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Brooklyn Beats to Beirut Streets

Their story started out soft, with a barely perceptible rhythm. However, it was not long before Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology’s Raiymer Auditorium was resounding with beats and voices of “From Brooklyn Beats to Beirut Streets,” a performance given Thursday night by the Human Writes Project.

The Human Writes Project is an organization that seeks to raise awareness of global issues through spoken word and rhyme hip hop. The event was organized by the Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture, an organization that is dedicated to spreading knowledge of Arab language and culture, in coalition with several campus groups including the Greenfield Intercultural Center, Penn For Palestine and the United Minorities Council.

“They tell a story I think isn’t heard enough in this country nowadays,” Al-Bustan’s executive director Hazami Sayed said when asked why she chose to invite them specifically.

The performance was delivered in front of an audience of about 75 by the three founders of the Human Writes Project, Omar Offendum, Mark Gonzales and Nizar Wattad. They used spoken-word poetry, incorporating rhythm and some rhyme to rap about aspects of their lives and political events around the world.

“If there’s any universal message underlying everything we’re saying, it’s that these lines and labels just don’t make sense anymore,” Wattad said about political labels and divisions between countries.

They framed their message chronologically. “In 1975, hip hop was born, and so was I. And, 30 years later, I’m still asking the same question: what the hell am I doing with my life?” rapped Gonzales to open the performance. The evening began with a central focus on their lives but then progressed to include more global happenings.

The entire performance had the audience shifting gears from laughter to silence as the performers shifted their focus from general comments to political issues, such as the current revolutions in Libya and Bahrain. They also rapped about the history of the Palestine-Israel conflict.

“I really appreciated the historical references. I really did feel the educational power of hip hop,” Mina Itabashi, a Swarthmore College sophomore, said.

“So mothers fall asleep to the beats of bones crumbling and children give new meaning to the words head knocking and body rocking while praying to Allah for one night’s good sleep. We must learn that we have infinitely better rhythms that we can learn to dance to,” Gonzales rapped to conclude the performance.

This was followed by a brief discussion wherein audience members asked the artists questions about their inspirations as spoken-word artists. Overall, the performance was well received. “They had an amazing performance that dealt with a lot more issue that I would have imagined,” College senior Siler Bryan said.

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