Kweli promotes the big May 29 march in this YouTube short
(Please see update below on Kweli's new anti-SB1070 track "Papers Please.")
Brooklyn emcee Talib Kweli, one of the most respected names in hip-hop, known for his collaborations with fellow master of the mic Mos Def in Black Star, has done a video for AltoArizona.com endorsing the massive march to the state Capitol coming up on Saturday, May 29.
In it, Kweli, who just played the Clubhouse in Tempe this Friday, mentions the fact that he considered boycotting the state over SB 1070. He obviously decided otherwise, as the video was shot while he was in Arizona.
"I'm in the beautiful, beautiful, glorious state of Arizona," says Kweli in the video. "The people here are so gorgeous. The weather here is so gorgeous. But, you know what I'm saying, there's rumblings and stuff going on under the surface of all this beauty. People are getting persecuted for the color of they skin."
Indeed, they are. And it will get much worse, unless the ACLU's lawsuit is successful, and a federal judge steps in to enjoin SB1070 before it goes into effect.
Kweli mentions a flier promoting the May 29 event by Ernesto Yerena, an artist who has collaborated with Obama/Hope poster artist Shepard Fairey. And he talks up an art show that will be a part of a Festival for Human Rights, to include live performances, a film festival and live mural painting for May 28.
The happening will take place at Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox's El Portal Restaurant. (I can hear the nativist haters gnashing their teeth already at the location alone.)
Some amazing poster art has already been submitted to AltoArizona's Web site. Interested artists can fine submission details, here.
"And on May 29, if you find yourself in Arizona, if you find yourself in the Phoenix area, you could come down to the rally in Phoenix, and you can get more information from AtloArizona.com," Kweli reminds viewers.
May 29 is going to be big. Really big. So big they may have to suspend the boycott for all rally-related activities. People are traveling here to be a part of a 21st Century civil rights movement, just as people traveled to the South in the 1960s to help end segregation there.
Update: Thanks to Freedom Warrior for giving the heads up on this new dope anti-SB1070 track "Papers Please." Enjoy.
