructure. He encouraged teachers to support the Campaign and to play a greater role in improving the education system. Similarly, he encouraged students to be disciplined, to arrive on time all the time, and to do their homework. Asked for his thoughts on the march, Vavi said that it took him back to his youth as a leader in the student movement in the 1980s, and that it was exciting to be part of this event.
Simphiwe Dana referred to herself as “a survivor of Bantu Education, not a product of it” and said that her mind survived partly because she had books in her school library. She urged government to restore dignity back to the children of South Africa.
HHP was the main performer of the day. He said that the onus is on learners to take responsibility for their education and future, and that today was a historic day because everyone was pulling together for change.
Yoliswa Dwane of Equal Education, in the final address to the crowd, said: “Today, the majority of children in South Africa are not able to read, write and count adequately, and this is mainly because of poor quality education and unequal access to resources in South African education.” Adding that, “unless, inequalities are addressed in this education system it will not transform our society and it will continue crippling and killing softly those who attend working class schools.”
Notably, Nobel Prize winning author, Wole Soyinka, Prof Njabulo Ndebele, Vuyiseka Dubula, Graeme Bloch and Cheryl Carolus were also in attendance.
For more info, and to find out how to get involved, please visit: http://www.equaleducation.org.za/
Recent Press on H.E.L.P.
Over the last few months, I have been able to get some local media coverage around H.E.L.P. in the classroom: The first was this article, written by Marcus Moore for the Montgomery County (MD) Gazette. The article follows a teacher by the name of Helen Dana, who is using H.E.L.P. in her classes at Quince Orchard High School. Helen is an inspiration for other teachers who are looking for new and innovative ways to make the content connect with their students everyday lives.
The next big look we got was on local News Channel 8 and NBC affiliate News Channel 4. Here are the videos:
(Notice in this clip, the newscasters began the interview in a very cynical manner — you know, in that mocking tone: “Using Hip Hop to teach…reading?!?”. I turned them around to seeing things my way by the end of it though…
Here is the News 4 article, which followed me around as I facilitated a HELP workshop with a social studies class at Ballou HS in SE Washington, DC. Here is the video and article from the website:
More press to come, we are just getting started!
Asheru Live at Southpaw Brooklyn 1.23.10
Asheru live @ Southpaw in Brooklyn from Heron Gibran on Vimeo.
