This year marks the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop, so to celebrate it, Hill-Stead Museum and the Amistad Center for Art & Culture are joining hands to bring you Gardens and Galleries: Hip Hop at 50. This event will be a one-of-a-kind Hip Hop Festival in two installments, the first at the gardens of Hill-Stead on Sunday, October 1 and the second in the galleries of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art on Thursday, November 2.
Drawn from the nine discrete elements of Hip Hop (dancing, rapping, street art, etc.), the programs for each venue will complement one another, so the visitor can attend one or both and enjoy a unique subset of the nine elements at each.
Khaiim the RapOet, will be the lead performer at both events. Khaiim, currently serving his second year as the inaugural Troubadour of Hartford, has performed internationally with everyone from Pulitzer Prize poets like Alice Walker to Grammy-winning MCs like Common. He is the first American Hip Hop troubadour, and his positive use of rap music has been recognized by Obama’s White House, the New York Times, NPR, and others.
Besides the popular idea that Hip Hop is simply an entertaining form of dance and rap music, scholars and practitioners have documented that Hip Hop is a nonviolent, creative response to oppression. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached, humanity only sees justice in practices that resist oppression… without becoming the very thing they are fighting against. Hip Hop emerged organically as a way to assume individual and community power without the permission, endorsement, or resources of the powers that be. This is why we can now celebrate the 50th birthday of this resilient and empowering culture, which has transcended generational, locational, racial, and class divides, in pursuit of Peace, Love, Unity, and while Safely havin’ fun! After 50 Years of winning over the hearts and minds of the world, we attest that Hip Hop is welcome everywhere. Thank you for your generous support of Hip Hop artists (DJs, MCs, B-Boys & B-Girls, Graffiti Writers, Beatboxers, and more) who treasure our Gardens and Galleries!
Schedule
3 pm – 7 pm
Tickets
Adults (non-members) | $25 per person
Adults (members) | $20 per person
Children (12 & under) | $10 per person
We strongly advise attendees to purchase tickets in advance. Any available tickets sold at the gate will be by credit card only.
For tickets to the Amistad Center for Art & Culture event on November 2, 2023 please click here.
In Collaboration with
