Family Day is ready to roll

The Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival is an annual event celebrating Hip Hop Culture and the borough of Brooklyn as a premier cultural destination. Now entering its fifth year, the BHF has become a summer staple in NYC. This year Brooklyn Bodega, F.O.K.U.S. and DJ Misbehaviour reunite to produce Brooklyn Hip Hop Family Day. On June 20th, 2009, families are encouraged to head down to beautiful Empire Fulton Ferry State Park for an afternoon of Hip-Hop, community building, and fun. Family Day will take the main stage from 12 p.m to 4 p.m. From 4p.m. to 8p.m. Family Day will move to the North Lawn of Empire Fulton Ferry State Park while the main performances round out the day. Families, teenagers, and kids are all welcome to this all ages event. ------ Here is a quick preview of some our participating arganizations ------- Beacon, an organization that provides education in various art disciplines for youth in the Tri-state area will bring youth DJ's who will be providing the music for the entire day. The DJ team of young adults are students of Bodega Family and Family Day co- organizer DJ Misbehaviour. She will be making sure the Family Day tunes stay soulful and fresh. Black Girls Rock is a mentoring outreach organization that targets "at risk" teenage girls of color. It aims to provide positive and healthy images of women of color in the mass media. For Family Day, BGR will be providing steel drum, dance, DJing instruction and a rhyming and poetry workshop. Sohnup Industries will provide a "Make Your Own Paper Plush Toy" station with Mr. SpazeCraft, an interactive DIY character. The youth will work with the artist to make toys out of 100% post consumer recycled paper. They will draw features such as clothes, hairstyles, and facial features using markers and colored pencils. It is a fun and interactive activity that teaches character development and encourages eco-conscious recycling. Metropolitan Hospital will be providing health education on family planning, teen and adolescent services, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, breast health, HIV & STD prevention, asthma, and smoking cessation. They will also provide blood pressure, blood glucose, and peak flow screenings. All those that qualify will be able to receive clinical appointments and applications for health insurance. Urban Beats will be providing workshops with mentors gifted in DJing, and MCing. There will also be youth ages 12-18 performing original songs. Brooklyn Crescents Youth Lacrosse launched three years ago with the mission of bringing the sport of lacrosse to the youth in Brooklyn and the outer boroughs. The Crescents have introduced the oldest sport in North America to hundreds of boys and girls as young as four and as old as fifteen. Coaches and players will be celebrating the end of their Spring season at Family Day as well as giving clinics and demos to parents and children alike. -------- Brooklyn Bodega, and Family Day co-producers, F.O.K.U.S. and DJ Misbehaviour, have done a great job of marrying the two Family Day concepts by bringing together a coalition of community groups as well as local and international brands, free giveaways, great food, dance, art and a whole lot of fun. All are encouraged to stay for the performances, which will begin at 4pm. Brooklyn Hip-Hop Family Day will take place June 20th , from 12 noon - 4 p.m at Empire Fulton Ferry State Park located at the corner of Plymouth and Main Street in DUMBO, Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Hip-Hop Family Day 2009

The Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival is an annual event celebrating Hip Hop Culture and the borough of Brooklyn as a premier cultural destination. Now entering its fifth year, the BHF has become a staple of Summer in NYC. This year Brooklyn Bodega and F.O.K.U.S. reunite to produce, Brooklyn Hip Hop Family Day. On June 20th, 2009, babies, toddlers, young teens and families are encouraged to head down to beautiful Empire Fulton Ferry State Park for an afternoon of Hip-Hop, community building, and fun. Family Day will take the main stage from 12 p.m to 4 p.m. From 4p.m. to 8p.m. Family Day will move to the North Lawn of Empire Fulton Ferry State Park while the main performances round out the day. Children, families, teenagers, and kids are all welcome all day to this all ages event. ------ Family Day will feature music, performances, demonstrations, and seminars from a host of organizations including Black Girls Rock, Metropolitan Hospital, The Beacon Program, The League of Young Voters, CityYear, Brooklyn Crescents Youth Lacrosse Team, and SohNup Industries NYC to name a few. More organizations will be confirmed as the event approaches. The mission of Family Day is to provide positive and inspiring programming for an often forgotten demographic, what organizers call Hip-Hop Families. Wes Jackson, Festival Executive Director and President of Brooklyn Bodega, “Now that Hip-Hop is over thirty years old there are Moms and Dads who grew up on Rakim and Slick Rick. ‘My Melody’ and ‘Children’s Story’ are our classics. We were the original B-Boys and B-Girls. Now we are homeowners, car owners, taxpayers, business owners, and parents. We grew up with Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder as our soundtrack. Now, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and Mary J. Blige are the songs my kids hear around the house. We are a Hip-Hop Family. What is happening to Hip-Hop now is what happened to Rock-N-Roll in the 80’s. As the baby boomers aged, so did Rock N Roll culture and business. The same maturation is happening in Hip-Hop. Brooklyn Bodega, Family Day and the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, as a whole, is about ushering this new era. Family Day is our direct appeal to this growing segment of the Hip-Hop population.” ------- Organizations interested in participating should contact John Davis at john@brooklynbodega.com and visit www.brooklynbodega.com. -------------- The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival and Brooklyn Hip-Hop Family Day will take place June 20th, from 12 noon – 8 p.m at Empire Fulton Ferry State Park located at the corner of Plymouth and Main Street in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Performances on the Main Stage will include Pharoahe Monch, Styles P, Smif N Wessun, a live mixtape produced by J Period, the winner of the ‘Show and Prove’ competition and more. This year’s Festival will also, for the first time, feature a second stage for local and up and coming artists. Brooklyn Bodega is also in the midst of organizing several lead up events including a photo exhibit documenting and celebrating the first four years of the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, a kickoff party, and the Official After Party at Southpaw. ---------- Brooklyn Bodega are the creators and producers of the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival. They are a collective of cultural programmers, marketing professionals, writers, designers and academics dedicated to the celebration and preservation of Hip-Hop culture. Their daily musings can be found at www.brooklynbodega.com. About F.O.K.U.S. F.O.K.U.S. is an organization with the mission of creating a diverse community using the arts as the common medium. We believe the arts enable people to rise above barriers in society and our events unite diverse audiences with various art forms. F.O.K.U.S. aims to bring together art forms, both "traditional" and "non-traditional", to support the concept that we need to expand our definition of what is considered art because art surrounds us as it is part of life.