One of the great things about freelancing is that I get to choose my own projects. This month I'm working on a really fun story about live band karaoke for my friend's magazine, Verbicide.
I didn't expect that story to intersect with HumanKind, but as Chris and I have been learning throughout this little media experiment of ours, every human interaction has some connection to peace. I saw a new connection one Friday night at a hip hop show at the High Line Ballroom in Manhattan. I was there with my notebook and my voice recorder, hoping to hear some good hip hop performed live by lifelong fans of the music, and ready to have a fun time.
I didn't expect to have any insights into peace at this show: First of all, it was a competition: Twelve performers were going to battle for $1,000 cash prize by doing covers of their favorite songs. Second, it's hip hop! Even though the music is rooted in social justice and in banding together for a common cause, these days it's also influenced by boy divas and egos and guns and misogyny. But there was something I forgot to factor in.
Hip Hop Karaoke, started in New York in 2004 by three friends, was created so fans of hip hop could come together and just enjoy their favorite music. It's free, it attracts a diverse audience, and by some unwritten rule, the crowd never boos anyone. You pick a song you love, get up on stage, and you have a blast -- partly because the crowd loves the song as much as you do. If you forget a line, the crowd sings it for you.
Here's what happened that night at the Highline: I interviewed a bunch of contestants, and they were universally supportive of each other. No one was on an ego-trip. No one would tell me who they most wanted to beat. In fact, they all had favorite stories of how their competitors had rocked the mic at past shows. It was a freakin' lovefest.
Now you're probably thinking they were just talking like that to me because I was taping them and planning to publish their quotes. But the crowd -- 700 people! -- was the same way. When the judges got a little harsh, the crowd actually booed them. It was like they wanted everybody to win.
I realized that it was impossible -- and you know we don't use that word lightly at HumanKind -- that HHK just happened to find the 700 hip hop fans in New York City who are all fair and loving and friendly, or that they just happened to recruit the 12 amateur hip hop performers who all get along really well and who admire each other's work.
I think it's something far simpler and more deliberate than that. Jason, Josh, and Zach, the friends who formed HHK, wanted to be able to go to a hip hop show with tons of friends and enjoy live performances of songs they loved as teenagers. They set up Hip Hop Karaoke as free, inclusive, and all about a shared appreciation of hip hop. And the people who come there every month are warmed by that vibe. They're connected by it. And that's how you get a good, high-energy show like the Hip Hop Karaoke Championship, or like the monthly Hip Hop Karaoke night (next one's in March!). That's how you get people to act out of love and appreciation and enthusiasm for each other: You act that way first.
Peace!
Liz Tascio was co-founder of HumanKind Media. You can read about her here.
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