My_B-Boy_Stance_authors

         As both a great writer and a great orator. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. helped create world change by linking the grassroot activism of the African-American community nation-wide with increase intellectualism and performance presentation. In this respect, the legacy of the Nobel Peace Prize winner is one of the precursors of Hip Hop's great potential for positive domestic and world-wide change.

          Currently, and increasingly so, members of the hip hop community are working closely with different activist agencies (i.e. NAACP, "Artist Against Aids World Wide," "Rap the Vote," "No More Prisons," and "Not In Our Name") and with politicians (i.e. Hillary Rodam-Clinton and H. Carl McCall).

          In June 2002, within a year of his first ever hip hop summit, music mogul Russell Simmons called forth a few celebrities and 60,000 music fans and activists to support the Teacher's Union in front of New York City Hall. Previously for nine months, the Teachers Union has been asking the city for a raise. A week after the event, Mayor Bloomberg granted the teachers their request. This recent political reawakening, not seen by mainstream Americn since the Civil Rights era, inspired my speculative / science fiction piece, My B-Boy Stance.

          Though the fast paced melodrama reads more like a radio play than a short story, My B-Boy Stance raises questions about

               1) the state of social activism within the African-American community;
               2) the hip hop community replacing the black church as the main influence on youth and young adult social action;
               3) the marginalized voice of women and minorities;
               4) the privatization of prisons;
               5) the culture of domestic and international protests;
               6) what is considered "respectable art" versus commodity;
               7) the fear of individuals using their high social status in order to fulfill the doctrine of social responsibility;
               8) Black Nationalism versus re-assessing Pan-Africanism;
               9) the competition of 1st world governments for the largest control of oil supply;
             10) and the interconnectedness of all these issues.

          My B-Boy Stance is more of a reflection of our current domestic and international atmosphere than a prediction of what lies ahead in the future.

My B-Boy Stance:
Pan-African Hip Hop Sci-Fi

-- skip to short story--

AUTHOR'S NOTE
to the funk-adelic scholar