Brazilian Delegates Participating in the US State Department's Program on Cultural Affairs Will Discuss Hip Hop Activism and the Law

Professor Pamela Bridgewater

Hip Hop’s influence on pop culture, legal culture, and political organizing is a global phenomena.  From will.i.am’s remix of a campaign speech by President Barak Obama to issues related to Occupy Wall Street, Hurricane Katrina, Jena 6, the Trayvon Martin case, Stop and Search Resistance Movement in NYC – activists, organizers, lawyers, policymakers are either impacted by, closely connected to or identify as members of the hip hop nation.

Professor Pamela D. Bridgewater, in association with the US State Department’s Program on Cultural Affairs and fhi360, will make a presentation to a delegation of Brazilian hip hop artists and social justice activists on Friday, August 31, 2012.  In her presentation, Professor Bridgewater will address the relationships between law, activism and hip hop in the US domestic contexts such as the Roots and Reality Social Justice Project she founded as well as international grassroots human rights movements like the recent youth led movement known as the Arab Spring.  

 Program information below:

Global Hip Hop, Activism and the Law

Professor Pamela Bridgewater

Friday August 31, 2012 2:00 - 3:15

American University Washington College of Law Room 601

4801 Massachusetts Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20016

Contact Persons:

Evan L. Schmitt, Program Officer, Center for Global Connections, 202.884.8895

Nicolas Mansour, WCL Faculty Assistant, 202.274.4121

Insane Clown Posse and the FBI

In 2011, the FBI released a report describing fans of the Insane Clown Posse (known as Juggalos) as "a loosely organized hybrid gang . . . rapidly expanding into many U.S. communities."  The report goes on to detail crimes committed by Juggalos as "sporadic, disorganized, individualistic and often involve simple assault, personal drug use and possession, petty theft and vandalism."  Further, according to the FBI "a small number of Juggalos are forming more organized subsets and engaging in more ganglike criminal activity, like felony assaults, thefts, robberies and drug sale."

Members of the Insane Clown Posse are taking issue with the FBI and its report.  "Saying they've gotten complaints from fans about police harassment" the group members have "hired counsel to pursue a possible lawsuit against the FBI for classifying its fan base as an emerging gang.  The Insane Clown Posse announced that it was seeking fan reports of incidents of harassment promising that such incidents will be "reviewed by our legal team--at no charge to you."

(photo courtesy of wikimedia commons)