Firelight Media is spearheading a year-long effort to use the film as a tool to help young people think critically about the increasingly violent and sexual imagery in commercial hip-hop and American culture in general. Leading this effort are innovative community-based organizations that will engage youth, sustain a national dialogue on the issues and develop solution-based activities in communities across the country. 

Campaign partners include: the Independent Television Service (ITVS), A Call to Men, Mothers Day Radio, YWCA of the North East Region, Gender PAC, Youth Movement Records, Reflect Connect Move, Helping Our Teen Girls In Real Life Situations, Inc. (HOTGIRLS), Inc., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, Center for Family Policy and Practice and The P.E.A.C.E. Initiative. Additional screening events are planned in collaboration with the Essence Music Festival, Congressional Black Caucus, Rikers Island and the Open Society Institute.   For more information about this effort, please contact Monifa Akinwole-Bandele at monifa@firelightmedia.org. To purchase a copy of the film, visit www.mediaed.org.

ITVS Community supported the pre-broadcast phase of the HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes campaign with a variety of community outreach events and materials in anticipation of its national broadcast on Independent Lens on February 20, 2007. Screenings and activities for this campaign took take place in January and February 2007.

Download the campaign overview document (PDF) >>

Download the Pre-Broadcast Community Engagement Campaign Report (PDF) >>

The goals of the HIP-HOP community engagement campaign are to:

• Engage young people in reflection, discussion, critical thinking, and problem-solving around the causes and effects of sexism, homophobia and violence within hip-hop culture
• Support the work of local organizations that serve youth by providing a media tool along with expert training, resources and connection to their peers
• Generate a national conversation on an increasingly violent, materialistic and sexually explicit American culture using hip-hop culture as a point of reference
• Provide opportunities to sustain conversations catalyzed by the film and move audiences from dialogue to action on the issues raised in the film
• Drive new, young, diverse audiences to the national PBS broadcast and retain conventional audiences while disseminating resources to those target groups
• Emphasize the positive, creative contributions of hip-hop, one of the most pervasive and dynamic global art forms engaging young people worldwide

The core resources, activities and other components of the HIP-HOP community engagement campaign include:

• National and local partner organizations to provide issue expertise and other resources, and to advise the campaign on methods and framing to properly engage target constituencies
• Partnerships with public television stations nationwide, including ITVS station outreach grants to fund local campaign projects and collaborations in five key markets
• A national training workshop on November 16-17, 2007, in Washington, D.C. with Director Byron Hurt, Firelight Media, ITVS, National Black Programming Consortium, key PBS stations, national campaign partners and other experts
• Professionally developed campaign materials, including educational and discussion guides, fact sheets, a campaign toolkit and other resources aimed at extending the campaign beyond the broadcast.
• More than 40 ITVS Community Cinema events in markets across the country, along with numerous screenings, workshops and other events produced by PTV stations and local partner organizations in January and February 2007
• A dynamic campaign Website at itvs.org featuring fresh new content, downloadable resources for partners, stations and viewers, as well as community generated content
• A multi-faceted public relations and marketing effort, including nationwide media outreach, electronic and urban grassroots marketing, and more

The HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes campaign is spearheaded by Firelight Media in partnership with the Independent Television Service and God Bless the Child Productions, with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Twenty-First Century Foundation.    

About Firelight Media
Firelight Media is a New York City and Bay Area based independent non-profit production company led by award-winning producer and Macarthur “genius” Fellow, Stanley Nelson, and award-winning writer, Marcia Smith. Firelight’s mission is to produce documentary films and videos on critical social issues, historical subjects, cultural trends and public policies, and to develop strategies to enhance their impact.