Zero Divide

Pasadena City College and Bakari Kitwana increase "town hall" audience via Web 2.0 technology

Pasadena City College and Bakari Kitwana increase "town hall" audience via Web 2.0 technology

Pasadena City College, in collaborations with Bakari Kitwana, created Rap Sessions, a national conversation on Hip Hop and Race. Rap Sessions is a multiracial panel of Hip Hop experts who tour California and the nation to engage youth in candid, compelling conversations about race, gender and power.
Challenge

Rap Sessions sought to broaden the audience beyond event attendees.

 
Project

Over a two-year period, ZeroDivide provided Rap Sessions with $50,000 in funding to:

    * Record panel events and distribute via Rapsession.org
    * Add new virtual components to the site, including digital stories, video blogs and a short documentary

 
Results

    * 300-500 Youth attend Rap Session events
    * Rap Sessions' "town hall" styled meetings expand participants' understanding of race and youth culture.
    * Virtual components have dramatically increased the number of youth exposed to Rap Session dialogue [Are there any numbers here?...web traffic stats, # of downloads, etc]
    * Rap Sessions jumpstart crucial debates and connect local hip-hop communities to national hip-hop arts/activists networks

http://www.zerodivide.org/initiatives/hiphop/hip_hop_success_stories/fly_tech_rap_sessions_expand_hip_hop_dialogue