Saturday, June 10, 2006

cK meets Brazil's CJ Hip Hop

Rio's biggest dance troop comes to Tdot!

To read this page in Portuguese, CLICK HERE

On June 6th, I was in Regent Park doing our weekly radio show and our guests that day were a group of youths that were doing a similar program to what we do in Regent Park. Thanks to a program called, "Schools Without Borders", they brought the group from Brazil to Toronto to meet many of the inner-city youth programs across the city.

On the radio show, we all discussed the similarities of political problems between Brazil and Toronto. How to get the youth involved in more positive programs as opposed to joining the drug trade. Our program in Regent Park offers breakdancing, video production, photography, and more. The area of Rio that CJ Hip Hop is working in has an estimated 8,500 youth working as armed soldiers in the drug trade. CJ Hip Hop's graffiti program and street dancing draw youth out of the drug trade, and give them an alternative to the underworld lifestyle.

You can listen to the full radio show HERE.

Here is a little bit of background on their program:

CJ Hip Hop was formed in 1998 when dancer Roberto William put together a street dance group at the non-governmental organization CAMPO (Centro de Apoio ao Movimento Popular da Zona Oeste). Since then, free street dance classes have been made available to anyone who wishes to participate, provided that the dancer be enrolled in school. From its inception, CJ Hip Hop has been developing various initiatives to attract and motivate a large number of youth. Thanks to this innovative work, the West zone of Rio now boasts the largest number of break dancers in the entire city.

Here are the co-ordinators of CJ Hip Hop:

Jessica Felipe Tavares 19, resident of Guaratiba. Jessica has participated in the group for five years now and runs the female dance component of CJ Hip Hop. In 2005, she spearheaded the group's project "Minas na Arte de Riscar os Discos" (Girls in the Art of Scratching Disks), which works to attract more female dancers to learn break dancing, and to professionalize these women as turntablists.

Jeferson Alves da Silva 21, born and raised in the community of Vila Alian?a, Bangu (one of Rio's most violent ghettos). During his adolescence, Jeferson almost became involved with crime, until 2002 he learned of the project "Ponte BR" through Samuca, the project's co-ordinator. Jeferson immediately identified with hip hop culture, and more specifically, graffiti. Currently he is one of Ponte BR's co-ordinators, a Graffiti instructor, and also accompanies the band Movimento na Rua, during lectures and shows.

Gilson Moreira da Silva 24, resident of Antares community (a community dominated by the drug trade). Gilson became involved in the group while participating in a community radio workshop that was being put on at the same location. During this course he began dancing and saw a possibility to create a different reality for himself and others.

After the radio show, we all went out to eat Somalian cuisine. I don't have pictures of that because I didn't bring a camera. The food was really good, a lot of meat and I am still questioning why I had to eat with a banana.

The group was in town for the rest of the week, and invited us to join up with them at other events they would be going to in the city. I didn't think I see them until a bbq happening on Saturday, but lo and behold...I met them on Friday at the HARMONY 06 Dinner Banquet!

The HARMONY 06 banquet was a networking dinner, for youth leaders to meet the other Toronto groups. It was hosted by the TYC (Toronto Youth Cabinet) and the BYCAV (Black Youth Coalition Against Violence). I was there with my pals, Vinh and Bo Wen - also with my radio co-host, Ang.

Tymes Band performing	cK and Jessica	Ward 12 Candidate, Keith Sweeney with CK

There was a live band called "The Tynes". It was an all family unit, with all of the children playing some sort of instrument. Very talented. They performed great too. Just as soon as they started playing, it was like Gilson and Jessica could not help themselves. They just heard music and ran to the dance floor. They didn't even understand what was being said, they just felt the music, and flowed to it. Here is a video capturing them both slowly easing their way to the dancefloor:



Just after that, Jessica tore it up! Here is that video:



The banquet was fun, but we had to leave early for BoWen to make it to a dancing gig.

The next time I saw the CJ HipHop group was at the Saturday BBQ happening at R.A.Y - Rathburn Area Youth. It was a mix of graffiti, bbq and break dancing. Lots of youth came out to the free event. It was inspiring to see the younger ones get all mesmorized into the activities. They wanted to learn how to paint, they wanted to learn how to dance.. one 10 year old girl was very interested in learning how to speak Brazillian, because she just liked the way they talked.

Here are some pics from the R.A.Y. BBQ:

BBQ!!!	Gilson breaking it!	Jessica doing the Matrix!!
1....	2....	....3!!
spray painted girl on canvas	graffiti art	All of Jeferson's creations

Below here you can see a snapshot of some of the people that came out. I came kinda at the end of the bbq, so I don't know how much people showed up during the day. It looked like a success to me.

People that came out	cK and Jessica

Yep! So that's it! It was fantastic meeting the group from Brazil. Maybe I will make it out to their event happening in 2007!

You can check out their website at cjhiphopcia.blogspot.com or fotolog.com/evolucaocrew.