Vote Hip Hop - Be the Inspiration
National youth coalition and Talib Kweli launch Hip Hop competition to promote youth activism
Generation Vote - www.genvote.org, a
national alliance of 18 youth organizations working to engage the Hip Hop generation in the political process, has partnered with pioneering rapper
Talib Kweli to launch an online competition. By putting the elements of Hip Hop to work for civil rights
and social justice, Vote Hip Hop - www.votehiphop.com -- allows young people from all over the world to
express their political selves through their culture, Hip Hop.
By uploading their creative voice or visual art, Vote Hip Hop artists will be inspiring millions of young people to take notice of the issues that affect us all. The top entries rated by site visitors and Vote Hip Hop judges will be used by youth organizers in national voter registration drives and reposted on BET.com and by Vote Hip Hop media partner WiretapMag.org. More importantly, Vote Hip Hop provides a venue for artists and young people they inspire to become active. Generation Vote, working with over 1.5 millions young people, has created the first-ever, national Youth Agenda.
"This Agenda is about young people moving forward together. It's about turning our individual hopes into concrete possibilities for change. Check it out, sign on and pass it on!" D'Labrie, hip hop artist, and organizer with Hip Hop Congress.
"We are not just here to vote. We are here to change the world," Charlotte Chinana, organizer with the League of Young Voters.
To find out more about Vote Hip Hop or the Youth Agenda, log-on to www.votehiphop.com or www.genvote.org.
Generation Vote - http://www.genvote.org/ www.genvote.org, a coalition of 20 national organizations working with over 1.5 million youths and students, released the first-ever national youth issues platform today. By highlighting the most pressing election issues impacting young people in the US today, the Generation Vote "Youth Agenda" is the voice and vision of young America.
"We want to know if we will ever be able to get decent public education or affordable health care? Why is more money being spent to incarcerate than to educate?" Carmen Berkeley, co-author of the Youth Agenda and President, United States Student Association.
According to a 2008 Center for American Progress study, young adults today -- also known as Millenials -- are already the largest generation in size, larger even than the Baby Boomers, weighing in at over 80 million people.
The Millenials are also the first American generation to do less well economically than their parents. They are dealing with challenges that are tougher than those faced by young adults three decades ago -- worsening job prospects, lower rates of health insurance coverage and higher levels of debt.
The Generation Vote Youth Agenda voices the Millenial generation's frustration with what they see as the root of these problems -- a misguided set of national priorities. But the Youth Agenda isn't just another list of complaints. It expresses young peoples' hope and vision for a better world in the form of a powerful nine-point declaration of youth rights, spanning election issues including education, the environment, health care, the economy and community violence, among others.
"At the end of the day, what we want is simple: A chance to live in a safe and sustainable world regardless of sex, race, class, identity or ability," Charlotte Chinana, co-author of the Youth Agenda and organizer with the League of Young Voters Education Fund, "I vote because I want to be a part of making that world real. I promote the Youth Agenda because voting is only the beginning."
"We are not just here to vote. We are here to change the world," Alex Aaronson, co-author of the Youth Agenda and organizer with the Oregon Bus Project Foundation.
Generation Vote is a national alliance of youth and student organizations working to engage young people from historically disenfranchised communities in the political process.
