Rappers often publicize the fact that they sleep around, but rarely mention using protection. AIDS is beginning to take a major toll on our community, so twenty-seven year old Deesha Dyer decided to change all that when she created Cover Your Lover (CYL) in October of 2003. “I started CYL because hip-hop is my love and I was always at shows and concerts where sex was a focus through lyrics or dances or whatever, so I felt the need to just give out protection and inform people of the disease – let them know it’s still out there.” An activist and journalist, Dyer’s CYL program encourages young fans of the hip-hop community to practice safe sex. However, Deesha feels that writing about AIDS is not enough. “My focus in reaching the community is through physical contact. I know that I’m most effective through my program, not through writing about it.” For the past two years, Deesha has attended hip-hop concerts and passed out “protection packets” which consist of two condoms, lube and information about diseases, as well as places to get tested. “It inspires me and other people to do more, not only in the realm of HIV, but throughout the entire community.” Outside of the party scene, CYL goes to high schools and juvenile programs across Philadelphia to talk about safe sex, STDs and abstinence. Nevertheless, Deesha is realistic about current attitudes surrounding abstinence. “I encourage abstinence 100%! But I also know that most of my demographics are having sex, so I’m not going to waste the precious time I have with them preaching abstinence.”

Since CYL started, there have been a few changes in the hip-hop community. Now BET is using the “Knowing is Beautiful” slogan, and although Deesha believes CYL had nothing to do with those slogans, she feels there is a need for more change. “Could you imagine if they had a show dedicated to safe sex?” This is why she plans to push CYL so that bars and clubs have condoms in their facilities at all times. She also has plans to start a scholarship fund for students whose parents are HIV positive, a teen testing program and even has aspirations of embedding CYL in different cities. “More young people are getting tested, using protection. I’ve got our name out there as an organization that people can depend on for information. I just want people to be aware. It’s what I was called to do.”

Many women and girls are vulnerable to HIV because of the high-risk behavior of others. This year’s World AIDS Campaign, with the strapline ‘Have you heard me today?,’ seeks to raise awareness about, and help address, the many issues affecting women and girls around HIV and AIDS.

Globally, young women and girls are more susceptible to HIV than men and boys, with studies showing they can be 2.5 times more likely to be HIV-infected as their male counterparts. Their vulnerability is primarily due to inadequate knowledge about AIDS, insufficient access to HIV prevention services, inability to negotiate safer sex, and a lack of female-controlled HIV prevention methods, such as microbicides.

At the same time, all over the world women do not enjoy the same rights and access to employment, property and education as men. Women and girls are also more likely to face sexual violence, which can accelerate the spread of HIV.

Around half of all people living with HIV in the world are female. This is why HIV-positive women have a unique and valuable role to play, both in society and in fighting HIV and AIDS. Women hold families and communities together and they are a source of great strength in the face of HIV and AIDS.

This year’s World AIDS Campaign, which culminates on World AIDS Day – 1 December 2004, explores how gender inequality fuels the AIDS epidemic, and is conceived to help accelerate the global response to HIV and AIDS by encouraging people to address female vulnerability to HIV.

Find a Testing Facility
UN AIDS
Staying Alive
The National Minority AIDS Council
Fight for Your Rights

Setting: Norfolk State University, Spartan Station

Assembling her Divine Tectonic comrades around her, Suebeephly, whose government name is Suzzette Rink, tries to salvage an open mic without the DJ. With the atmosphere in the room thick with pessimism over budget cuts and MIA DJ’s, Suebeephly refuses to cancel the Norfolk State University’s weekly open mic.

“Get the list out,” she commands, “the open mic starts at 7:00 and we still have two features coming." After driving over five hours from a late night Saturday performance at Ferrum College, Suebeephly handles the mini-crisis with a veteran’s ease. A 20-year old Creative Writing Major at Norfolk State University, Suebeephly takes her duties very seriously.

A Native of Brownsville, Brooklyn, Suebeephly (pronounced Sue-be-fly) joined street corner ciphers with her older brothers. “When people think of Brownsville, they automatically think of the violence,” she laments. “Not to say we did not have violence, but that was definitely not the only thing. Living in Brownsville, I was exposed to many things. I got the chance to learn about many cultures and different philosophies. I learned that many people are not exposed to at least some of these things. I attended The High School of Human Health and Services which is like the most culturally diverse school in the world (chuckle). I feel that it was because of this atmosphere that I became pretty open-minded.”

She was introduced to hip-hop culture by her father and older brothers. “Spoken word is a very powerful tool,” Suebeephly points out, “MCing can be used to reach the youth in so many ways.” With these thoughts in her head, our local heroine landed in Norfolk State University (NSU) in 1999. That same year she joined Divine Tectonics, a collective of MCs and poets based at NSU. They held campus wide-open mics and poetry workshops. Through Divine Tectonics, she was able to make many contacts in the Hampton Roads community. She joined the local chapter of the Universal Zulu Nation and dove right into community work. She became a commentator for PHaTLiP! 4.2, the now defunct hip-hop/jazz orientated youth radio talk show. She assisted the local chapter of the October 22nd Coalition in their annual protests against police brutality in the last two years. She was able to get them space on the NSU campus to teach Law Action workshops. In 2000, she sat on NSU’s first “No More Prisons” Conference Committee. She helped to form Cell 14, a small organization made up of community activists who work to educate people on the prison industrial complex.

Setting: Uhuru Cultural Enrichment Center (in the heart of Norfolk1s feared Park Place)

After performing at the internationally acclaimed open mic Urban Safari the night before and helping with the logistics of a CD release party the next morning, Suebeephly co-hosts yet another function sponsored by her Amazulu brethren in the same evening. Even though Suebeephly rocks mics seemingly every other night with her poetry, being asked to host a function still flatters her. As she walks onto the makeshift stage, heads can only nod and smile as they gave the queen her respect. She approaches the mic as if it was a close relative. She is very comfortable on stage. Despite her innocent girl looks, her presence commands a curious attention. After four hours of hip-hop and poetry acts, Suebeephly engages the crowd making contacts and collecting phone numbers. She gets asked to perform at other functions. People ask for help on a particular project. She is all ears and extends a helping hand where needed.

Upon meeting Suebeephly, most people learn that she is a 100% feminist without compromising the masculinity that most hard rocks cherish. She works with a local Women’s Rites of Passage program and is the co-founder of Womanifestation.

What is the concept behind Womanifestation?
“Womanifestation is the brainchild of DJ Lady Jes One. She felt that locally, women in hip-hop were not given the proper light. When people think of women in hip-hop, they conjure images of scantily clad females holding their crotches. She asked me to help out, and we came up with the name “womanifestation”, which represents the woman manifesting herself. It was very successful. I believe this is the only show in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia that was organized by women. Sisters were involved in every aspect of the planning and fundraising. From the designing of the chapbook to the flyer, everything was touched by a woman. Our second annual show is coming up.”

The concept of self-determination is a rule of thumb for Suebeephly. When she learned of the budget cuts that threatened to shut down the Divine Tectonics free open mic she now spearheads, Suebeephly got members to pay monthly dues and sell snacks. She feels that there should be a venue open to all for self-expression.

When asked about the misogyny in hip-hop culture, she shakes her head. “Can’t brothers find something more creative to rhyme about? Then again, what is it that brothers have to look at.”

Do you think women play a part in the misogyny found in hip-hop?
“I don’t think they play a big part, but they contribute. It bothers me that sisters like Bahamadia get ignored. I mean here is a sister who does not have to show skin or get nasty to grab attention. She has skills. Then again you have the Foxy Brown’s and Little Kim’s who make it bad for the rest of us. Yet they don’t represent the majority.”

Well, how can women in hip-hop culture who do not compromise their womanhood get more publicity?
“The first step is to work in your community. Many times we tend to overlook the things that are happening in our community. Those things touch us faster than something on a national level.”

Many will say that our young people are lost. Some even say that our young people are too spoiled and do not know the toils of struggle. Many of our elders cry that hip-hop is the music of the devil. In Suebeephly, we find a feminist who uses hip-hop culture to reach young people in her community and attempts to uplift her community by any means necessary. Here is a young woman who understands that her education was not by accident or mere luck, but it was earned by the work of others. Like those before her, Suebeephly works tirelessly to make sure that those that come after her have the same opportunity.

Know the issues and where the canidates stand before placing your vote.

Choose or Lose
Declare Yourself
Fact Check
Project Vote Smart
Public Agenda
Vote Smart
Voto Lationo

This past summer I attended the Black August 2003 Celebration in New York. Truly, an ambitious event, the evening consisted of a blend of spoken word, social and political history lessons and hot performances by various hip-hop and R&B artists like Goapele, Keith Murray, Talib Kweli and Erykah Badu. While there were Black August celebrations in various cities throughout the country, the New York chapter of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) sponsored this one on August 10th, in Brooklyn. The mission of MXGM is “to defend the human rights of our people and promote self-determination in our community.” The organization also promotes the development of political consciousness within hip-hop culture. The admirable stated goal of this important concert was “to bring culture and politics together and to allow them to naturally evolve into a unique hip-hop consciousness that informs our collective struggle for a more just, equitable and human world.”

Understanding that Black August began in the California penal system in order to honor fallen Freedom Fighters, I made my way down to Brooklyn expecting an inspiring event. To give credit where credit is due, I must admit that the organizers definitely evoked a spirit of political awareness of the condition of many remarkable men and women killed or wrongly imprisoned for fighting for the rights of people of color. MXGM must be commended for bringing the stories of these fighters to the forefront for many young people who may have otherwise never known of their struggle. However, several aspects of the event compromised the significant contributions that these brothers and sisters were making to hip-hop culture.

In particular, I was dismayed to find certain artists on the program giving props to freedom fighters one minute and the next minute singing ‘Boom Bye Bye,” and exhorting the crowd to repeat lines like “We smokes weed, say roll that shit. Say light that shit.” Even if you disagree with homosexuality and believe that marijuana is cool because it is a natural herb with medicinal properties, does oppressing another group of human beings and advocating the use of illegal substances promote the political consciousness that Black August strives to inculcate in the hip-hop community?

If we as a community want to present a serious alternative to the ridiculous, yet dangerous political environment of the present moment, hip-hop must get serious. In a time when someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger can manage to be elected as governor of California with absolutely no plan to deal with the state’s very real financial and social issues, hip-hop culture and artists must effectively utilize opportunities like Black August to promote ideas and opinions that edify the hip-hop community. The hip-hop community must only call these artists and its members to task. Ask yourself who do you support and why? Does that artist work to improve the plight of communities of color? Does his or her music enlighten or oppress? It is time to raise the bar and it starts with accountability to each other and to this dynamic culture whose complete potential for radical change remains untapped.

Gil Scott Heron said it himself: “The revolution will not be televised.”

Do you know why? The revolution will not happen, that’s why. We talk about it, we rhyme about it, we complain about the government. We wear Che Guevarra shirts, boycott Nike, go to open mics and flip poems about it; but it will never happen.

There will be no guerilla coup against the powers that be. There will be no social uprising to overthrow the government. There will be no sudden surge of change from the conventional thinking that years of mental oppression has laid upon the masses, making us comfortable in our ready-in-one-minute lives. None of this will happen because people forget that the root word in activism is ACT!

When you think of the Soapbox Revolutionary, many of my militant brothers and sisters automatically turn up their noses and question how down; that person really is. The thought of a person taking up the movement because they have been moved by Common’s lyrics and now claim to be a 5 percenter, rockin’ a head wrap and cowry shells, can make anybody who has been hit by a baton or has dodged rubber bullets want to call him/her out with their bullhorns up loud.

I have seen it done. I have seen people in the same cipher, calling each other out, questioning each other’s role in the movement. You may BELIEVE you are part of a movement , yet don’t do a damn thing about it.

There are droves of “supporters” who support in word but not action. However, even paradigms of resistance need to be questioned. What we need are leaders in the community and not martyrs. Being a revolutionary in a “traditional” stance may be more romantic and poetic but what good is it to our people if our strong leaders get locked up, shut down, or killed?

Being a revolutionary should focus on growth through self-realization. There are levels to personal development like the different levels of the military. Not that I’m supporting hierarchy, but there is an existing relationship between the process of getting educated and becoming a revolutionary.

There are many fronts in the movement that people can take action in. We have the ones who are more vocal; the soldiers in the front lines who get most of the publicity and who are more visible targets as well.

But before we have the soldiers, we need someone who would TRAIN these young men and women. After all, nothing defeats the purpose of social change more than a misinformed leader. This is when the educator comes in.

The educators are people who talk about history, talk about the movement, talk about social change, in order to recruit more people in the movement and be catalysts for social change. They come in forms of teachers, artists, emcees, poets, and – gasp – soapbox revolutionaries.

Rather than posing the question, “What makes a revolutionary?”, let’s focus more on a different question; how about, “How can I help build a stronger community?”

Our world is changing in a rate where people are needed to start coming together. We are living in a time where the threat of war looms over all of us and it is slamming our people’s emotion in so many directions.

Due to such a declining economy, teachers are being laid off. Cultural and art budgets are being cut in half to support military spending. This affects mostly inner city, lower income, and multi-cultural programs first. So where does this leave our children?

The lack of help and upward mobility in our societies is keeping lower income young adults within their demographics, almost forcing them to have no other choice but to join the military due to lack of funds for a higher education. The list can go on and on.

Put frankly, let’s stop posing the problems and start searching for solutions!

Let’s stop calling people out (we should be the ones who make assessments within ourselves) and start collaborating with others to be catalysts of social change and political reform. Let’s stop talking and start doing, but let’s do things smartly. Let’s start putting the word “ACT” into “ACTIVISM”.

Mohandas Karamach and Mahatma Gandhi said it best – “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”