Rosa Clemente VP Nominee Answers Q&A At National Hip Hop Political Convention

Hip Hop VP: A Q+A With Rosa Clemente

Posted 08/21/2008 at 2:06 PM | Comment?

As cell phone users await Barack Obama's text message informing them who his Vice President choice is, we present a Q+A with Green Party VP nominee Rosa Clemente.

The 36-year old hip-hop activist took some time in Las Vegas at the National Hip-Hop Political Convention last month to talk candidly with us about her historic run, the state of hip-hop activism, the Green Party and its discontents, and how she really feels about Hillary Clinton and Obama. What follows are excerpts from a long interview.

How did this nomination happen for you?

Cynthia called me on July 5th. It happened very quick. I didn't hesitate because that's just my personality. But by the time I got to the convention in Chicago, it was such a whirlwind. It was so fast, the nomination, meeting hundreds of Green Party members. It wasn't 'til I got off that stage that I was like, holy shit. I'm gonna be on a ballot in 40 states. That is so surreal.

In 2001, I had submitted a proposal to a foundation and it was called Hip-Hop Vote. They rejected me and they said that there was no way that a hip-hop generation--no matter how it was being defined--was going to make headway in voting. They could not see young people being so engaged in the electoral political system. And it's funny because now that's all they do. Any foundation is trying to fund young people like Generation Vote, Russell Simmons (Hip-Hop Summit Action Network), the National Hip-Hop Political Convention.

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Front Page News:

Activist Networking Opportunities Abound According to Organizers

By Chris Krohn, Special to the Planet

Thursday August 21, 2008

There’s going to be a party in the streets of Denver—an activist party, according to Recreate68 co-founders, Mark Cohen and Glenn Spagnuolo. The Planet spoke with both of them this week in separate telephone interviews....

How many people will come is anybody’s guess. Spagnuolo says he has heard multiple estimates of anywhere between 10,000 and 50,000. According to Spagnuolo, Recreate68 came together “in the spirit of change that was achieved in Prague, Paris and Mexico City [in 1968]. People were in the streets around the world,” and that is what they are looking to “recreate,” he says...

Featured speakers at the 9 a.m. rally will be Vietnam Veteran and author of Born on the Fourth of July, Ron Kovic, independent congressional candidate Cindy Sheehan, Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney and former Black Panther Party member Kathleen Cleaver..."

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