48 Hours Of Hip Hop Theatre
Locations:
California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA; Rhodes College, Memphis, TN; Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI; S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook, New York; West Virginia State University, Institute, WV; Naropa University, Boulder, CO; Southeastern Theatre Conference, Greensboro, NC; Bennett College for Women/North Carolina A&T, Greensboro, NC; Black Theatre Network Conference, Kent State University, Kent, OH; Disney Theatricals, Orlando, FL; University of Florida, Gainesville; University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL; University of California, Riverside.
Description:
This two-day exploration of the Hip Hop Theatre Initiative’s work has been featured at universities throughout the United States and at conferences and festivals in Europe and the U.K. During these 48 hours of lectures/demonstrations/workshops, Daniel Banks discusses the origins, politics and aesthetics of Hip Hop Theatre, intercut by live performances or video excerpts from the top practitioners in the field. Dr. Banks traces his involvement in this form and how it has provided an alternative methodology for performance and training in the professional theatre.
RE/RITES
Locations:
New York City and Pittsburgh, PA
Description:
In 2005, over 35 actors, poets, dancers, writers, dramaturgs, designers, musicians, and composers at Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, collaborated to create Re/Rites: A Devised Ensemble Piece Celebrating Hip Hop Culture. The full-length performance played for two sold-out weeks on the Undergraduate Drama Mainstage at Tisch.
Azerbaijan
Location:
Baku, Azerbaijan
Description:
In November 2010, Daniel Banks, assisted by local Hip Hop community member Teymur Tahmazov, led the first ever Hip Hop Theatre workshop in Baku, Azerbaijan. The workshop was hosted by the Minister of Culture as part of the First International Baku Theatre Conference and the US Embassy in Baku. As a result, there are currently two Hip Hop Theatre productions being planned in Azerbaijan, one at a national theatre and one at the grassroots level.
Ghana
Location:
Buduburam Refugee Camp
Description:
During spring semester 2006, a group of seven NYU students and three recent graduates accompanied Daniel Banks on the NYU-in-Ghana Program. These students had all completed at least one year of work with Daniel as part of the Hip Hop Theatre Initiative in the Department of Drama, Tisch School of the Arts.
Hungary
Location:
Balatonlelle, Hungary
Description:
In 2009, DNAWORKS, the parent organization for HHTI, traveled to Hungary for the first year of what would become a multi-year collaboration with the Regional English Language Office of the US Embassy in Budapest. For three years, Daniel Banks and DNAWORKS Co-Director Adam McKinney have led workshops based on the HHTI methodology at the Roma and Friends Camp in Balatonlelle, assisted in 2010 and 2011 by HHTI core member Christopher Rivas. For the past two years, they have also led an annual teacher-training workshop with the teachers of the campers, based in critical pedagogy and alternative modes of engaging youth in the classroom.
Italy
Location:
La Mama International Symposium, Umbria, Italy
Description:
The International Symposium for Directors, sponsored by La MaMa ETC, is a training program for professional directors, choreographers and actors. Internationally renowned theatre artists conduct workshops on theatre practices from around the world. In 2009, Daniel Banks led a one-week workshop with participants from Singapore, Korea, Russia, Australia, Taiwan, and the U.S. Out of this workshop developed HHTI partnerships with artists Anthem Salgado and Mei Ann Teo.
Mexico
Locations:
Oaxaca City, Puerto Escondido, and José María Morelos, Oaxaca State
Description:
In May 2008, HHTI traveled to three communities in Oaxaca State, Mexico, to facilitate dialogue and collaborative art regarding police harassment and brutality, drug use and prevention, and the impact of mass immigration in the search for better jobs and wages. In Oaxaca City, local artist, activist, and youth leader Fuser and his community of artists discussed the history of Hip Hop, shared their skills – ranging from Rap and Emceeing to Breaking to tattooing – and collaborated with peers to begin creating interdisciplinary pieces. Together, the community identified issues and began brainstorming solutions, including writing to their government leaders.
Middle East
Location:
Nazareth, Acco, Bethlehem
Description:
In 2009, HHTI led workshops in Israel and Palestine, including a day-long workshop with Israeli Arab and Jewish students held at a high school in Nazareth with local Emcee Walaa Sbait, and a session at the American Corner in Acco with Arab middle-school students with the assistance of Ariel Vegosen. HHTI also led a performance workshop with Israeli and Palestinian Women poets in Beit Jalla, Palestine, to help them prepare for a performance at an international conference.”
Serbia
Location:
Belgrade, Serbia
Description:
In June 2011, Daniel Banks, assisted by HHTI core member Christopher Rivas, led an HHTI workshop at Dah Teatar’s “Passing the Flame” 20th anniversary conference. The workshop was attended by professional actors from all over Europe, as well as New Zealand, the UK, and the US. A group of five Roma youth from a nearby homeless shelter arrived on the first day and were welcomed to participate, weaving in local beatboxing and B-girling/B-boying flavor. The participants of the workshop returned to their countries with fresh ideas about how to engage youth, using Hip Hop Theatre as a jumping off point. They also learned how to include elements of Hip Hop in a devised theatre process.
South Africa
Locations:
Market Theatre Lab, Johannesburg, and Sibikwa Community Theater, East Rand
Description:
In 2006, on a State Department sponsored, six-week, Culture Connect Envoy program in South Africa, Daniel Banks directed a workshop production of US playwright Zakiyyah Alexander’s Hip Hop Theatre play Blurring Shine and initiated a Hip Hop Theatre Lab with local actors, Hip Hop artists, and activists all at the historically political Market Theatre (Johannesburg). Using the HHTI methodology, he trained six of these artists to help him lead a workshop at the Sibikwa Community Theatre (East Rand), the oldest existent community theatre in South Africa.
