AWOL

By: Styx

While in Philadelphia Project Hip-Hop visited a magazine called AWOL. At the headquarters we met with one of the starters of the magazine, Kevin. While at the headquarters of the magazine he taught us the tricks of the trade about magazines. Kevin taught us how to make a magazine attract to a certain crowd. For instance a glossy magazine he said would attract to the youth and younger people. Color he said is always good for a magazine and you always have to have pictures. He also gave us specific numbers on printing and publishing. He told us that it would cost about 5,000$ to make about 1,000 copies of a magazine with gloss and color.
He also taught us about what is in the magazine. The magazine is basically about military recruitment and their tricks to try and get you to join the military at an early age. Kevin said his magazine is mostly for the youth to tell them everything they need to know about the military and what they do before they make that decision about joining. Kevin’s magazine also has young talent incorporated into the magazine. For example he would have a CD with young talent rapping and singing about some of the issues in everyday life and everyday struggles. The CD has no profanity and is all positive. The magazine also has Graf and poems about the struggles of everyday life for youth.
At the meeting with Kevin I thought he said a lot of interesting things about the military. He sounded real serious about his topic. He sounded like he has been doing this line of work for a long time and he knew a lot about the military. I agree with what he said because it is true. I do think that the youth should know about the military because the military does try to recruit the young people because they think that they don’t know everything about the military and that the youth wont know the bad stuff about the military. For example the military people tell you that they pay for college if you join the military but don’t tell you that in order to get that free money for college you have to complete a certain amount of time in the military and you have to be ranked in a certain number.
To me the visit to the magazine headquarters was extremely helpful for many reasons. For one we are doing our own magazine here at project hip-hop called Real Talk, True Stories and the things Kevin told us at the conference can really help our magazine out. I learned what to include in the magazine in order to make it sell and get out to the youth. I also learned how much money we would need in order to make at least 500 copies with gloss and color. The meeting with Kevin was real helpful because now I know some important things about magazines that if I didn’t know before the magazine we are working on would be horrible. All in all it was a good visit and a good information session that we had that day in Philly at the AWOL headquarters with Kevin.

Tina's Big Up to the Nati Crew

yo what up this is your girl tina from boston and i'm here to talk about my 2week experience travling with project hip hop. it was cool we had fun good laughs met intresting people did alot of networking . The people i enjoy the most was the cincinnati crew showing ya'll love especially to Shiloh a.k.a Buddah.I enjoy the nati crew company ya''ll center is where it's at i'll be back out there to show ya'll love hopefully ya'll will come up here to show us love 2.but much love to ya'll !Shiloh stay on track u seem like you have a good heart and lot to offer.u got a good head on your shoulder with potential good networking shiloh,Freestyle i believe in you.ya raps are tight,Scrappy i just met you but you have potential to go far in life. thank you Gavin for showing us love can't forget about Emily thank you!
So as you can see i enjoy cincinnnati and there element center i hope they all keep up the work thank you nati crew!

And for the boston crew thank you mariama and george for this opportunity to being able to travle seeing life through other young people minds and yours thank you!

Hi My Fellow Hip Hop Heads

Whats Up, Whats Up!!! It's ya boy Young Mistah a.k.a Mike I jus want every body to know that this trip was a ball even though we're nearing the end of it, it feels like we've been out of the bean for ever but its cool meeting other people with similar goals and passions. I've gotta say that my favorite part of this trip was all tha cyphers in chi-town and laying down some tracks with them Nati Boys. The people in the midwest show so much love its unbelievable. They make you feel right at home but other then that everything was cool. Anyway ya boy Young Mistah is out 1 love Ya Digg!!!

Follow our journey (even thought we are already back)

So I have to keep it real. Our original intention was to have young people write while we were on our tour - that didn't quite happen. We were so busy moving around that we didn't have time to sit down to the computer everyday. Nonetheless we want you to be able to see and share in what we did so we are going to backdate our posts so that you know what we did each day. I will upload photos so that it is as close as possible to keeping you up on what we did.

Keepin It Real,

Mariama

We leave in 48 hours

So we are on our way to New York, Philly, Chicago, Detroit and DC on a journey to trace the history of hip hop and street activism. Along the way you will get to hear the voices of the young people who are part of this journey. From the activists and artists that we meet to the exhibits we see to the discussions we have - we are trying to document our experiences and share them with you.

For most of our youth this will be their first time writing a blog, so some might do more with our audio diary - but please listen to what they have to say and feel free to post your comments.

Peace,

Mariama White-Hammond, Director Project HIP-HOP