Grusswort
Consul General Powell
HipHop “Four Elements – One Culture” Exhibition
Friday October 26, 1400
Stadtbücherei Frankfurt
Hasengasse 4

I am pleased to be here today to open this fantastic program, which has been organized by an impressive group of Frankfurt institutions and individuals. Frankfurter Jugendring, Jugendbildungswerk Frankfurt, Jugendhaus am Buegel, Otto-Hahn Schule, Helge Bomber Steinmann and Fatma Yazici have worked for months to bring this program together. I want to thank the Stadtbücherei for hosting this Hip Hop exhibit, your new location is really an ideal place for the photos.

We are here today to celebrate the continuation of a project that the Consulate and the City began in 2005.  In 2005, we came together for two days to experience the parallels between German and American Hip Hop.  With the help of important organizations we were able to offer a forum for American and German artists to exchange ideas and present their art to a new audience.  This time, we are collaborating anew on a month long exhibition throughout Frankfurt to again highlight the important connections and similarities between German and American popular culture.

Hip Hop is a global youth phenomenon.  It is just as common to see breakdancers in Slovenia as in South Central, Los Angeles.  Young people from places as diverse as Beijing, Berlin and Brooklyn use the poetry, art and music of Hip Hop to express their frustrations of the present and their hopes for the future.  As one will see in the exhibition here at the Frankfurt Stadtbücherei, there are similarities between the early days of Hip Hop in New York and Frankfurt.  In comparing the striking photographs from the nascent days of Hip Hop in Manhattan and Mainhatten, artists like Martha Cooper, Jörg Kuberek and Helge “Bomber” Steinmann give us a visual example of how Hip Hop has become a global cultural movement.  I am very happy that Martha Cooper can be here with us today.

Hip Hop has become this global cultural movement because it appeals to all cultures equally.  The rhymes and beats of the music allude back to the oral traditions of all cultures.  It originates in the storytelling of the griots in Western Africa and the Jazz traditions of Europe and America.  Its political messages arise out of the beat movement of San Francisco and the immigrant experiences of Rödelheim.  Thus, Hip Hop is easily understandable because it draws upon the experiences of all listeners.

Hip Hop offers a new way for a generation’s voice to be heard, building on the tradition of musicians such as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.  However, hip hop is not simply limited to poetic expression.  Hip Hop artists work in all different media.  Taggers use spray paint to post their message in murals in city centers and breakdancers display their skills in town squares and stations worldwide   However, the role of Hip Hop does carry some negative baggage.  The rise of gangster rap and graffiti on historic monuments such as the Great Wall of China often overshadow the value of Hip Hop as an art form.  Thus it also pays to critically examine Hip Hop as an art form and question why it carries such negative baggage and what this means for the spreading of Hip Hop’s message to a wider audience.  Next Tuesday, there will be a panel discussion here in the Stadtbücherei titled “Hip Hop: Art, Commerce and Politics.”  This conversation brings together experts and professionals from the field in order to discuss the current issues and challenges facing the modern Hip Hop scene.

HipHop represents a twenty-first century synergy of the poetry and Jazz exhibitions that took place in the Amerika Haus in the 1950s.  Those events helped to build and strengthen the foundation of American-German relations, creating a lasting friendship.  Programs such as “Hip Hop: Four Elements, one culture” broaden and deepen this friendship, creating what former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Arthur F. Burns called the “successor generation.”  By introducing young Germans and Americans to each other and highlighting the commonalities and the ways in which we can communicate with each other without words, this exhibition paves the way for the next generation to continue this German-American friendship.

Enjoy the exhibit and the performances you will see in a few minutes. I especially want to thank Fatma Yazici for organizing the performances today, and for all the hard work and time she has put into this project.

Thank you