Hip-Hop Heroines

So! We are glad to announce that Hip-hop Heroines were awarded funding of £2400 from Strabucks and UK Youth action.

After making it through to the final stages of the Starbucks youth action round; two of the peer mentors and one of the workshop leaders from the project gave a fantastic pitch to the panel of judges.

As mentioned previously, Hip-Hop Heroines is part of larger programme based at Contact called Future Fires.Being a part of this programme means that I get a lot of support with my project in terms of training and funding. 

The first Future Fires training session proved to be a very insightful and enjoyable weekend. The group luckily got to spend two weekends with three members from the Brazilian cultural group Afro Reggae who are based in Rio de Janerio and are known internationally  for their pioneering work in taking young people out of the drug/gang culture of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas (shantytowns). Their mission is 'to promote social justice using art and education to bridge differences and create the foundations with which to build sustainability and exercise citizenship .'

During the first weekend we had many group discussion where we were able to draw on the vast knowledge of Afro Reggae's experience of working with young people in a creative way and discuss some of their challenges they face working in very deprived and dangerous areas. We also got a chance to think about our own projects and  were asked to consider our skills and needs as creative practitioners, which was quite surprising for me as I wasn't expecting to    

 The most exciting part of these sessions for me was the practical side. We took part in dancing and drumming workshops, which I really enjoyed especially the drumming.

The second weekend we met with other creative arts organisations  across the UK as we are all involved in Cultural Warriors, which was the programme that enabled Afro Reggae to come and work with other creative groups in the UK. It was chance for us to network with these organisations and see how we could work together and support each other.

Re:Verb is a young, fresh and vibrant hip-hop collective, founded by the charity RECLAIM; made up of eight members ages 14-23. They aim to create music that is inspirational yet challenges young people to make a difference in society. 

‘We feel that hip-hop is full of negative stereotypes, especially bad images of women and we want to change that.’  (Jaimeel  age 16 member of Re:Verb)

They are all very passionate about what they do and they feel that it is important that their music is fun and lively but also encourages young people to take responsibility for their actions. They are heavily influenced by all types of music and love creating new and innovative sounds.

Re:Verb will be very much involved with Hip-Hop Heroines as 7 out of the 8 members are female and are also passionate about changing the way women are seen in Hip-hop. They will be assisting the younger participants involved with songwriting and helping with leading musical workshops!!

Hip-Hop Heroines is a music project aimed at young girls who want to change the way women are represented in the music industry, especially within the genre of hip-hop music. 

This project will work with girls aged 13-16 in pressurised communities across Manchester. The sessions will directly benefit young girls by turning the spotlight on them by reinforcing some of the positives about being young women in an urban environment; without having to conform to any stereotypes.

Hip-hop Heroines will create a safe space where young girls can come and be themselves; where they will be appreciated for their musical talents and be able to build up their confidence in their own abilities.  Participants will be involved in a number of different musical workshops that will encourage them to write songs that empower women and focus on the positives aspects of womanhood.

A number of girls in society feel that women within hip-hop music (past and present), are portrayed in a derogative and demeaning way as women are continually labelled as 'Video Vixens' 'Eye Candy' and 'Hip-hop Honeys' and it limits the aspiration of young girls. This is where the name of the project derived from; by taking some of these negative terms like 'Hip-hop Honeys' and turn it into something positive for women hence the name Hip-Hop Heroines.

This project is part of a programme called Future Fires based in central Manchester at Contact. Future Fires gives people aged 18-30 the opportunity to lead their own community arts projects. It offers training and support to ten different projects around Manchester including this one.

The RECLAIM Project; an award winning charity based in central Manchester will also be supporting and involved in Hip-Hop Heroines.