Local hip-hop artists unite to benefit Haiti By Corrine Lyons Published: Tuesday, February 2, 2010 Updated: Thursday, April 29, 2010 17:04
Americans have spent time, money and energy to help the people of Haiti. A group of local hiphop artists and poets came together to donate their talents to the cause.
'M.O.V.E. for' Haiti: Mobilize. Organize. Vocalize. Execute.' was held Jan. 30 at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. What started out as a post on Twitter by Brent 'Blak' Smith was soon a music and art show with 16 performers.
The Twitter post helped spread the word, and the event raised $1,255 for Haiti.
S. 'Fresh' Tassin said it was through the Twitter post that a lot of people got involved.
'Blak was on Twitter and posted about wanting to do something,' she said. 'It really got started by word of mouth. We put the word out there and everybody just jumped on board.'
Tassin said Smith called her on Jan. 21 with the beginnings of a plan and by the time he called her again on Jan. 25, the whole show was put together.
Tassin said that many involved strongly believe in making people aware of the world around them.' Like with the word of mouth actions that got all of the artists involved, they spread the word about the music and art show through the Internet.
In one of his Facebook messages to promote the event, Smith encouraged people to 'come and see Michigan's most prolific artists honor the culture, history and people of Haiti,' showing that those involved value awareness of issues.
Instead of taking cash donations, the organizers decided to only accept checks made payable to Yele Foundation, musician Wyclef Jean's controversial charity. Tassin said she would bring her checkbook because she realizes not a lot of people have checkbooks.
Tassin acknowledged there was a lot of negative media surrounding the charity of the native-born Haitian musician Jean. After considering organizations such as the American Red Cross, Salvation Army and UNICEF, they decided that Yele was the best charity to donate the funds, she said.