• Hip Hop Soul Jam - A Celebration of Emerging Artists Supporting Millennium Promise
• 8:00pm

Hip Hop Saves Lives and Cocody Productions Present:

Hip Hop Soul Jam – A Celebration of Emerging Artists Supporting Millennium Promise

Hip Hop Soul Jam is back at City Winery to support Millennium Promise. The event, to coincide with the launch of the 2010 Millennium Development Goals Summit, will have a strong African focus, including a new line up of artists and co-hosts the African student associations of Columbia University’s College and graduate Schools of Business, Law, and International and Public Affairs.

Hip-Hop Soul Jam (HHSJ) is a quarterly performance series showcasing new and positive talent in the hip hop soul community, while using the power of the genre for vital causes. In partnership with Cocody Productions, HHSJ also brings together America’s new African Diaspora and connects it to mainstream New York. Partying for a purpose, each Hip Hop Soul Jam donates the evening’s ticket sales to a select charity. The event format features live performances by local and international acts, highlights and benefits a chosen charity, and begins and concludes with DJ sets celebrating music genres of the Black Diaspora.

Holding its inaugural event at Harlem’s legendary Shrine Bar and hard launch in July 2010 , Hip Hop Soul Jam is excited to return to City Winery.  The September 20 show will feature performances by three live acts: Aposoul and Okai, with a special opening performance by the Hip Hop Congress from the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action middle school in the Bronx. Hip Hop legend Marley Marl will also do a special guest DJ performance.

The evening’s ticket sales will benefit Millennium Promise(www.millenniumpromise.org), the renowned non-profit co-founded by Jeffrey Sachs and Ray Chambers and supported by George Soros (among other public, private and non-profit partners) dedicated to eradicating global poverty. Co-hosting from Columbia University are the African Student Association, The African Business Club of the Business School, Pan African Network of the School of International and Public Affairs, and African Student Law Association of the Law School.

“We want to give a spotlight to quality hip hop soul artists, those with a focus on saying something and creating music with artistic integrity, while showing the power of hip hop soul to effect change on a global level. We place emphasis on acts who follow their words with actions, personifying Hip Hop Saves Lives’ motto, ‘We don’t just talk about it, we be about it,’” Harper said. To this end he works with co-producer Jake Bright, a DJ and Director of African focused Cocody Productions, several times recognized by award winning radio program Afropop Worldwide and having produced events for The Touch Foundation and Alicia Keys’ Keep a Child Alive. The two team up to infuse an international (largely African) component to Hip Hop Soul Jam’s live music selection, while adding Bright’s DJ skills mixing African music with other black genres, such as hip hop, soul, reggae, dancehall, and funk.

MORE ABOUT HOSTS, SELECTED CHARITY, CO-HOSTS, HOST COMMITTEE and SUPPORTERS

Hip Hop Saves Lives, founded by Chad Harper, is a charitable entertainment organization dedicated to using the power of hip hop soul for global change. Its primary focus is connecting artists and events to viable charities providing sustainable solutions to ending extreme poverty.

www.hiphopsaveslives.org

Cocody Productions, (pronounced Cocoa Dee), formed in New York, produces upscale events showcasing art, music, film, non-profit activities, business, and fashion of Africa and the African Diaspora. Past events, alliances, and productions include Le Cirque Afrique at New York’s legendary Le Cirque, the Africa Investor Award Series at The New York Stock Exchange, and events with Alicia Keys’ Keep a Child Alive.

Millennium Promise is the leading international non-profit organization solely dedicated to supporting the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals to halve extreme poverty by 2015. Millennium Promise oversees the Millennium Villages project which supports integrated social and business development for more than 500,000 people in rural communities across 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

www.millenniumpromise.org

CO-HOSTS

The African Business Club  -  www.cbsabc.com

The Pan African Network of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs - SPAN:  -  www.sipa.columbia.edu/students/span/

The African Law Students Association of Columbia Law School:  - www.columbia.edu/cu/alsa/

The African Student Association of Columbia University: - www.columbia.edu/cu/asa/

HOST COMMITTEE

Beniot Birungi, Nnamdi Chiekwu, Folake Eniola, Dawne Marie Grannum, Sondra Helenese, Dorothy Joseph , Catherine Ntabadde, Chantalle Jean Pierre, Juwon Ajayi.

SUPPORTERS

Afropop Worldwide: www.afropop.org/
Photography by Guest of a Guest: www.guestofaguest.com
Charity Happenings: www.charityhappenings.org

ON THE WEB LINKS
http://blog.afropop.org/2010/08/hip-hop-soul-jam.html
http://guestofaguest.com/events/charities/hip-hop-saves-lives-and-cocody-productions-present-hip-hop-soul-jam/
http://www.charityhappenings.org/eventphotos/hip_hop_saves_lives_benefit.html
http://www.hiphopsaveslives.org/
http://www.myspace.com/djakeny