Check out our recent performance at Ctrl+Alt+Delete, a new Chicago monthly at Berlin nightclub.
Archive for the ‘Goddistas’ Category
January30
Building Through Breakin’
El La Katrina & Bgirl Macca at Breakin’ The Law: International Festival of Urban Movement 10
Bgirl Macca and The Goddistas’ El La Katrina (also NINJACHURCH Crew) and are making moves in 2015. They are working in collaboration with La Kyd from Ladies Destroying Crew, an all female writers crew, out of Nicaragua to promote and expand the 1st Women in Hip Hop Festival in Nicaragua which has grown to have regional wide reach and impact. On January 19, they officially launched their 1st IndiGoGo Campaign to raise funds to travel to Nicaragua in April 2015 to support the 3rd Annual Hall of Femme International Women in Hip Hop Festival. If you are interested in learning more about how to donate to their campaign you can connect here.
Each journey has a story and this is the true tale of The Goddistas, Bgirl Macca and Hall of Femme connection….
Winter of 2013, El La Katrina and The Goddistas were working on their first crew jam. They were organizing a 2×2 Breaking Battle that featured strong women in the US Breaking Scene but was open to participation for both men and women alike. The event was called GIRLilla Tactics and included Bgirl Macca, Bgirl Fidget Freedom and Bgirl Jade as the judges along with DJs EduKate, Fast$Mike & Vilas Park Sniper. One month before the Goddistas held their 1st Women in Hip Hop event, El La Katrina received a call from her comadre and fellow UW-Madison Alum, Lucy Dale. She asked EL La if she could come to Nicaragua and be part of Hall of Femme, the first ever women in Hip Hop event held in the country. Ironically the two events, GIRLilla Tactics & Hall of Femme, were slated for the same date: March 16, 2013. EL La Katrina, with the support of her fellow Goddistas, agreed and a link between The Goddistas and Hall of Femme was forged.
1st Annual Hall of Femme
El La Katrina made sure to skype into GIRLilla Tactics from Nicaragua and through the interweb they placed the computer in the middle of the cypher at the Wisconsin jam so she could get down in both countries at once. She judged the 1×1 Bgirl Battle, performed Spoken Word and presented the winners of the Bgirl Battle and the Graffiti Battle with hand made wearable art pieces. She used her connections to make it international by inviting 5 up and comming Bgirls, including Bgirl Sherly from Original Skills Crew, and Emcee Stars to travel from Panama to Nicaragua to share in the experience. While there judging the battles and holding workshops, El La Katrina shot and edited this quick video.
In 2014, she was asked to participate again. That year Hall of Femme was held in collaboration with El La Katrina & Bboy ManOfGod’s Breakin’ The Law: International Festival of Urban Movement – Central America Qualifier co-organized by Bboy Reborn of OSB Crew. The event grew by 16 women from Nicaragua and Panama to over 30 women from over 6 countries coming together celebrating female empowerment through Hip Hop Culture with the support of fellow Bboys across Central America standing in solidarity with the women.
2nd Annual Hall of Femme
2015 and Hall of Femme is going strong for it’s 3rd installment of the festival. Full circle like a cypher, 2 years ago as El La Katrina skyped with Bgirl Macca to thank her for her involvement in The Goddistas’ first event GIRLIlla Tactics, Macca jokingly asked, “Why didn’t you take me with you to Nicaragua?” In 2015, both El La Katrina and Bgirl Macca will be headed to Hall of Femme to share their talents, dreams, ideas, knowledge and love for this Hip Hop Culture and Movement with the women of Central America.
Check out the Hall of Femme Facebook Fan Page.
The Goddistas are up for an award! The Madison Hip Hop Awards are going down November 9th, and you can help us win the best hip hop dance crew category by voting between now and November 4th! Interestingly, we’re the only breakers AND the only women in the category.
For the curious, here’s submission video:
So, take a minute to help a few sistas out, and VOTE for Goddistas for the MHHAs!
(Edukate is also up for the DJ category!)
September26
Real-Talk, Real-Walk Hip Hop
Three weeks ago my cousin Nic hit me up and asked me if he could treat me to the Immortal Technique and Brother Ali War & Peace Tour stop in Madison, Wisconsin at the Barrymore Theatre on Saturday, September 22nd. My cousin wanted to thank me for all of the times I hosted him and his friends during our annual Breakin’ The Law Festival where he was introduced to Breaking Culture. I was quick to take him up on the offer. The concert fell on the same day as a Breaking exhibition and workshop the Goddistas and other local bboys from the East Madison Community Center, including Dance Maniacz Crew, were asked to be part of at Willy Street Fest. My cousins and uncle came into town and we had a Hip Hop inspired mini family reunion.
Ask any Bboy or Bgirl about going to a Jam and you’re sure to hear about the family reunion vibe that brings people together. The sense of community the Jam evokes is a major part of the experience. Leave it to two community minded Emcees, Immortal Technique and Brother Ali, to evoke a similar vibe. As soon as I arrived at the show, I found myself in a cypher of reconnection with local Emcees I hadn’t seen in years. After about 20 minutes of building with the I Need A Raise Records Crew, I headed into the packed theater to check out the concert. I found a perfect spot to post up and the energy of the place hit me instantly. MadTown was in full effect giving love and vibing out.
As a Bgirl, going to a Hip Hop concert can often leave me feeling unfulfilled in comparison to the energy and community-building vibe a Jam brings to the floor. While I wasn’t able to get down, the cypher was still in effect from the community building conversation circles to the impromptu cypher after the concert by local spitters. While the mainstream media has by-and-large created a view of Hip Hop that is only Rap, Immortal Technique waxed poetic and powerful by blasting the mainstream media’s narrow view. He gave due credit to his DJ, who did his own mini-set, while schooling many in the audience to the history of the DJs role in birthing Hip Hop. He called for recognition of Hip Hop as a culture and gave big ups to Bboys, Bgirls, and Graffiti Writers for keeping the culture alive.
As a community organizer, I was also inspired by what I saw and heard. Both Immortal Technique and Brother Ali made it a point to thank the workers behind the scenes that made the concert possible from the sound engineers to the cleaning crew. Brother Ali spoke to the importance of unions and the 2011 Wisconsin Protests while complicating the dialogue saying, “We all know that there have always been problematic issues regarding race and gender in unions and we need to continue pushing them while working with them particularly with the current attacks on working class people.”
Immortal Technique talked about his experiences with the music industry trying to censor him and how these interactions have positioned him to stay an independent artist all-the-while maintaining his success. He critiqued the mainstream media saying, “Don’t call me, talking about what is going on in the world, controversial. Call what is being done by these corporate and wealthy fools controversial.”
As a Goddista, I was intrigued to hear Immortal Technique address gendered issues in society both by calling for an end to violence against women and heralding the contributions of women in the revolution. He stopped the music and got personal with us. He bent down and said that rape was no joke. He talked about violence against women as a serious issue men needed to do more to educate themselves on. He followed this up with a soliloquy on how important women have been to revolutions across histories and time. He said, “Women have always been at the forefront of revolutions and we need to remember and celebrate that.”
Immortal Technique and Brother Ali were masters on the mic that night. Their voices rang clear and their messages traveled throughout the minds, bodies and souls present. At one point, Immortal Technique engaged the entire audience collectively to hold some overly rowdy peeps accountable by getting everyone to literally point their fingers towards one of the offenders and in unison everyone told him to, “Chill out and enjoy the show.” Immortal Technique ended the disruptions by saying, “If we can’t have a peaceful Hip Hop show, how the fuck are we going to have a revolution?” Any large show is going to have a few folks who act out but rarely do the artists themselves take responsibility for creating a safe space.
Without further incident, the show ended in one of the most beautiful finales I’ve witnessed at a concert. Immortal Technique and Brother Ali both ended the night by walking the talk. They walked themselves to the exit doors of the venue and had conversations, took photos, and built with everyone who stayed in line to talk with them. The beauty of the Breaking Community is the realness and humility of the practitioners. Aspiring Bboys and Bgirls can reach out and be in community with the people they look up to. That reality isn’t often replicated in the realm of Rap. But at the War & Peace Tour in Madison, Immortal Technique and Brother Ali embodied Real-Talk, Real-Walk Hip Hop Culture.
March8
Loose Screws in Review
The last weekend in February represented 8 years on the scene for me, 8 years from the first time I saw breaking. I still remember Shawn J coming to Mary’s Saturday morning “hip hop” class at Georgia Dance Conservatory. He was the first bboy I ever saw. He told us about a jam called Loose Screws happening that night in Lithonia, Georgia. I, a high school senior at the time, miraculously convinced my mother to let me drive the 2+ hours to this middle-of-nowhere dance studio where the battle was being held. While that first night is now a blur of movement and feelings of awe, there are a couple of things that still stick out sharply in my mind: namely, feet. I was mesmerized by their feet. That night I was introduced to Doboi and Zapper–two of the bboys who would shape my training.
Fast forward 8 years, and here I am, competing at Loose Screws 14 with a TBB crewmate. And the crew throwing the jam? Yup, that’s my crew too–HBO Crew for life. The jam is packed with people. Our ears are blessed by the sounds of four DJs, notably Alphatrion and Ethical who have DJ’d the majority of Loose Screws over the years. I cypher the night away at this 14-hour marathon jam. I must say, those who came out definitely got their money’s worth in terms of cypher time with additional bonuses like performances from the funk bank Heavy Chevy and Dungeon Family member Backbone.
Though the event ran late into the night–perhaps too late for some–it embodied something that many events today are missing; it was a JAM. The competition (both breaking and all styles) was almost an after thought to the party and the cypher. I had a great time, and I can’t wait for next year!
Shout outs to the winners (5 Crew Dynasty–NYC), my first crew HBO, my TBB/TBG family who supported in droves, team Madclout (it’s not an ATL jam without you!), everyone who battled, everyone who danced, everyone who spectated, Rob Nasty for an excellent rocking workshop the night before, Steps for battling with me, and to anyone else who doesn’t fall into one of those categories who was somehow a part of the event. Thank you for a memorable, fun, exhausting weekend.
–EduKate
October21
Who are we?
Goddistas Crew is a Mid-West established B-Girl Crew created in 2012. The crew consists of very different females from very different backgrounds. Check out our individual pages to meet a little bit more about Bgirl EduKate (Atl, GA), La Katrina (Madison, WI), Jade (Milwaukee, WI) and Dalki (Hong Kong, China) Click our group picture above to find us and like us on Facebook!
Scratching the Surface: A Tribute to DJs Who Know What They’re Doing
By: EduKate
I would like to take a moment to recognize one of the most integral pieces of the hip hop puzzle: the DJ. We’ve all seen DJs who bring the party to higher and higher levels of movement and energy with their song selection and transitions, and we’ve all also seen DJs who are the only people in the room getting hype off of what is coming out of the speakers. This weekend, I saw an impressive array of DJing skills over Friday and Saturday night that reinforced for me exactly how important this elusive figure of hip hop is.
Friday night, I went out with my fellow Goddista, El La Katrina, to a local bar in Madison that usually has someone spinning a good combination of hip hop, soul, funk, anything with a good groove. Katrina and I are both coming off of injuries and were worried about getting too hype and going all out, but we wanted to support our friend Vilas Park Sniper who was DJing. Little did we know, there were two DJs spinning that night.
VPS got the crowd warmed up, created a nice and easy crescendo to transition into Friday night. Katrina and I sat pining for the dance floor as the energy in the room began to cluster there. Just as dancers were starting to let loose, the second DJ came on and completely cleared the dance floor in a matter of two songs. The folks who came to dance sat staring awkwardly at each other, and those who came to drink felt no urge to release their alcohol-induced energy on the dance floor. The awkward ballroom couple determined to dance no matter what genre gave up and sat down. Katrina and I had no problem sitting and relaxing instead of tearing up the dance floor on our injured legs. Even the standard tracks that get white people who can’t dance hype fell flat on the, let’s face it, largely white Wisconsin crowd because the song order simply made no sense.
The importance of flow for a DJ is not something we think about unless it’s lacking; we expect our DJs to guide us through the night. Each song should be the logical progression between those before and after. You can have technical skill and hard drives full of music, but if you don’t know what to play when, you will lose your audience. When the first DJ came back on, he was able to save the night in less than two songs, pulling out a crucial string of dancehall that you couldn’t help but get down to.
Saturday night, I went to the Uptowner in Milwaukee to see my TBB crewmate from New York, Danny Dan the Beat Man, on the decks for the after party for Center Street Daze. His collection and selection are not something that you get to hear every day; his skills come straight from the teachings of the likes of Herc, Theodore, and Flash. The Milwaukee breaking scene showed their support, cyphering and grooving to the classics that Dan was dropping. Mijo from Motion Disorderz and I started a battle against a couple of all styles heads, throwing goofy burns to slow jams. I’m sure Mijo’s antics alone made it to onlookers’ Vines and Instagrams.
A few MCs even got on the mic to rhyme over Dan’s beats. It was a refreshingly organic display of hip hop elements coming together to create in a shared space. I returned to Madison inspired by the energy that Dan was able to draw from each of us into a collective buzz based more on building than booze. Our community needs more events like this, more moments like this, and I hope that as an aspiring DJ myself, I’ll be able to connect people through my music.
So, thank you to all of the DJs out there who keep us moving, vibing, and reaching those energy levels that connect us all in the spirit of creation and music. Special shout outs to Danny Dan the Beat Man and Vilas Park Sniper for filling and fulfilling my ears this weekend.
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