URB: Tell me about how your local Cincinnati mission and activities are strategically connected to the larger vision of the national Hip Hop Congress.
SHA’IR: On the national and international level we are an artist network… Hip Hop Congress is all over the world. [We have] forty chapters here in the United States, chapters in Europe and Africa. And within that international market, there are a lot of different local places for you to perform. You also might be able to put your whole package together–somebody can do a photo shoot for you or shoot music videos. It will give you promotion and exposure. And if you want to get into the administrative aspect of hip hop, the business, there are all kinds of leadership positions within Hip Hop Congress.
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URB: What do you hope to do by connecting these groups of people together?
SHA’IR: I’m just a medium. I’m just helping people along the path of fulfilling their dreams. Some people want to be poets or authors. Some people want to become MCs, some people want to become technical engineers. What the Hip Hop Congress does is it gives them an avenue to pursue those goals.
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URB: Some of the free theatrical and spoken word performances you do focus on the social challenges of your community. What are you trying achieve with shows like that?
SHA’IR: That’s about community awareness–to let people know that our presence is here in the community and that we are a social enterprise. I think a lot of our poetry events are civically engaging people when we get more into the consciousness of it and away from the show and entertainment.
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URB: What do you see the organization becoming in the future, both locally and nationally?
SHA’IR: I see Hip Hop Congress as a global humanitarian organization where we are fighting for human rights. We’re past the fight of civil rights. We need to fight for human rights across all borders. And one thing that unites people is art and music.
Big ups to Geoffrey on this story. I absolutely love what Hip Hop Congress is doing. Hip hop needs a more positive reputation, and this organization is helping to do just that. Gotta love it.