Last night, a group of us ended up at the Bethlehem Peace Center to hear DAM perform, a Palestinian hiphop rap group (some video I took is here). Apparently, there are a lot of Palestinian rap groups in the states (one of them being Iron Sheik). It was pretty good stuff. I was also told about this trailer for a documentary entitled Slingshot Hiphop. You can view the trailer here. The documentary looks like it will be pretty intense and definitely something worth checking out. The description for it says:
“SlingShot Hip Hop is a documentary film that focuses on the daily life of Palestinian rappers living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel. It aims SlingShot Hip Hop is a documentary film that focuses on the daily life of Palestinian rappers living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel. It aims to spotlight alternative voices of resistance within the Palestinian struggle and explore the role their music plays within their social, political and personal lives.to spotlight alternative voices of resistance within the Palestinian struggle and explore the role their music plays within their social, political and personal lives.
Watch the trailer – it’s powerful. I know that hiphop has been an expression of music that has been used as a way of getting out the word of a variety of political messages – and this is one that I fully support now, especially after having been living here for just a week.
Tomorrow we are off to Hebron. I’m sure I’ll have a lot to write about that experience.