Relations between Hip Hop, Migration and Gangsta Rap
The session explores the connections of Hip Hop, Migration and Gangsta Rap.
We discuss questions of racism, expressed not only with words, but with gestures and looks, and we formulate a clear anti-racist position. We use language in the the plural, to consider language as a tool of power and discuss the imperative of integration.
Viennese Rapper Esra Özmen, better known as EsRaP, sings:
Österreich bildet fein uns zu Tschuschen aus,
Rassismus hat man auch in Gesten und Blicken drauf,
Versteckt im System, damit es keiner checkt,
Sprache als MACHT, INTEGRATIONSPAKET
Njideka will present her spoken word Performance “A Diva’s Dish: Spoken Word and Utopia in a time of Wokeness and the Hashtags of Radicalisation”.
The course is supported by Postconceptual Art Practice (PCAP), a study program at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. PCAP forms a platform for the discussion of various issues of art, culture and politics. PCAP insists on a practice from trans-feminist and migrant positions and on community based education work.
Languages: German, English, Turkish
Betül Seyma Küpeli (Dipl.Ing) born 1987 in Vienna, studied Architecture at the University of Technology Vienna. Her diploma thesis analyzes “Refugee Policy and Spatial Strategies in Austria”. The thesis explores concepts for urban planning relating to the use of vacancies and insights into planning and construction law, which are examined and questioned. Since 2014 Küpeli studies Post-Conceptual Art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She participated in various projects as organizer and curator. Among them are architecture workshops, performances with artist collectives and video works. Her work deals with issues such as the socio-political conditions under hardcore-neoliberal capitalism, urban fabric/space/public space and their appropriation, as well as different conceptions of city (politics), the relation between society and history, migration and asylum.
Esra Özmen aka * EsRap (* 21st of June 1990 in Vienna) is a rapper, visual artist, performer, songwriter, cultural worker and leads workshops in rap/singing/rhyme/text. In 2016 she finished her studies of Post-Conceptual Art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
EsRAP’s projects show how we can react to social and political problems through media like rap and how we can put up resistance and make our voices heard. “Is rap the voice of the subaltern? Who defines him/herself as subaltern? Who defines you as subaltern? Are migrants subaltern? Are we even aware of being categorized? The session focuses on political aspects, in particular migration, education and freedom. Core issues are: The question of identity; language and racism within the system; rap as resistance; significance of Hip Hop; Hip Hop as more than music; questions of gender; rap as movement; being a woman in the Hip Hop scene; being conscious of one’s own history in relation to the history of migration.
Njideka, born in London, is a Black austrian poet, artist and activist. Her practice combines spoken word, performances, lectures that deal with language, power (relations), decolonization, Afrofuturism, and the embodiment of knowledge. Since 2006 her participation and cooperation with (trans)national Blacks, POC and migrant self-organizations shapes her political work. Njideka´s poetic inspiration draws from the tradition of African Oral His*_Her*_Our_stories (stories passed on orally) and shares rhythm, rhyme and knowledge beyond the written word. She is co-creator and co-curator of Bodies of Knowledge – Multiplying Marginalised Subjectivities of Utopia through Art and Storytelling, a project supported by SHIFT in 2015.
Kutlu Yurtseven is a rapper in the legendary Microphone Mafia and a street worker. Microphone Mafia today belongs to the veterans of german Hip Hop. Rossario Pennino and Kutlu Yurtseven founded the group in 1989 with two of their schoolmates. Since then, they performed for unions and consistently stood up against racism. Since 2009 they frequently share the stage with Auschwitz survivor Esther Bejarano, combining rap in three languages with Yiddish partisan songs. In 2016 the 91 years old Esther Bejarano, Rapper Kutlu Yurtseven and Joram, Esther Bejarano´s son, performed at the meeting of the European Left.
Like Vassilis Tsianos, Kutlu Yurtseven time and again thought about leaving Germany. The pesky questions like where are you from, how come you speak German so well – quickly become too much to bear. But Kutlu Yurtseven stays in Germany and tries to raise awareness – through rap and education.