BRIC House Block Party in Fort Greene celebrates hip-hop culture
Officials at BRIC tells News 12 they want to just keep working hip-hop into more of the events they're planning over the next few months, including their annual jazzfest in October.
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The official 50th anniversary of hip-hop might have passed, but the celebration continued on Sunday at BRIC in Fort Greene, which hosted a hip-hop block party.
Organizers, such as BRIC's president Wes Jackson, say it's important to keep the celebration going, because, to quote rapper KRS-One, “Rap is something you do, hip-hop is something you live.' I live hip-hop. It manifests in everything that I do."
Inspired by that, the party focused on more than just music - also including shops, art and panels. Antoine Hardy, the hip-hop scholar in residence at BRIC, told News 12 that "we really wanted this to be a hip-hop state fair in the sense of every type of hip-hop fan could get something out of it."
It's a mindset that they want to continue beyond just one day - recently launching the BRIC hip-hop program, where they will host a film festival, sneaker workshops and other events to try to get every part of hip-hop culture under one roof. Jackson says they want to institutionalize the summer's anniversary celebrations into something more permanent at BRIC, making it a place where the community knows they can come to learn and get involved.
"You wanna make a flyer for your event? You can come here,” said Hardy. “You want to have a conversation about noir in hip-hop, you can have it here…this can be a place of support, share, network – all those different things."
Officials at BRIC told News 12 they want to just keep working hip-hop into more of the events they're planning over the next few months, including their annual jazzfest in October. Their full list of events can be found here.
