ABOUT THE PROJECT

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Background

The RapLab Mena-DK project originated from the previous times, we have worked with raptivists from the Middle East and North Africa such as the BOOST project and Tomorrow Today. As a result of the commitment and passion of these raptivists, the idea emerged to connect them to young people in Denmark with similar goals, exchange ideas, experiences, and perspectives, and facilitate workshops in the local community to learn about the differences and similarities. The project seemed to fit perfectly with our general focus on revolutionary rap and the MENA-region in 2012 and 2013.

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Raplab-Mena

In September 2013, Raplab MENA-DK brought together 35 raptivists – 20 from the Middle East and 15 from Denmark – to participate in a 9-day training programme in Copenhagen. The participants came from various countries such as Lebanon, Egypt, and Palestine and discussed, in the period of the training, their future dreams and reflected on future opportunities in order to decide what they could do to achieve what they wanted both personally and collectively. The project resulted in a number of tracks recorded by the participants as well as a series of “2-minute videos,” which should form a youth manifesto about the future. The raptivists also facilitated workshops in high schools and engaged in dialogue with young people, youth organizations, Danish rappers, youth debaters and associations in Denmark. The overall goal was to give the 35 raptivists an opportunity to learn, to teach and to communicate their ideas about youth, culture and music to a broader audience. The whole seminar finished off with a final concert in Vesterbro, Denmark where all the rappers participated in a concert dedicated to the future discussion of the youth.