common denominator

Description

"Urban Verbs: An autobiographical intersection of Hip Hop and humanity in five acts." It ALL started with an answer. An answer we still haven't been able to define, but are determined to defend. We asked each other..."How does a Black kid from New Jersey, a Brown kid from the Barrio and a White kid from the Foothills who've known each other all of 5 years, come together to create an artistic reality that they all feel like they've known their entire lives?" Almost as though they grew up on the same block. The answer is not Hip Hop. Hip Hop is just the common denominator. The song we remember from THAT summer, THAT prom, THAT loss. But "THAT" story...the fact that we all have a different "THAT" story and maybe a different set of songs for our soundtracks...but we ALL have a soundtrack. We all have a picture, portrait or painting. We all have a dance, good or bad at it. We all have a poem, a song, words we said...and words we didn't. Hip Hop only illuminates these relationships and connections for people from different sides of the wax. But once we connect...we are connected. So this show is about asking questions of others and of ourselves. Critical reflection and ambitious projections. Like real Hip Hop, the value is in the process not just the product. The lessons that come with facing, challenging, inventing, accepting and re-inventing oneself. Like real Hip-Hop, Urban Verbs is always in growth, maturing the lexicon and definition of what Hip-Hop is, rather then what it isn't. The show houses a piece of each city that houses the show. The show is a discussion, where we may have the first word, but the audience certainly has the last. Because when we all peel back our layers flesh by flesh...we are each other. Just with different stories. Hip Hop just exposes our connective tissue. This show acts as a microscopic lens that magnifies this connection and makes it un-ignorable.