Searching for hip hip, we meet the legends...

I love it when stuff like this happens.

Back in Lima we realized we could use some archival footage of hip-hop for Cynthia's story: hip hop's been a big part of her life since the age of 16, and the movie will show her making the connection between hip-hop and folklore. I wrote to some film lists and filmmakers and got nowhere. But when I returned to New York, there was a postcard nestled in the stack of bills:

City Lore and The Point Present:
a screening of the rough cut of the documentary
From Mambo to Hip Hop: Music & Survival in the South Bronx
When: 6:00 pm, Saturday, June 11th
Where: The Point, 940 Garrison Avenue, Bronx

I called City Lore. This triggered a wild web of re-connections. City Lore was an organization I'd consulted with 10 years ago when I was videotaping my grandmother. They're about preserving cultural history and I'd met Executive Director Steve Zeitlin, author of Wisdom Tales from Jewish Tradition. Now a decade later I'm doing a story about searching for wisdom in Peruvian tradition. Life's funny...

Turns out Steve and his colleague Elena Martinez were producing the movie, with Henry Chaufant directing - he'd made Style Wars, a seminal movie about hip-hop in the early 80s. I agreed to met them at the event. What better source for archival footage than these guys - hip hop preservationists/filmmakers?

I got to the Point two hours early. A lovely, welcoming cultural arts oasis in the slowly gentrifying but still gritty South Bronx. Then the crowd started arriving - including performers even this middle-aged Jewish white guy knew about - Ray Barreto, Bobby Sanabria, DJ Charlie Chase, Popmaster Fabel, the godfather of hip-hop himself, Afrika Bambaataa. And you got to imagine, this is a small, intimate space. Maybe 40 people, including these legends, their moms and kids, a few locals, and uh...me.

When I told Cynthia later who I'd met, she said "don't mess with my emotions, these guys were my heros!"

And the connections kept building. Who's sitting next to me but Sara and Peter, Cynthia's friends I'd met and videotaped last year! And of course this is all happening in the borough I was born in.

As for the film itself - I was really there to meet the filmmakers about getting footage. The film was an afterthought. Until I watched it - and the rough cut was terrific - really vibrant and smart history of Latin and Hip-hop music in the Bronx. Great archival footage and interviews. And the themes meshed perfectly with Soy Andina. As Fabel put it, all about "connecting the dots" between cultural traditions, and honoring our roots.

Later I got to hang out. Made plans to meet with the filmmakers and Popmaster Fabel. We'll talk about the footage but I think I can offer some help in return for helping them get the word out.

Cynthia's always talking about hip hop as community, and tonight I got to feel it.