So many connections from the hip hop, music, arts and culture community of Vancouver have taken place as a result of VMF, and there's a true sense of mobilization and activation happening. I am a connector - I've got my eyes and ears to the ground and to other parts of the world - I am always asking what people need and what are they looking for, in order to bring those worlds together. What's your experience collaborating with VMF so far?Ĭonnecting with VMF helped me create those bigger connections with the city, and has given me the opportunity to shape shift these public spaces.
The community has grown because this festival has become the meeting ground with those who have never experienced street dance before. I've seen this happen with Vancouver's street dance community (those who learn street dance styles such as breaking, hip hop, popping, locking, waacking, house, etc.) as a result of the annual Vancouver Street Dance Festival (which takes place on the first weekend of August, just before VMF). Any opportunity to grow the community and introduce this culture to open minds is what builds a thriving scene. It was also a rare occasion that we could be publicly share our art forms to an audience who might not have ever seen how the four elements come together in hip hop. Having this event was a big deal for our community, as it's actually rare that people from these four micro-communities in each element actually get to know each other or come out and can jam in one space. It made a lot of sense for VMF to pay homage to that. Graffiti as a style from the streets and as a statement of resistance (towards elitist art that said art was only in galleries and on white walls) made this an art movement accessible to everyone. The artistic expressions that came out of that were music, movement and visual art. Hip Hop started as an underground culture in the Bronx, NY, during the 1970's - it was a movement of the streets as a result of the socio, political, and cultural climate of New York at the time. I created the Four Elements of Hip Hop Jam at the Vancouver Mural Festival to represent the four elements: Graffiti, Break-dancing, Emceeing, and DJ'ing.