Writings on the wall @ Highschool we recently visited...
Every morning, as I rub the sleep out my eye and we make our way to the first school of the day, “T” breaks down to us the size of the school and the teacher’s comments on what some of the issues facing the female students might be. One theme keeps arising…BULLYING. I’m no stranger to the concept and to be quite honest I’ve been on both sides of the fence.
At my high school there were a lot of foreign exchange students and often the students would think I didn’t speak any english. As a result, I could understand everything that was said about me, in front of my face. You see these “bullies” had no idea that I could understand every word. I stayed very low key, and just hung out by the Art Room and ended up spray painting my name across the back of the art room as a school art project before graduating. After class and on the weekends, I hung around girls that lived in a different part of Vancouver…many of which were in female gangs. I never jumped into a set (though I was offered a few times) and Hiphop seemed to give me a neutral status with many of the girls. I was affectionately known as “Hiphop May” and they let me hang out because I always brought the music and dance. These cliques would do everything from pick fights with other females at the mall, gossip and create terrible rumors about one another and generally posture so everyone else could recognize how big and bad they/we were. I noticed after a while that the girls always got more brave when everyone in the gang was around, but one on one, each homegirl was more sincere, open and honest about life views. It was as if we puffed out our chests to be big and bad in order to impress one another. I have to admit, I enjoyed the feeling of being seen as powerful or dangerous because of the crew I rolled with. Even now, as an emcee, I’m not always sure I have outgrown this guilty pleasure.
All Bgirls School Portrait photo by Che Kothari
Years later, after my move to Toronto, I was fortunate enough to help organize an event known as The M1 Academy: All Bgirls School (featuring many talented women in the Hiphop Community like Lady Noyz, DJ LOQENZ, Eternia, Isis, Zaki Ibrahim…) I realized that many of the women in Toronto Hiphop could not get the proper recognition they deserved. The talent ranged from graffiti writers, singers, DJs and rappers. I also felt that our HERstories (histories) as women in the culture of hiphop, had hardly been documented. I gathered all the super women B girls to take a giant famly portrait of women in Toronto Hiphop, and held an event to celebrate the amazing contribution of these women to the Hiphop community in Toronto.
Return of the Bgirl features a cast of talented young women
THE ALL BGIRLS SCHOOL event was a success and we held the concert as a series of annual events. When it came time to film a video for RETURN OF THE BGIRL, I already had an amazing cast of characters to holler at! Only in hind sight I realize this – there is a difference between GANG mentality and CREW mentality, although both involve gathering together groups of potentially powerful young ladies. Although I had my fun causing trouble with my clique in high school, we accomplish very little and in the end everyone grew up and went their separate ways. What I accomplished together with the CREW of ladies gathered for the All Bgirls School, on the other hand, was quite phenomenal. The women expressed ideas to one another, shared their experience and traded services and talents for future projects. The event was also a spring board for many female artists that had never performed before and have since gone on to great things or become ROCKSTARS! (Shout out to Isis & Zaki Ibrahim!)
The point I’m trying to make here is this: We can still empower ourselves, bring groups of people together and create something positive. Bullying or having a gang mentality when picking on someone together is a waste of time and does nothing to create a foundation for something greater. It is very much like a 15 minutes of fame. On the flip side, get together your closest homegirls, agree on working on a project together (whether it’s a dance routine, raising money for a girl’s group or holding an event) and create something positive with them. You will watch it grow…I promise you, it’ll be much more worth it.
One Love
Masia.
