Meow_Oct13_Layout1 8/23/13 6:38 PM Page 15
“R&B Divas: Atlanta” star Monifah Carter and Jamie at the Lincoln Park Music Festival Hip Hop Day in Newark, New Jersey
Newark Mayor Cory Booker
All photos by Chris Mitch
(l to r) Du Kelly, Jamie, Redman and Danica Daniel pose with MadPax backpacks.
Celebrities sign up to fight against bullying
The crowd listens to Mr. Cheeks of the Lost Boyz. Sister 2 Sister was front and center on a sunny Sunday afternoon at the 8th Annual Lincoln Park Music Festival in Newark, New Jersey, to celebrate the soft launch of Stand Up, a national anti-bullying campaign that uses celebrities to talk to kids about bullying. The Lincoln Park Music Festival is a free three-day festival that is thrown every year; almost 50,000 folks show up throughout the weekend. The “Celebration of Hip Hop” day was the final day of the festival and included performances by Redman, Black Thought of The Roots, Lords of the Underground, Hit Squad (EPMD, Redman, Das EFX, K-Solo), Rah Digga, Artifacts, Sugar Hill Gang, Kwamé and Mr. Cheeks of the Lost Boyz. Danica Daniel and I reported for S2S from the red carpet. I caught up with Monifah, Savion Glover and Newark mayor and U.S. Senate candidate Cory Booker. I also met the cutie pie DKing. He’s the face of T.I.’s Akoo clothing line and assigned to Interscope Records. The Stand Up campaign’s president, SuSu Stewart, partnered with S2S and the Lincoln Park Festival to bring awareness to the campaign’s mission and the overall problem of bullying, especially amongst kids. “We are elated that after two years in development, Stand Up is finally ready to get into the minds of our youth and community by bringing awareness to the universal problem of bullying,” SuSu told us. SuSu is a youth activist from New York who worked in Newark with youth for more than a decade. She oversees YOPAT (Youth
Outreach for Performing Arts and Technology) and spearheads a teen supper club, Mic It Up. Stand Up kicked off at the start of this school year and it’ll send celebrity ambassadors on surprise visits to schools across the country to speak to young folks about bullying. The ambassadors will show up with guest speakers and youth ambassadors who will deliver the anti-bully campaign messaging with engaging activities and giveaways. The tour will start in New Jersey and New York, and several celebrities and athletes have already signed up to give their time as Stand Up Ambassadors, including L.A. Clipper Matt Barnes and his wife Gloria Govan (“Basketball Wives: LA”), Tyson Beckford, Super Bowl champion Devin Thomas, Laura Govan (“Basketball Wives: LA”), Tahiry Jose and singer Olivia (“Love and Hip Hop: New York”), to name a few. Stand Up partnered with backpack designer MadPax, which developed the official spiked backpacks for the campaign. The backpacks, which will be a national symbol of Stand Up and the fight against bullying, were on display at the festival and worn by the Stand Up Ambassadors. There is also a national theme song for the campaign titled “Stand Up,” which was written and produced by Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Andre Merritt. The song is available on iTunes. To find out about Stand Up and how you can participate, check out standupthemovement.org.
What does Redman tell his kids about bullying? Rapper Redman has an old-school mentality when it comes to bullying. He said that he dealt with a little bit of bullying until he stood up and showed them that he wasn’t a punk. Redman said he understands that times have changed, but he still tells his kids to stand up for themselves. “The bullying nowadays is mostly through the computer and word play,” Redman said. “How we had to deal with the bullies was mostly physical. It’s a little bit physical now but it’s more mental with the kids, and the brain is the strongest thing on your body, so once that gets f@#ked with—and at a kid’s age when they don’t know how to let the words bounce off
them—it can cause damage.” Redman teaches his kids to be strong mentally—and physically, if they have to. “I told my kids, ‘If you ever come in the house and someone put their hands on you and you didn’t hit ’em back, I’m going to beat your a$$. Now you either deal with them, or you deal with me.’ They’ve got to understand, once you stand up for yourself as a person, and let them know where you’re coming from—‘Listen, I’m about positivity. If you touch me in any way there’s going to be consequences.’—they end up being the weaker one.” OCTOBER 2013 | S2S
15