“As a woman, a mother, a wife, and an artist, it is my job to change that way of thinking. I have to provide the alternative. ”

~ Michele Byrd-McPhee

By Catzie Vilayphonh  |  Send to Friend

If you havent been paying attention in the last couple years, Philly's got a Hip Hop thing brewing for the Ladies. Started a a dance workshop in '93 by Michele Byrd-McPhee, the event has transcenced expectations and has been continuing as an educational week-long festival to celebrate the women of Hip Hop culture. With guest artists like Bahamadia and Questlove, and reaching audiences as far as Poland Ladies Of Hip Hop proves that sometimes all you need is a little positive reinforcement to get 'em moving.

Here's a chat with LOHH's founder Michele.

Catz: Okay, please tell me a little about yourself, your role(s) and everything that you do? When, why and how did you start the Ladies of Hip Hop event?

Michele: I am the creator of the Ladies of Hip Hop event and director of Montazh Performing Arts Company, an all female hip-hop company. The organization is a local non-profit that produces all kinds of events related to art and hip-hop culture. I started Ladies of Hip Hop in 2003. It's a five-day celebratory and educational festival of women in hip-hop culture. Traditionally, men have dominated all facets of the hip-hop scene, but Ladies of Hip-Hop puts women center stage for the entire event. The reason I started the festival was because there are just not enough ladies in this world doing headspins, windmills or graffiti art. In hip-hop culture as a whole, women are underrepresented, and the representations shown are often are very negative. Women are often portrayed as objects that exist purely for sexual gratification. You can reference almost any MTV hip-hop music video and female dancers are repeatedly shown scantily clad, parading around male music artists. This is relevant because women are bombarded everyday with an infinite number of these negative images through television, magazines and other media, and hip-hop culture has fallen subject to the same use of women. Meanwhile, hip-hop culture has been transformed into a global commodity and is used to sell everything from Vitamin Water to shoes and clothing. So, on a global level, popular culture is saying it is okay to view us in this undignified way. As a woman, a mother, a wife, and an artist, it is my job to change that way of thinking. I have to provide the alternative.

Catz: What are you hoping to achieve?

Michele: My goals are really simple: I want to provide women with opportunities to express and share their talents in a space that is not driven by a male perspective. Within that goal is the desire to provide another image of women in the hip-hop culture. I want to change the perspective by providing girls with other, positive, empowering images of women in hip-hop. I started with dance as my motivation but continue to build with other artists and business women. The goal of the Festival is to increase and help sustain a positive presence of women in the community, in Philadelphia and beyond.

There are also four more specific goals:

(1) Provide women and girls in the Philadelphia region with education workshops focusing on the business "how-to's" for hip-hop females and the past, present and future of women in the hip-hop culture.

(2) Provide dance training in the foundation of hip-hop dance and performance.

(3) Provide positive role models of women in the hip-hop dance culture.

(4) To preserve and disseminate women’s role in hip-hop culture.

This project is building social change by building a network of female hip-hop artists that will become the next generation of women representing.

Catz: How has it changed over the years?

Michele: The event has changed tremendously since its inception in 2003. It started off specific to hip-hop dance because I am a dancer, but, as each year passed, the event grew and I decided it was time to include other types of artists. Most artists work creatively in more than one type of art so it made sense to involve all types so that is when I asked local Marketing and Event Planner, hip-hop event producer, and artist Stacey "Flygirrl" Wilson to collaborate to me on LOHH 2008 to curate five nights of events. As with any culture, hip-hop is not one-dimensional: the dance is informed by the music, the music is played by the DJ's, the art and clothing represent the community we belong to and support.

Catz: How has LOHH become so successful, into what it is today?

Michele: Everyone involved is committed to the mission and vision of the event. The artists, participants, and community partners all understand that it is crucial for events like LOHH to happen so everyone does their part. Dancers offer to share their talents, panelists volunteer their time, community partners offer their services, not because of publicity or financial gain but because they support positive events focused on providing women and girls with a safe, inclusive space to embrace hip-hop culture. A time and space to tell their stories via their art.

Catz: Does anything surprise you about the event?

Michele: I am continually surprised at the reach. Last year we welcomed our first international participants. This year we had interest from participants from Poland, which shows just how global this culture has become. The reach of hip-hop culture is limitless.

Catz: Although hip-hop categorizes one genre of musical culture it encompasses so many things. I'll use Nas as an example for this one: He started out poetically speaking about things in his life, the everyday surroundings of his upbringing and living in Queens. Then, he talks about positivity and focuses on bringing together community and highlighting social issues, and then there are his rap songs that talk about almost the opposite, many which degrade women or portray them in a misogynistic way (Oochie Wallie anyone?). Does LOHH embrace this as freedom of speech, or certain things simply not allowable?

Michele: As artists, LOHH does embrace the concept of "freedom of speech," but of course we don't want to be referred to as "bitches & hos." But really the question is, are we creating the music and art within the culture so men are not speaking for us? You know how many men tell me they are doing this dance piece about being a "woman" in hip-hop? I mean, how would they know? Those kind of interactions make me know why events like LOHH are important. People are going to always try and pigeonhole another group, we can't control that but we can tell it OUR stories, so other people don't.

Catz: What about folks who believe that events like LOHH are just for oldheads nostalgic for the past, and denying the new hip-hop of today?

Michele: LOHH is nostalgic. Because, as far as hip-hop has evolved, the image of a women's role has not progressed. I am not saying women don’t get any recognition for our contributions -- but we get very little. It's hard for women to create professional careers around the culture if their roles are perceived to be one-dimensional. We have to bring the history of women's involvement and contribution to the forefront but we also embrace emerging artists and their contribution.

 

Catz: Any hopes of branching this out, maybe coastal, maybe worldwide?

Michele: I would be interested in branching out BUT making sure to still really serve the community. I don't want to make this another hip-hop event that starts really connected to local communities and then gets too expensive for the community that supported us and that needed it most. Local international would be the goal... is there a such thing? I think so. Many of our instructors teach internationally and we could connect to smaller international communities in that way but first I want to make it through this week.

 

Check out the closing of the Ladies Love Hip Hop Festival this Saturday with B-Girl Dance classes and a workshop on how to create your own sneaker art. For more info www.montazhpac.org.