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Hip-hop bridges gap between church & street |
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Written by asap
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Tuesday, 01 August 2006 |
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NEW YORK — To the uninitiated, HipHopEMass might feel more like a rap concert than an Episcopal church service. For one, clergy take a back seat to the rappers, outfitted in sneakers, baggy jeans, oversized shirts and do-rags, who deliver the day’s sermon in the language and attitude of the streets.
But before dismissing it, listen closely, says founder Father Timothy Holder, an Episcopal minister in the South Bronx, and you’ll find that every identifiable part of a traditional mass is there.
“It is the sacrament, it is the word ... just in the vernacular of hip-hop,” he says.
Holder, 51, who arrived in the South Bronx -- the birthplace of hip-hop -- from Alabama in 2002, says bridging the gap between street and altar is necessary for the survival of both.
“We have done a very good job, I’m afraid, in the church, of locking up the gates, closing the doors and making fortresses out of our churches,” he says. “And we’ve done a very good job on the streets of denying, killing and robbing.”
The Harvard-educated priest, whose street name is Poppa T, ought to know. By his count, seven out of ten of the young men in his neighborhood are incarcerated one or more times before the age of the 40.
This grim reality served as the impetus for Holder’s hip-hop homily. The idea became more urgent after he watched the Tupac Shakur documentary “Tupac:Resurrection.” It was the late rapper’s question, “Who will speak for the thug?” that resonated in Holder.
And so, in 2004, he decided he’d be the one to offer a voice for the underprivileged urban youth in his community.
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Jaime Holguin is an asap reporter in New York. | Only registered users can write comments.
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