Social Media, The Music Industry and Global Good: Chats with Lupe Fiasco, Kenna and more!

"the ink of a scholar is worth a thousand times more than the blood of a martyr

we came through the storm nooses on our necks
and a smallpox blanket to keep us warm
on a 747 on the pentagon lawn
wake up the alarm clock is connected to a bomb
anthrax lab on a w. Virginia farm
shorty ain't learned to walk already heavily armed
civilians and little children is especially harmed
camouflaged Torahs, Bibles and glorious qurans
the books that take you to heaven and let you meet the Lord there
have become misinterpreted, reasons for warfare
we read 'em with blind eyes I guarantee you there's more there" --Lupe Fiasco's "American Terrorist"

These don't seem to be the typical lyrics of a Grammy award winning rapper and hip hop artist. Believe it or not, they are. He is an artist dedicated to use his fame, power, art form, and media to promote social justice and change. Lord knows we need it. In my meeting with Lupe Fiasco at the UN Digital Media Lounge, I got to personally talk to him as well as listen to other people in the industry, including Kenna, Musician & Founder of Summit on the Summit, Simon Isaacs, VP Sustainability Marketing, ignition Azita Ardakani, Founder & Chief Idea Officer, Lovesocial Laura Checkoway, Contributing writer for RollingStone.com and former senior editor, Vibe, and Elizabeth Gore, Executive Director of Global Partnerships, UN Foundation. All of them had some new things to say about how Digital Media was being used in an age of media, music, pop culture, and fame--as well as an age of social justice, development, and equality/health (hopefully!)

Basically, Lupe and Kenna are both musicians who focus on using their fan base to make a change. The crew all together did a "Summit on the Summit" of Mt. Kilimanjaro, climbing the mountain to raise awareness for the needs of clean water in developing countries. Kenna is ethiopian and as a child his father came down with a water borne illness. Clean water is the single most important factor and needs in a lot of communities. They used digital media, blogposts, movies, and music to publicize their climb, which was a symbol of solidarity, persistence, and Africa.

Lupe is a rather coy, unassuming, hip kind of guy who likes to surround himself with people who "Take action and do cool shit." He described the climb as "a crucible made in the pits of hell. But I've always been attracted to doing something, you know what I'm saying? That don't make sense? You know ac-tiv-ity. Being active. People who are doing very positive things, world changing things. I'm opposed to throwing eggs as the popi, I'm just not down with that. I don't organize much, I just follow along with my friends." That isn't true according to Kenna though. Lupe organizes a lot! After Haiti, Lupe was immediately calling friends, organizing a group of people in order to cut a benefit song for Haiti.

Sometimes the UN doesn't catch on so quickly to the efforts that celebrities put out. When 21 million people were impacted in Pakistan from the recent atrocities, a lot of musicians came out wanting to do something, but the UN didn't move quickly enough to take advantage of that, says Elizabeth Gore, from the UN Foundation.

Hand in hand with this organizing is a positive note from the press. Laura Checkoway writes for Rollingstone, focusing on rappers, RB singers and hiphop artists who she things are "poets from the streets, speaking about social justice issues otherwise being ignored." Instead of talking or provoking gossip, she tries to create a more productive portrait. For instance, she writes a story about Lil'Wayne doing a story about the poverty he grew up in in New Orleans. How he was a weirdo and a shortie (not like the women!) and using his uniqueness to become a superstar (though he did write the infamous lyric in "A Milli" that goes "I'm a venereal disease like a menstrual bleed..."). Of course, as a writer she claims, most people want the dirt and fluff out of her. She has faced a lot of "barriers, trying to deliver the real."

Azita Ardakani, from Love Social, does a lot with social media. Given 48 hours after a crisis, she builds strategies for social media campaigns to get people to learn about the issue, donate, and be inspired to take further action. Its hard though. She claims that as social media grows and there is just so much of it, you have to be super creative in trying to get support, as everyone has a cause. "I don't even bother putting 'Donate' in some of the twitters or texts. I just gloss over that word myself."

All of these people have something to offer. Lupe says its particularly important for America to reach out. He says, "Most people who live in America have ties to other countries." Activating a little part of your fan base wherever that is is enough to raise awareness to the "common man. Humans, excuse me. I just hate when I say stuff like that." (he is very particular with words!). Lupe is a Muslim from Chicago, otherwise born as Wasalu Mohammad Jaco. He offered then what he called an anecdote from Islam. As he says, "Human beings are compassionate. From the pope to the poor man to the rich man, humans have an innate sense of compassion." He claims "My brand is about Social justice. Any time there is a movement to mute or censor or block what I'm doing, people talk. Child soldiers, tolerance, family, religions. I'm sayin it in my music. I hit those walls, and then it goes to the editorials."

Kenna has been going to the editorials lately. He was marching on Washington to pass the "water for the world act" which makes a commitment to helping to supply clean water to developing and needy nations. To Kenna, water is his "issue" he is most passionate about. "It comes back down to purpose at the end of the day, if you don't have a purpose then you are wandering aimlessly." He tried to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro 5 years ago alone and couldn't do it. It "kicked my ass" as he said. With "my allies, I could. What I learned is we won't reach out life's mountain top, our fight for good or change, we won't reach it by ourselves. We won't get to the top without each other."

Towards the end, we asked Lupe if he could give us a concluding anecdote. Lupe is a Muslim from Chicago, otherwise born as Wasalu Mohammad Jaco. He offered then what he called an anecdote from Islam."I'm a Muslim, so I'll give you one of those foundations from Islam. Its Remembrance. Reminder. Human beings are innately forgetful. Constantly remind yourself of what you are doing. Remember there are people below and above you."

When I got to talk to Lupe one on one without the others later on, I asked him if he thought his social justice messages got in the way of his art--a common issue in explicitly political art works. He said, "Naw. Pablo Picasso painted Guernica and it is one of the greatest pieces of art of all time. It was POLITICAL. It was all about social justice. So I say Guernica the World!"

Guernica the world. Not a bad idea. I hope he comes to see my play "War in Times of Love," which is all about post-conflict Balkans--politics and art!

Grassroots Girls Go Global and $40 BILLION CAMPAIGN!

5 Minutes to write until the next panel.... and GO!

CEO of Vivanista (a social network of philanthropists and fundraisers), Layne Gray, asked a panel of women involved in strategic, philanthropic, and aid agencies for women and children, "Its been 10 years since the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have been announced. We are still struggling with universal education (2) gender equality (3) child health (4) and maternal health (5). How do we amp up conversation about women's issues?"

With 5 years left to meet the UN MDGs, we do not have much time. At this moment, the photo in TIME of the Afghan women whose nose had been cut off pops into my head. Gender Equality for Afghanistan?

Four other women sit on the panel, clearly eager, angry, talented, and hopeful. They respond. Nainab Salibi goes first. She is the Founder of Women for Women International, who has been described as a new age Mother Theresa, only "better dressed." As an Iraqi whose father flew Saddam Hussein's private plane, she knows a thing or two about war. Her organization has touched 270,000 women and girls in conflict zones by providing access to education and scholarships, practical jobs, and other support to empower women in places like Bosnia, Afghanistan, Rwanda. By offering "Women to women" partnerships where a wealthier woman sponsors another woman in exchange for letters or photos, her organization creates hope for women (ranging from Bosnian rape camps to the hills in Afghanistan) who say, "I'm too hopeless to be helped." Zainab calls for "Humility and help, and a greater interaction between American women and women abroad." Right now, $0.02 of every $1.00 of aid goes to girls/women. She calls for amping up the March 8th World Women's Day in the US. She described Women's day in Bosnia as a time filled with flowers, where a Bosniak woman can hold the hand of a Serbian woman and say "Enough is enough." For Zainab, women in the US need to say, "Enough is enough" as well. "This is the women's and girl's century. We need to speak up and speak loud, get angry!"

Kimberly Perry, the Director of Girl Up as part of the UN Foundation's campaign to meet the MDGs, replies calmly, but boldly. She has faith in the generosity of American Girls and women, why she sponsors initiatives like "High $5" where youth can encourage the donation of $5 to the Foundation. Apparently, its really "cool." 53% of girls across America are willing to donate their own money to causes and hers is one of them. But is this enough?

Nancy Lublin, the CEO of DoSomething is feisty. Her organization has empowered over 1 million kids and teens to create projects that aid others abroad and at home. She says, "If you look on Google Analytics and research crisis stories on Tsunamis or Katrina, you don't get much." When women and girls depend on the connection and story and there is simply no story, how can they help? On top of that, 10 years after the MDGs, they have not been fulfilled. On TOP of that, organizations trying to meet the goals depend a lot on the generosity of "feisty, ambitious, and powerful" women and girls in America who donate $5 or $27 here or there. "Where is the corporate funding? 10 years after the MDGs, this is a global embarrassment! God is pissed. She's really mad!" Her call? Make the STORY! BLog! Get the word out. Her message? "25,000 girls under 15 will become child brides TODAY alone. Be pissed. Tweet it! Tell the story. Do Something!"

Nancy Zhang, a teen who is an International Trustee of Key Club international. She sees that the 250,000 members of Key Club International are mostly girls. As she says, "Girls want to be popular, without standing out too much." They like to do things in groups and collaborate. When the older women on the panel ask her if she can help carry out the MDGs, she replies "yes" confidence.


yet i'm sitting here. I like the hopeful women sitting in front of me and the work they do. Its really powerful and really effective. I've worked with something like Women for Women before, called Women for Afghan Women. I know they do good, effective, powerful work.

However, these women in front of me are all asking for a change in dialogue in order to help meet these MDGs. Has the dialogue changed? They are asking me (a woman) to get angry. To talk. To tell stories. Well, I'm here to tell stories. However, as I've mentioned in my blog before, I'm a born skeptic. Buzz words like "Green" or "Think Globally, Act Locally" and "Party for a Cause" make me a little anxious. How can "party for a cause" and dialogue alone 5 years before the MDGs must be met save the 8 million young children who die each year of preventable causes, including pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, and tuberculosis? There has to be something big. Well maybe the prayers (and dialogue) of these women were answered, because this "something big" is coming today.

At 2:00 Ban Ki-Moon, the Secretary General of the UN is going to announce the $40 BILLION campaign for the Global Strategy for Women and Children's health and how we are going to meet the millennium goals.

MDG 4 calls for a two-thirds reduction in under-five mortality and MDG 5 calls for a three-quarters reduction in maternal mortality and universal access to reproductive health.

Ban Ki-Moon better offer a damn good strategy. He is making this skeptic believe.

Note: facts and figures from UN documents supplied by conference

Just arrived: UN Week's Digital Media Lounge

Never in my life have I seen so many bloggers in one room.

I'm here at 92Y, one of New York's largest community and cultural centers. Immediately, I'm directed towards a room with large double doors, where there a few hundred bloggers are holding mics up to each other's faces, interviewing Marianne Williamson, number one best selling author who had just spoken, and typing away at Twitter and blogger, facebook and more.

Now I'm off to listen to a "What girls can teach the world" panel. Kimberly Perry, director of Girl Up, Nancy Lublin CEO of DoSomething, Zainab Salibi, Founder of Women for Women International, Nancy Zhang, INternational Trustee, Key club teen, and Layne Gray, CEO of Vivanista.

UN Digital Media Lounge! Follow Me!

All of you ghost followers who do not "officially" follow my blog, now is the time to click the button and make it official!

Why?

This Wednesday (and possibly Thursday) I'll be in NYC reporting from 92nd Street Y for the UN Week's Digital Media Lounge, covering stories I pick up from visiting world leaders and "do-gooders" trying to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals! I'll be there covering stories almost every hour from people like Zainab Salbi, founder of "Women for Women International," Nancy Lublin, CEO of "DoSomething," Tamara Krenin, the Executive Director of Women and Population for the UN Foundation," Kenna, the Musician and founder of "Summit on the Summit," Lupe Fiasco the Musician and Global Do-Gooder, among Many Many more!

Check it out: http://www.unfoundation.org/your-role/partners/un-partners/un-week-digital-media-lounge.html

Shout out to Sandbox Network for helping me get the passes and from the lovely ladies from the online version of The Yale Globalist international affairs magazine.

So follow me to get daily updates on the exciting happenings!

Post-Modern, Deconstructionist, Neo-Colonial, Diverse Approaches to War

Being back in America after a summer of automatic weapons, NATO, and barbed wire really opens you up to the absurdity with which we as Americans, at home, look at war "out there."

For instance. Shopping ("choosing") classes at Yale. I was interested in approaching war through different disciplines and approaches (philosophy, politics, history, literature). What I got instead was the "Post modern, deconstructed, neo-colonial approach" to suffering, security, and war. Now, I can do academic speak with the best of them, but somehow this approach is a little... removed. And not just physically. Is it missing the mark?

Sure, I think its better to see through the fog of war when you are outside of it, when you have fog lights, and when you have the blessing of distance and reason. In war, most people would lose their minds. Search for immediate answers and solutions. Take sides. Play defense. Its a life or Death situation. Therefore, academia and logic come to support these things accordingly. Nationalism becomes an academic institution. Linguistics are part of the national agenda. Therefore, it makes sense in many ways to study war before going into it and outside of it. No one wants a general who has never studied a war before!

Yet outside the wartime environment, I wonder how we imagine (or refuse to imagine) the suffering, strategy, pain, failure, and successes (how and if they exist) in wartime? At some point in the 20th century, the existence and critique of war took a whole new turn. When, finally, in 1928 with the Kellogg-Briand Pact, 15 nations (including France, US, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Japan) denounced war as an instrument of national policy, it seems like the critique and protest of war took a whole new level. If war was not just "politics by other means" as Clausewitz might have put it, but indeed an instrument (is this fair to say IS friends?), its seems like there are more alternatives to war. Are other instruments there? If warfare changed drastically since Clausewitz's time with modern weaponry and weapons of mass and systematic destruction, then there must be a sort of peacemaking that must also evolve that is mass and systematic. With the new type of peacemaking and new type of war, came a whole new type of criticism of war... mass criticism.

Mass criticism. Think of the intellectuals (Einstein included!) who were dragged into the peacemaking process in 1917-1919 after WWI. Think of the journalists during WW2. What about Rebecca West, the epitome of a "modern woman" critiquing and reporting on Nuremberg. Think of Vietnam and the mass protests. If anti-war protests ever reached a peak, it would probably be surrounding Vietnam. I haven't heard pop anti-war songs against Iraq, but think of those singing about leaving Vietnam (my personal favorite being Country Joe & the Fish's "The 'Fish' Cheer" or "I-feel-like-I'm-fixin-to-die," some lyrics being "put down your books and pick up a gun, we're gonna have a whole lot of fun/And its 1, 2, 3, what are we fighting for?/ Don't ask me I don't give a damn/ Next stop is Vietnam."). Think of the deaths from student uprisings. The mass movements and social protest. For our time, when Iraq costs more than Vietnam. When we are approaching a decade in Afghanistan. Where are the protests?

Or are they even necessary? Should we bother?

As Susan Sontag explains in her book "Regarding the Pain of Others," "The argument that modern life consists of a diet of horrors by which we are corrupted and to which we gradually become habituated is a founding idea of the critique of modernity---the critique being almost as old as modernity itself." I wonder if we just got tired of the fight to even protest it. Are we in an age of Mass Apathy? Did we got too comfortable with Wal-Mart and the war games we buy from their shelves for our Xboxs and PlayStations? Perhaps we don't care enough. Perhaps we don't see the repercussions that war spending has on our economy or on the lives of the families of soldiers.

Perhaps we just got too enthralled with protesting mosques to protest wars.

Yet, when I ask most people from my generation, they don't really think about the war. There isn't a forced conscription. They have never seen or held an automatic weapon. More interestingly, they think protests and social unrest have no place or point in American society. There are other ways. Get power. Get jobs. Get sex. Get money. Get it all, but don't lose your sense of morals! Get beyond that "european" social unrest. Protests and "social movements" are for anarchists and hippies... not hipsters or preps. To many in my generation, we think our parents were just smoking pot, holding signs, and screaming at "the man" because it was cool. Just like wearing American Apparel and dancing in dingy basements is cool now. Friends have told me, "If we want to make social change, its not through a perpetual party, so why protest? Protests are irrational." I'm not disagreeing.

So, "What to do." as they say in the Balkans.

At Yale, when we are sitting next to advisors to Presidents and former world leaders, we are too worshipful of the fact they are there to even ask meaningful questions. Students want to be friends with these guys and impress them with their quotations and Washington Post knowledge. We of all people could actually say something, probe, and maybe practice asking questions that still let us sit next to them the next class without losing our integrity and respect. If anything, we should be practicing this skill of asking those questions before we really screw up in the "real world." If I ask someone why they didn't ask a probing question, they respond: "Well, (fill in the blank topic: security, IS, history, lit) is just so complicated and I didn't want to seem stupid."

Is my generation habituated to apathy? Are we too comfortable?

or are we just restless and blow off steam in other ways....