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!

Belgrade and the Theater of Necessity

In geopolitical lingo, the word "theater" describes a "region where active military operations are in progress" or more generally "a region where significant events and actions are played out." The world naturally has many theaters of this sort.

Somehow, Belgrade is a true theater, of both the artistic and geopolitical sense of the word.

During my time in Belgrade this weekend, I had the honor and pleasure of visiting with Borka Pavicevic, an iconic artistic, political, social, and activist figure in Belgrade for the past 30 or so years. She is an actress and theater maker by trade and part of the famed Belgrade circle of intellectuals, a now dying or disbanded breed that included Foucault, Habermas, Derrida, and Savic (who I also met) among others. Borka has an air about her. Probably 60 something, she wears slinky shifty dresses, old pearls, dons a bold dark stripe in grey hair, wears deep matte red lipstick, and never is seen without a cigarette. Her deep voice is a strange mix between an old bubby and a sex symbol. Her presence commands attention and her words reveal a depth of understanding in terms easily understood (to agree or disagree with!).

Borka Pavicevic

Today she is a leading chair at the Center for Cultural Decontamination in Belgrade and an active translator, writer, theater maker, and cultural envoy in Europe and the world. She works also with the Youth Initiative for Human Rights--the most effective, organized, and professional human rights agency I've ever witnessed. They have objectives, strategies, and achievable goals to promote democracy, civil engagement, and a revival of Serbian optimism for a new option and new alternative to old Nationalistic discourses that cling to Kosovo at the expense of progress.

As an artist in a theater of operations that has seen Turks, Austrians, Greeks, Romans, Germans, Russians, Internationals, the US, and more, she is very concerned with elements of identity--both as we understand and construct it. The Balkans have historically been a clusterf*ck of identities. In Borka's example: "Former professors of Marxism are now professors of religion!" Particularly now, when old religious and nationalist identities are reemerging in the vacuum of money, stability, and economy in Serbia, identity is a huge issue. She described the reemergence of these beliefs and ideologies--particularly with the Orthodox Church and its relationship to culture and even art.

One of her most memorable quotes to me was this, "A Church without belief is kitsch. Church and the theater require belief, a necessity. With a church, you can build a building and they will come when they need it. With a theater, you cannot just build the building. The people ARE the theater."

Borka, admittedly said that the Theater was mostly disbanded in the 1990s. Today, she is trying to bring it back. As she said, she NEEDS to bring it back to counteract the extremist nationalist, old-school-Serb dialog that holds back a lot of progress in Serbia. The theater gets to those people and the people are going to the theater. As a symbol of progress and peace herself, Borka is shaping a "Theater of Necessity" in Belgrade (not an official title mind you, but concept). There is an agenda in this theater (theater defined here by the people in it), an agenda to salvage, form, and show a process of forming an identity that will move Serbia forward and not keep it back.

The Theater is Necessary because Change is necessary or else Serbia will face dire economic, political, and social consequences (estimated to be on level with those of Greece's recent economic collapse.) When done well, the theater is a machine which we must desire to create and by which we rethink ourselves.

I have been reading current plays from the region, particularly those of Jeton Neziraj, a Kosovar playwright who has gained international renown for single handedly creating a theater in Kosovo, but a theater that actively helps the population rethink war, conflict, and identity. For those skeptics of political theater (I speak to those purists out there!), Neziraj's plays are not solely works of political theater, but are strong piece of literature, regardless of where you come from.

It got me to thinking about my theater. All of these artists are using the theater, not for commercial or entertainment reasons solely, but for a necessary political, ideological, and life-saving agenda. Theater, not just film, has always been a way of bearing witness to people and their actions in a way that film just does not achieve in the same way. It is a near religious experience when done well.

These artists NEED the theater they create and form. It begged me to rethink what I am creating, doing, and saying with my theater.

Immediately after talking to Borka, I contacted several dear theater making friends of mine, calling for a reform of our juvenile theater and coming to a greater intensity of purpose and ideas in what we create. What do we need in creating theater? Why do we need it? Do we even need it?

I beg of you to post responses about what you need in theater.

Responses, however random or unorganized they are, are below:

"I thought how wonderful it could be to teach kinesthetic response workshops to people all over the world. The workshops are aiming to get people in touch with their own center, to respond physically and emotionally to their own complicated thoughts and drives, in a creative, instead of destructive, way; as well as responding to others in the same ways." Timmia HF

"[Theater] goes deeper than that (or perhaps shallower), I'm talking about people like us. not every so-called intellectual is ever going to want to really think. Not every so-called artist is ever going to want to truly create and speak to God. But artists are modern-day prophets." -Timmia HF

"At Yale, in theater, and often, in class, we try to say and do things that are "necessary" because their necessity is a sign of their worth. We want to be good at making theater (or writing essays, talking in section), and surely, a
good theater-maker or thinker would produce work that is "important," "relevant," "vital," and "necessary." I do believe that this compulsive drive toward accomplishment is poison for the thinker and theater-maker. It makes the shows and the papers more boring than a pissing contest. The question is, what can take the place of that drive? If we are not guided in our thought and in our theater-making by love of praise, what are we guided by?" -Rachel P.

What does she want?

"Choosing/designing projects around what I consider to be theater's greatest asset: the fact that the actor/character may fail to achieve his goal at any moment, that the 2 hours of the play are the only chance, that the audience is bearing witness to a real attempt." --Rachel P

I encourage my theatrical community to continue posting ideas (by choosing to follow my blog!!) and keep this discourse going.

Our theater must be more similar to the geopolitical definition. "A PLACE WHERE SIGNIFICANT ACTIONS AND EVENTS TAKE PLACE."