One of the forefronts of the Hip Hop 4 Haiti movement is none other than NY underground icon, NY Oil. He organized the event in Harlem, which was memorable. More importantly, he is driving the topic to save my country into everyone's heads long after the news stations stop reporting on it. He wrote an inspiring open letter about our movement. Simply....what's next? Understand, our quest to save and rebuild Haiti is just starting and it's a long road to our promise land. Check for yourself:
(If you are a part of hiphop4haiti.ning.com, you probably read this letter before. I just feel the need to post this to the rest of society. It's been one month that this nation was shaken off its core. I won't let people forget that.)
As HH4H (the national event) winds down, I am left with a few thoughts as my perspective gets wider. Initially I felt like all we had to do was get through the event, make it to Sunday (the event was Saturday Jan 30th
if you didn’t know), I was wrong. The event provided new realizations about not
only HipHop4Haiti and specifically HH4HNYC but also what our generation our
sub-culture needs.
A consistent question kept arising throughout the course of the night, “What’s Next!?!?” this sentiment was shared by so many that night that were “Fired Up and Ready to go!!”. What’s
next? As the night approached, began, and ended the realization that the event
was actually less about Haiti and more about “What’s Next!?!” became apparent.
Now listen, I’m not saying this to suggest in any way that the issues of Haiti have been resolved because we were able to through a nationwide event! What I am saying is that there were
layers lines and subtext that became evident to me (in an acute fashion as they
had always been evident, but not to this extent) that have to be addressed.
On this night so many people came together and worked together, that had never met, or worked together before and were able to accomplish a mission together. A momentum began in the
inspiration, unity and collective focus of all of us involved that none of us
want to relinquish. You see nothing succeeds like success, and we experienced a
success that night. We had set small goals in front of us and accomplished them
one and two and three at a time and each goal led to a large accomplishment.
Then, we completed the effort by delivering the monies collected, all $2,062.30
at the event to Dr. Ron Daniels (IBW/HRF) which was the crowning jewel to our
efforts.
The Nation of Gods and Earths say “Showing is to state it and Proving makes it valid”… now some people recite these things without real thought, but think about what’s being said. In our “revolutionary”
efforts we are often lent to more talk than action. And while the talk has some
therapeutic value for the people it provides no real equity to the cause of
uplifting the conditions of our communities, ultimately it is hollow comfort.
But to Show and Prove, now that’s something different! See talk is just a
verbal manifestation of thought, and where thought may lead to action it is NOT
action and the world we live in requires tangible action. Showing on the other
hand turns theory to reality by demonstrating these verbalized concepts into
tangible action items. Think of it in this light, going to a rally or meeting
and hearing people discuss what “WE AS A PEOPLE NEED TO DO…” and thinking to
yourself ‘oh boy here goes this B.S. again’ –vs.- someone standing up and
saying “THIS IS WHAT WE ARE DOING.. COME SEE FOR YOURSELF” That’s a whole
different world of experience and activity. So it is clear that in this day and
age, if it were not true at any other time in history, it is vital that we build
our movement on a foundation of Showing to state our case.
Proving makes things valid by providing a tangible instance that proves that
what has been shown actually WORKS. When we take HH4H NYC as an example of Show
and Prove instead of theorizing and talking about it Lyxn, Pat-ra, Shani, Oveta,
Lanell, myself and many other Showed we could unify a cross section of Hip Hop
artist activist and practitioners in the same space to raise money and awareness
for a focused objective. The proof came in the form of us accomplishing the
whole of the objective by successfully delivering the funds we’d collected to
the IBW/Haiti Relief fund. When we dropped $2,062.30 in the donation tray on
behalf of the HIP HOP Community, we proved! We showed what could be done and
proved it by completing the task.
So the question “What’s Next!?!” still begs an answer. The answer is to show and prove! By setting small goals concatenated towards a larger effort, by following each one through to conclusion, we can
begin to Show and Prove to our communities that not only is CHANGE possible, it
is inevitable, and that it is born from our efforts as individuals and collectively.
By showing and proving we can turn the momentum of our efforts into more than 1
day, 1 moment.. we can turn our efforts into a true MOVEMENT.
I hope you join us in our efforts to continue to do REAL WORK that produces REAL RESULTS by Showing and Proving it can be done!
To this ends HH4H NYC will now be known as HipHop 4H where the H stands for Humanity, Hunger, Help, Homeless, Her, Him, for Healing, and whatever else Hip Hop can address in a proactive
goal oriented fashion. HipHop 4H will not require you to leave what you already
have, or follow a doctrine, believe in a special GOD, abandon your friends,
edify a particular individual, HipHop 4H is about working to get specific
things completed, HipHop 4H is about ‘doing
things by priority, doing them properly, and then moving on to the next!’, HipHop
4H is about showing an proving.
If that’s something you’d like to work with us to accomplish.. results … give us a shout!
On behalf of HipHop 4H
My name is NYOIL and I approve this message!
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