Voter suppression to be focus of Hip-Hop Political Education Summit

Educating the public about voter suppression and other key issues in the run up to the November 3rd Fall General Election is the focus of the Hip-Hop Political Education Summit, a new day-long streaming event on Tuesday, September 22 featuring key rap artists and other prominent voices in the fight for systemic change.

Alderman Khalif J. Rainey, founder of Hip-Hop Week MKE, said the focus on voter suppression is fresh on the minds of voters in the City of Milwaukee, who could vote at only five in-person polling locations in the April 7 Spring Primary Election, as the COVID-19 pandemic greatly reduced the number of available poll workers and after the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Governor Evers’ attempt to delay the election until a later date.

“Voters have had to deal with ridiculously long lines at reduced polling locations, foreign interference, and even wide-scale attempts to scrub thousands from voter rolls,” Alderman Rainey said. “As we approach Election Day we need to empower voters with the information they need to make sure their vote is counted, and that’s why I am looking forward to the Hip-Hop Political Education Summit.”

“Hip-hop has long given voice to the greatest threats facing Black, Brown and poor Americans,” says Dave Mays, a pioneering hip-hop advocate who founded The Source magazine and co-founded the Hip-Hop Political Education Summit with author and activist Bakari Kitwana (The Hip-Hop Generation). “This summit recognizes voter suppression tactics during a global pandemic as the new danger.”

Alderman Rainey said the event will take place on National Voter Registration Day, and will partner REVOLT (a global news-politics-music-entertainment online outlet) with Hip-Hop Week MKE and Black Voters Matter and will feature several rap figures, as well as those fighting on the frontlines for change.

Special guests of the program will include Cordae, Chuck D, DJ Envy, Dr. Cornel West (Harvard), Dr. Michael Eric Dyson (Georgetown), Latosha Brown (co-founder of Black Voters Matter), Soledad O’Brien, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Melanie Campbell (National Coalition of Black Civic Participation), Congressman Andre Carson (IN), U.S. Senator Cory Booker (NJ), and many more.

The Hip-Hop Political Education Summit will be streaming live on REVOLT’s YouTube channel, website, and Facebook platforms, and will feature panels, performances, poetry and more.