United Struggle Project creates an opportunity for artists from around the world to collaborate on the production
and recording of music and video clips
addressing issues faced by displaced persons globally.
Giving a voice to displaced people through music
OBJECTIVES
1. Record music and make music video clips in a number of locations with people from refugee camps, slums and those internally displaced due to development, war, political regimes and colonisation
2. Address and share issues faced by displaced people
3. Produce collaborative songs with a representative from each area visited
4. Create a forum for displaced people to express their stories through music and video and documentary making
5. Establish Donate A Beat website to allow producers from anywhere in the world the opportunity to donate beats to the project via the Internet
6. Enable a long-term vision of continued music recording and video clip production in Kenya and Palm Island via the mobile studio bus in Kenya, and solar powered recording studio on Palm Island
8. Create links between artists globally and establish networks to unite people to communicate via music their shared issues
9. Use music to address mental health issues and concerns of displaced persons
10. Address issues of racism in the broader international community
Hip Hop : Breaking Down Racism : Creating Global Networks
United Struggle project visits various countries to meet with displaced people and run video production and music hip hop workshops, for 5-10 days in each area, recoding music and film clips to be produced for collaborative tracks that will be released internationally.
United Struggle Update
Calais
So the recordings started in Calais France where refugees and migrants from many war-torn places are hiding in squats and camps on the run from constant police harassment. We recorded with Afghani, Kurdish, Sudanese, Nigerian/UK, Indian/UK, Chadian and Eritrean.
Monkeymarc, Fran and I joined forces with No Border collective to put on the festival 'Halfi de Bla Hudud' (music with out borders)
During the recordings we got evicted, chased, equipment broken and arrested. I was sent to a detention center to be deported to Australia without my child. It was hectic to say the least. Luckily for me No Border crew got my passport to the authorities in time. But unfortunately for many of the people I met, escape from Calais was not that easy .. the difference is in a piece of paper.. The injustice and racism I witnessed from the government police and the local community towards the migrants and towards groups working in solidarity with them was extreme. It reinforced my commitment to braking those borders with music.
Im still wondering when 'making music' officially became illegal in France...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96VHLlt-zMk
Palestine
Palestine was the next stop. Dahaisha refugee camp where I met and recorded with an inspiring young hip-hop group called Palestine Street . We put on a concert called 'Voice of Freedom' in the street on the back of a very large semitrailer at the entrance to the camp, the show featuring some traditional music, Bociott, Palestine Street, Combat Wombat and some deadly local kids on the mic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmLSs2QZNU0
We also did a show with Palestinian artist Simira and G Town in an Anarchist Bar in Tel Aviv. The bar was run by an inspiring group of Israeli activists who among other things had served prison sentences for refusing to serve in the army, that's sole purpose is defending the lie of which is Israel, they were also involved in weekly solidarity actions with Palestinian communities.
I witnessed the intensity of apartheid inflicted by the 'jewish state', the complex nature of the situation and the dichotomy between one side of the wall and the other.
Through my friends, who had spent most of there lives hostage with in the walls of the refugee camp, I witnessed the trauma of this apartheid. When they saw their holy land Jerusalem for the first time and realised it was no longer the place the grandparents had spoke of but western jewish metropolis. I saw the pain in them that this war has inflicted on generations, but despite it all I saw a lot love and generosity resilience and strength in the people I met.
We discussed plans for a 'Breaking the Borders' Tour of the West Bank for next year and the potential to build a permanent recording studio in the Dahaisha Camp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tdnFjOgiL4&feature=related
Egypt
In a 24 hour stop over in Egypt we managed to record a track with an artist Mohamad Wafi from Gaza now living in Cairo. This track now also features artists from Kenya and Ghana.
Kenya-Kangami
We are now in Kenya, United Struggle has been in high demand every day people coming to our headquarters in the ghetto wanting to record. It has been almost overwhelming.
First song we recorded was "United We Struggle" with Insect RanD and myself and it has become a bit of a theme song for the project. Other collaborations I did was My People with Fly High and Joestyles and FD System with Vulivuli. While in Kangemi I also made videos for Mr Fixit - Realize Myself, B.O.G - Say Yes, Agent Shujja and Vulivuli - Again we also recorded and produced videos for Wanga and Shiro - Where Would I Be and Shake yo Poom Poom by Fly High.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0wU-Uq5FMU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EcfXwdoVd8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMtBFgB-t08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4sUAIUHxrA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ojk9pA3HI8&feature=related
This weekend we are launching the movie Ghettomoto on the streets where it was filmed in Kangemi with a road show of local artist, acrobats and dancers.
Ghettomoto launch - we didn't find out till the day before that someone had eaten the money for the permit but we went ahead anyway.. we brought the stage by hand cart, it was a little muddy but it soon cleared up and the show was a great success with so many deadly performances, with more artists hustling to perform than we had time for. The event ran from 10am to 9pm. It was great and highly fitting to see Ghettomoto the movie on the big screen in the street where it was filmed in front of the community that had inspired it. Big thanks to every one who helped launch Ghettomoto true ghetto style.
We printed and burnt 100 dvd's of Ghettomoto that were distributed between the artists involved in the production and 20 United struggle T-shirts that were so popular even mine went missing off the clothes line.
Nairobi West Prison
United Struggle has teamed up with Sauti Academy (Natalie and Insect) to run workshops in Kenyan prisons, it has had an amazing response from the prisoners, so much talent and enthusiasm. It has been an uplifting experience for all involved. To see a whole room of prisoners up dancing and rapping was wild. We have recorded 4 songs so far and many more to come.
Next up we are planing our trip to Daadab and Kakuma refugee camps with a crew of artists from Nairobi.. so stay tuned 4 some deadly tracks .. p.s.. thanx to all those producers that have been sending beats.. keep them coming they are much appreciated xx
Message for our friends out there; we are doing fine Bassi is at school here in Kangami he has a crew of about 20 kids that follow him everywhere and is as wild as ever with extreme sports in open sewer jumping (a little stressful at times). Life has certainly been epic but hay thats the way i like it and i have been blessed to meet so many amazing people and overcome numerous difficulties with just enough seconds to spare. So thanx for all your love and support sorry i don't write so often coz i still type with one finger. The proof of the mission will be in the music and video that I'll be sending your way soon xx big luv and fine adventures xx izzy
Ghettomoto Dancers
Ghettomoto dancers were started by my housemate in Kangemi Jane aged 14 and her friend Martha when they were dancing around the room testing out their latest dance moves. She may have been inspired by the event a week before, I had been performing at a concert in Kibira and had brought Jane along to check it out. There she saw a dance troop of girls her age performing. So after seeing her enthusiasm for dancing around the house I told them they should get a group together. Well they took this suggestion very seriously and started recruiting half the neighborhoods teenagers and insisting on rehearsing everyday in the small room we shared.. Dance rehearsals became fierce competition to any recording and even cooking in such a confined space. Next came costumes, mini skirts, matching bandanas and trips to the salon to get there hair done at 5am, teenagers can be high maintanence at times but worth every super I fed them. They rocked the stage at the Ghettomoto launch and drew the crowds at Mukuru, even after the generator died the second time, they danced all day and at every birthday and church event from that day forth.
Poverty Transition Initiative
One night in a matatu (taxi bus) I met a fellow named Fredric Ohduimbo he is a kenyan political activist who had been beaten and tortured by government security after confronting president Kabuki about issues of poverty. He invited me to come to the orphanage school he is supporting. Insect, Farouq and me recorded the song Haki with Fredric and the students in solidarity with his project Poverty Transition Initiative.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeqAxGI3sSY
Daadab Refugee Camp-
After waiting in suspense for weeks to see if we had obtained permits from the U.N to visit Daadab refugee camp near the border of Somalia we (me, my son Bassi and 3 artists/film makers from Nairobi -Timo Insect and Fauouq ) finally heard 2 days before we where due to leave that it was on.. After having no success in obtaining a 4 wheel drive for free with such sort notice we decided to revamp the old pergot 504 I'd spotted sitting in pieces in Faruoq's studio in Nairobi. It had been his fathers car from the1980's and had a cracked wind screen, missing light, flat tyres, a lot of rust and numerous mysterious engine issues (some never solved up to today). It was a bit of effort to get her on the road. After two solid days of fixing and a midnight graffiti mission during which we practically lost a wheel she was ready to role. We set off at dawn and after braking down about 10 times on the first day and being towed by a public bus some where near Thika it had become apparent that we had missed the armed U.N. convoy we where supposed to travel with through the supposedly bandit ridden roads on the way to Dadaab and were left to make it on our own.. we were determined and after fixing the car about 20 more times on random roadsides we made it to Garissa.
From Garrisa we were told it was impossible to get to Daadab with out 4 wheel drive and we could not afford to hire one.. we were at a loss, I'm sure the Aid organization we were supposed to be working with had given up hope of our arrival since we had not appeared with the convoy. I roamed the streets of Garrisa asking random people about 4 wheel drives but to no avail. Then we found out that there was a public bus so we took from the car as much as we could carry and headed for the bus station. It was a hairy ride as busses raced neck and neck through sand dunes.
At last we arrived. Daadab it was very hot but we were keen to get to work. We went to the gate of the UN compound to try and find the crew we were supposed to be working with, unfortunately everybody's phones where off so it took a while for the guards to locate anyone. The compound instantly made me feel uneasy, we were surrounded by 2 layers of razor wire fencing on the far side of the fencing, I could see children playing and my son waved to them, as they waved back I wished there was not these big fences between us so that at least they could play. As we waited in limbo for instructions from some higher authority, it struck me we were hostage by a million dollar beuroracy of air-conditioned officers in a razor wire compound of double standards.
We waited at our allocated tent in the Care compound for further instruction, later that night we where informed that it was illegal for me to have a child in the compound (even though his permit had been approved) and having him there was putting the aid organization at risk. We were told to leave on the first bus in the morning, we were not allowed to leave the compound to record or film anything. After much debate we were prevented from relocating into the local community and then were forcefully escorted to the bus.
The bus was hectic, so bumpy it felt as though ones bones would fall out, half the passengers were arrested and taken off into the desert at random check points never to be seen again and it took 6 hours instead of 2 with constant ID checks and harassment of the Somalli passengers who could not afford to bribe the Kenyan police for there safe passage out of the camp.
Once we got over the initial despair of our experience in Daadab we decided to find some locals in Garrisa to record with while we waited to hear back from the aid organization if we could come back or not. On our first morning back I awoke to the sound of the cleaners scrubbing the stair case and singing so sweetly in their baggy uniform in the morning light. Due to my lack of local language and considering what I was explaining being an abstract concept I don't think the girls fully understood my invitation to come and record. But Insect managed with a bit of flirting in there local dialect to convince them to come back in there lunch break and record a song, they were very shy but we did manage to record a beautiful chorus with them before they had to go back to work..
Insect met a guy named Zabu in the street near where we were staying, he invited him to come and record, he had never recored before and was very excited, by the end of the next day we had recored his song "See My Life'' and filmed the music video. This session made being stuck in Garrisa all worth while.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WXn38_m5PQ
Mukuru
A reggae artist named Shoeshine Boy approached me about organizing a concert in Mukuru, a slum on the east side of Nairobi. It was short notice but we pulled it together. We got a sound system crew from Kangami and headed over. The morning began with a dead body on the road in Kengami followed by a flat tyre, on the way in to Mukuru there was so much mud we had to get out of the car and walk in, so that the sound system didn't get bogged.. it was grey and rainy and on arrival we discovered there was no power (and hadn't been for a few days), after much searching we hired a generator but it broke just as the crowds had gathered. We managed to find another one and by the time we got the party started the sun had come out, the Ghettomoto dancers brought back the crowds and Mukuru rocked on with their impressive line up of local reggae stars.
Kakuma Refugee Camp
Latest report ..just got back from Kakuma on a public bus which was over 24 hours of roads so bouncy my teeth felt loose and with a small but heavy boy with diarrhea on my lap. But it was all worth it. We were blessed to meet a Sudanese artist on the bus by the name of Lionman who invited us to stay with his family inside the camp. The hand-built mudbrick hut made a hot but great recording studio.
Within the first hour of our arrival we recorded a Reggaeton song about H.I.V. and another song about drug abuse with a Sudanese artist called Bolingo. The only problem was no electricity and the lap top battery was flat. The studio was already in high demand with artists from Congo, Burundi and Eritrea awaiting there chance to record.
So we hit the main street of Kakuma camp in search of a shop with electricity to charge the laptop. Unfortunately we were apprehend by some rather drunk security guards who loudly reported over and over on their radios that they had caught a 'white lady'. Our Sudanese host Lionman attempted to explain to them that I was his producer and was there under his private invitation. But they insisted that because i was a 'white lady' I had to have a permit from the U.N. or my presence was illegal, at this stage they had paid little attention to Farouq, my Kenyan colleague who with his mass of dreadlocks did not look particularly like the other refugees either. I told them to close there eyes and then we could all be black together and it would not be a problem.
We where eventually taken to the Head Guards office who was an obnoxious fellow who made all sorts of threats and accusations of being arrested at gun point and air lifted out. He then left us waiting in his office while he went to do who knows what.. I made the most of this and charged the laptop batteries in his absence.. By now it was getting late and hunger and tiredness from the big journey where setting in. My son who still recalled our traumatic experience in Daadab, was feeling wary of this man and our fate of waiting in offices and began winging to go back home to the mud hut and other children.
After negotiating a bribe for the equivalent of $5 he changed his tune and said he would escort us to the police station and negotiate our release as opposed to us being collected at gun point in the back of a truck. So off to the police station we went as we were now apparently arrested. Here, we and our host were reprimanded for our naïvety and told we had to go to the office first thing in the morning and make arrangements.
We attempted to do the right thing and went to the office the next day only to find it closed, we then returned later that afternoon to meet with the boss who said we could only get permission to be in the camp if we had permits from Nairobi.. Well we weren't about to go back to Nairobi for a piece of paper that they probably wouldn't give us and the processes to obtain one by email was lengthy. We were out of cash to engage in any bribery so sencing his hostility to our pleas for help, we decided to cruise back into the camp via the back way... down the river bed and through the maze of prickly fences. We knew now attention had been drawn to us so we had to lay low. From that point we were hiding out and on the run. It seemed ironic to be the persecuted minority on the run from the authority in a refugee camp. I'll be claiming for asylum from the UN for being persecuted for my belief in music and disregard for bureaucracy. Its enough to get u locked up these days if your a 'white lady'.
On our way back to the mud hut studio we met a group of Congolese artists, we wasted no more time with any bureaucracy and recored 2 songs with Chis Black and Innocent - Kifo Cha Mama (this was about losing his mother) and Ukimwi Kawaida Unaunwa (about H.I.V.). The
next morning we recorded a song with another Congalise artist Makiwa Fanatic King of Music called Ukimwi ni Hatari, this was also about H.I.V.
We then proceeded with a gang of kids and others we picked up along the way to film a music video for Lionman called Stand Together, a song he had recorded in Nairobi about rebuilding Sudan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH4cRFDkwv4
We had many dramas related to electricity (next time I'm bringing a solar panel). So we waited at the Congolese house for the rest of the day for power to come back on. In this time we had a wicked freestyle cypher and put together the group track 'Life is the War' featuring 8 artists from Congo, Sudan, Burundi and Australia. The power at last came back a bit after dark and after an epic recording session we snuck back to the secret head quarters for a feast of engera and meat from Mama Junia.
The next day we roamed the river bed with a massive posse filming the video for Life is a War, we were then invited to a Sudanese cultural event to film the festivities. There was a lot of talking then some great cultural dancing and singing from the women.
We sat down to a massive feast with the community and then we were again questioned by the same security guard who seem surprised to still find us in the camp.. with the support and a few words from the Sudanese community he soon left us alone. Perhaps we were again getting a little too comfortable and from now on we were defiantly on alert. I was later told a story that in 2002 the Kenyan police had killed many Sudanese in this part of the camp, the Sudanese had fought back drawing the UN's attention to the issue, making it a bit of a no go zone for the Kenyan police since that time.
The cultural event soon turned in to an all night disco driven by the most distorted pair of small hi-fi speakers I've ever heard but I still managed to dance despite the fact that I could barley recognize the songs through the distortion. In between the all night disco we returned home to edit the events of the day and Lionmans video, we were leaving the next day for Nairobi.. i had strategically erased the endurance test of the bus trip from my mind.
So many people wanted to record, it was heat braking to turn them down but I promised I'll be back. The demand is huge, the talent immense and an honor to work with such survivors. I was still burning CD's for the artists at the bus stop up until we left.
I've have just been informed that the the afternoon we left security forces raided the camp where we were staying, unable to find us they took our hosts in for questioning.. I'm yet to hear the full story but it makes you wonder what it is they thought we were filming and more importantly what is it they have got to hide.
Back in Kangemi
After another arse flattening ride back to Kangemi Nairobi I received a call from Paul aka M-baba a blind guy from Handicap International who we met working in Daadab. He was disappointed things had gone the way they had on our visit and was keen to record a song. He made his way to Kangemi and amazingly on arrival freestyles 2 tracks 'Stop the War' (in Somalia) and a drum'n'bass techno party track called 'Katika', he is like the next generation Stevie wonder.
Up until the last hour in Kenya I was still receiving calls from people wanting to record. I hate to turn down any creative endeavor so we were busy till the end when I handed over the recording equipment to Insect to continue the United Struggle Project in my absence. Next time (with your continuing support) maybe we will have the mobile solar powered studio bus and have enough equipment that we can leave recording set ups with people we train in each location coz the demand is great and the power of music to unite, educate and heal is so far reaching... even border braking if given a chance.
Peace love and music.. and dancing xx
This trips budget was $2500 from benefit concerts in Melbourne and $2300 from private donors all of which was spent on putting on the events in each place and on the equipment I left behind to continue the project. All artist received copies of there songs and videos. All United Struggle crew and participants where totally volunteer. Thanxs so much for your support, we got big dreams and want to make this sustainable. Maybe a "United Struggle" record label.. I'm no business person but if there is someone out there with skills in that field and can donate there time to promote the artists and maybe market a compilation CD/DVD of there work let me know. I'll keep the tunes coming.
For all these songs and more go to
http://soundcloud.com/united-struggle-project
Next Stop Austraila, Afganistan and Cambodia.....
Videos-
united w struggle
Word up producers of phatt beats of many flavours, we want your beats from all corners of the world.
United Struggle Donate a Beat web site will be an interactive forum for producers to donate us the beats to create this vision, allowing everyone from established artists and producers to upload their beats to the site, donating them to United Struggle and providing a broader international theme to the project.
Delve deep into your hard drives..
Let your beats host unheard voices of displaced peoples against repression.
Collaborate and unite by donating a beat to the United Struggle project
creating links with producers and artists globally.
Donate a beat to those artists in refugee camps and war zones with little access to beat making technology and help us bring the United Struggle Project to life.
BACKGROUND
The song Bow Down No Way, a collaborative track between Shoeshine Boy from Mukurru slum and Adel from Star Studios in Nairobi, with MonkeyMarc (Combat Wombat) and myself, is an example of what the United Struggle Project could achieve on a much larger scale. The video clip was shot in Nairobi, Melbourne and Alice Springs and the song draws parallels between the poverty of indigenous people in Australia and Africa.
Izzy Brown - On both my trips to Africa I, helped to organise and fund 2 concerts in the ghetto of Kengami, featuring over 50 local artists and drawing crowds of up to 6000 people. It was an empowering experience for the artists and the community. Whilst I was living in Kangemi, a slum in Nairobi, I gave people hands-on training in filmmaking; since then they have been producing their own documentaries and music videos.
Palestine also has a thriving hip-hop scene demonstrated in the movie Sling Shot Hip-
Hop. I am in contact with the Palestinian Rapperz Collective, featured in the film, who wish to use their music to get their plight out to the rest of the world.
Palm Island, Australia was a penal colony made up of 68 different indigenous tribes displaced from their traditional lands. Today the people from Palm Island are dealing with similar social issues as the displaced people in the camps in Africa, Palestine and Cambodia, including overcrowding, poor health and tribal tensions. Australian Indigenous people are still suffering the effects of colonisation.
I feel like a refugee in my own country Uncle Chappy, Aboriginal Tent Embassy.
Having worked in remote Aboriginal communities, with various groups across Australia since 2000 I have seen a very positive response to the music and video workshops. They have proven to be a fantastic way for youth to voice their issues and creatively communicate with the broader community.
Even though Australia is a diverse and multicultural society there is a definite underlying racism that needs to be addressed in both the case of refugees and also indigenous people. Music, being a universal language, can be a very effective way to address the issues of racism in society.
Music is also a great mechanism for addressing mental health issues, and giving people an outlet to express themselves when it seems like no one is listening and allowing a creative release for people who have been through trauma.
INSPIRATION
Izzy Brown - I was first inspired to do this project while in Kenya filming the documentary Ghetto Moto (fire) - about the journey of hip-hop spoken word poet Timothy Mwaura, following the post election violence in 2008.
During the filming I was approached daily by artists from the slums in Nairobi to produce music videos of their songs. I noticed the huge demand and lack of accessible equipment and skills in video production for people in these poverty stricken areas.
The talent and wisdom of artists is truly inspiring, and to the wider world, unheard. I recorded produced 7 tracks and film clips. I want to now reach artists in refugee camps and displaced people camps and give them the same opportunity to record music and communicate their issues to outside world.
This could be achieved by working with the artists from the slums of Nairobi to tour these camps and put on collaborative concerts and recordings; a learning curve for all parties involved. I have a very strong feeling that there is some incredible talent and insight hidden in these isolated places of limbo.
I am hoping to travel to Kenya, Palestine, Afghanistan, Cambodia and the Australian Indigenous Community of Palm Island, to build a global context to this project and bring to realisation the production of at least one track in collaboration with artists from all these places.
Colonisation, war, tribal religious or political conflicts all result in people being alienated from their land. There are many common threads in the issues faced by displaced persons around the world although their circumstances may differ- some 20 million people around the globe are recognised as displaced persons by UNHCR; there are 340 000 refugees, and half a million internally displaced people in Kenya (www.unhcr.org).
Another element of the project will be the Donate a Beat web site. This will give producers from anywhere in the world the opportunity to donate beats to the project via the Internet, thus creating links with producers and artists globally.
My main motivation is my love of music and belief in social and environmental justice. Music can be used as a tool for change and education to break down walls, create common ground and unite common struggles.
For examples of my previous work go to:
www.myspace.com/izzylabrat
United Struggle will facilitate workshops and seminars on hip hop, media production, lyrics and song writing, recording sessions and video production in a number of displaced people camps and communities around the world. Beats from the United Struggle, Donate A Beat website will be used for the tracks recorded.
The aim of the workshops and seminars is to empower local community members by producing media that can be used as a tool to bridge cultural misunderstandings and give a creative outlet to personal experiences.
Culminating in community concerts and performances at the conclusion of the workshops and seminars in each place, recorded music will also be taken back to Australia to be edited and mastered and DVD/CDs produced for distribution.
One or more tracks are being developed using content from each place visited to see the vision of a truly global hip hop track(s) highlighting the common threads of issues faced by displaced people from around the world.
We travel to Kenya, Palestine, Cambodia, Afghanistan and the Australian Indigenous Community of Palm Island over 18 months to bring a voice to the United Struggle of these people.
IZZY BROWN
As a part of Melbourne hip-hop act Combat Wombat Izzy has toured extensively in Australia, Europe and Africa for over a decade driven by a passion for music and cultural exchange. Combat Wombat have performed with M1 from Dead Prez, Public Enemy, and members of Jurassic 5. Combat Wombat are renowned for supporting social justice causes through benefit concerts. Their first Album was Labrats Solar Powered Sound System (2001) and the second album Unsound System (2005) of which the single Qwest reached number 2 on Triple Js net 50 on Australian radio; currently members of the band are undertaking individual projects while also working on a 3rd album.
Izzy has been involved in the Sonic Boom collective of artists and Bush Mob as a Youth Workshop facilitator working on remote Aboriginal communities in the central and western desert in Australia and Palm Island since 2000 including Balgo (WA), Kintore (NT), Papunya (NT), Yuendumu (NT), Alice Springs (NT) and Port Augusta (SA). Workshops conducted included music, hip hop lyric writing, theatre, circus and film production working with 'youth at risk' and disadvantaged youth. Over many years, Izzy has used hip hop as a medium to create a space for children to tell their stories.
In 2006 and 2008 Izzy travelled to Mali and Kenya to undertake a number of projects including a short documentary titled Voices from the Ghetto, discovering underground hip hop artists from the slums and remote villages; on both trips she helped to organise and fund concerts in Kangemi featuring over 50 local artists and attended by over 6000 people.
Izzys latest film making achievements include the feature length documentary Ghetto Moto (fire) on hip hop in the slums of Kenya and Long Walk Big Story, a short film about a young boys journey walking from Eritrea to Sudan in search of his father, which was made with as part of a youth project working with newly arrived refugees to Australia.
Izzy is experienced in music, theatre, film, youth work and event coordination, having been involved in a plethora of activities inspired by environmental and social justice campaigns including: 'Operation Alchemy' European theatre tour for Anti- Nuclear awareness; as co founder of Labrats solar powered sound system and wind powered cinema that toured Australia in a vegetable oil powered van from 1997 to 2003 and as a participant in an anti nuclear camel trek for 4 months walking 1000 kilometres in the South Australian Desert to highlight issues around the proposed nuclear waste dump.
www.combatwombat.org
TIMOTHY MWAURA
Timothy is a 25 year old, self taught independent filmmaker and spoken word poet from the ghetto of Kangemi in Nairobi, Kenya. The subject of Izzy Browns documentary Ghetto Moto (fire), Tim was born in Kangemi, the largest slum in Nairobi and one of the largest ghettos in the world.
He has a passion for words, speaking 4 languages and writing poetry in them all, he is a gifted words smith. Timothy is also a hip hop artist and won the Slam Africa spoken word poetry competition in 2009.
Tim recently worked as an instructor for aspiring young poets at the AMREF Dagoreti Child in need project and has volunteered his time to the Sarakasis Hospital project.
He is also a member of a rap group, Huduma Ya Kwanza, and has performed at many festivals including the Earth/Aqua festival, Words and Pictures (WAPI) in 2009 and 2010.
He has taken to film making since being the subject of Izzys film Ghetto Moto in 2008 and Tim has undertaken a number of projects including the filming and production of various film clips for local hip hop artists and musicians and the filming of Ghetto Moto, Endeleza, Alcoholic Maasai, Urban Mirror news.
Tim has aspirations of becoming a recognised documentary maker, and shoots as often as he can. Tim said:
It is important to me to feature the neighbourhood I grew up in, and the real people who live and work in Nairobi in my films and music videos.
Tim is currently working on a production about Slum Soccer in Kibera, Nairobi, which is his first solo work in video production as director/producer.
SVEA PITMAN
Svea has worked in Community Development for over 10 years, since moving to Palm Island, a remote Aboriginal community in Queensland Australia in 2000 where she lived until 2008. During this time she worked for various community organisations, the local Municipal Council, State Government and in 2005 was involved with starting the community group Bwgcolman Future (BF). Svea has been the Vice president of BF since it commenced and in this role has been responsible for grant writing and funding acquittals, project development and management, event management, report writing and PR and promotional materials for the group, whose average annual income has been $200 000.
In 2006 Svea established her own business in community development and environmental management consultancy, specialising in submission and grant writing, project and event management, she has a particular interest in the environment, arts and youth work.
Svea has run a Youth Holiday Program on Palm Island, (population 4000), for the past 5 years including workshops in hip hop, film making, circus, dance, puppet making, and photography. She has also undertaken projects in the community in health, nutrition, anger management, photography and dance. In terms of event management Svea has coordinated music concerts featuring international, national and local acts, traditional dance performances, historical and national event celebrations, art and photography competitions and exhibitions, both on Palm Island and on mainland Australia.
In 2008 Svea commenced work with the Catherine Freeman Foundation, established by renowned Olympic Gold Medallist Cathy Freeman, Svea is currently the Program Manager for CFF and is responsible for the project management of all the Foundations programs.
Svea is a passionate environmental activist and advocate for social justice; she has been involved in many campaigns Australia wide over for 15 years. Her background academically is in Environmental Management and Science and Svea has also worked in the area of Indigenous Land Management having undertaken a number of environmental programs on Palm Island during her time living there including managing the Rangers Station when she first moved to the community.
www.bwgcolman.com
www.catherinefreemanfoudnation.com
MONKEYMARC
MonkeyMarc is a leading producer/DJ from Melbourne, Australia and member of hip-hop group Combat Wombat; he has recently released his first solo album, As the Market Crashes, in December 2009
MonkeyMarc's career has spanned many genres from punk to hip-hop and dubstep.
MonkeyMarc's electronic career debuted in 1997 when he DJd with the infamous All Funked Up Crew from Sydney.
His first produced release Combat Wombat Labrats Solar Powered Sound System (album) came out in 2001 and was soon followed by Combat Wombat Miraculous Activist in 2002 (12 inch vinyl). Both of these album where written in a veggie oil powered vehicle and solar powered caravan. In 2004/05 he produced the critically acclaimed Combat Wombat Unsound System (Elefant Traks, 2005).
His passion for social change and music took him in to the Australian outback in 2000 as part of the Sonic Boom collective (including Izzy Brown), and over the past 10 years MonkeyMarc has continued to produce music and run workshops with Aboriginal people across Australia. He currently spends up to six months of the year running music workshops in remote Aboriginal communities.
In 2006 he began to venture into his solo career and has remixed tracks with artists from Australia, the UK, France and Istanbul and recently returned from a 3 month tour of Europe (2010).
MonkeyMarc's obsession with alternative energy and his strong desire to make a positive change for the future led him to building a solar powered recording studio in 2008 out of 100% recycled materials which was featured in cult classic magazine Dazed and Confused in 2009.
www.monkeymarc.com.au
NTENNIS DAVI
Ntennis Davi's focus is media for social change. Whether in radio, print, television or video, from the grass roots to the mainstream, his work seeks to challenge, inspire, and give voice to the marginalised. Ntennis commenced his career in film making in community television at Ska TV, Channel 31, in Melbourne in the mid 1990s. Examples of his work include:
•broadcast television credits in camerawork, including working on feature-length documentaries: Drowned Out (SBS) 2003, The Last Valley (ABC TV) 2007, Welcome 2 My Deaf World (SBS) 2006, Two Mums and a Dad (SBS) 2003
•delivering training in TV production to groups under-represented in the mainstream media such as Deaf people and Indigenous youth
•providing footage of protests for numerous news stories on Channel 7, 9, 10, ABC and SBS News
•working with media NGOs in Thailand, the Philippines, and India
•producing, distributing and exhibiting subversive video works with SKA TV (Access News, Global Insights)
•music videos: co-directing and editing Qwest (by Combat Wombat), providing material for U.K. electronic/hip hop stars Coldcut, and for Michael Moore's Boom! video for agit-rock band, System of A Down
•orchestrating media pranks: A Current Affair and Today Tonight Dole Army hoax
•video editing including titles such as Your Voice Your Vision, 2001, and promos The Grimstones, 2008.
In addition to television work, Ntennis has operated live video components for theatre productions including Electric Dreams (Next Wave 2004) and The Grimstones: Hatched (Regional Victorian tour, 2009).
Ntennis is an experienced video editor whose recent clients have included The Centre for Sustainability Leadership, Westside Circus, the Transport Accident Commission and The Wilderness Society. He worked along side Izzy Brown on Ghetto Moto.
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