Official Announcement 9/5/2022
#SaveAfghanHipHoppers
The group of 21 Afghan Hip-Hopper‘s [including women and children] are now safe in Spain! Yes, you heard it right all of our collective efforts [which you helped support] moved through the vehicle of Hip-Hop culture, resulted in the provision to survive while in hiding and the legal help necessary to be relocated.
Thank you! We are witnessing and realizing the power we have when we come together for good and what is possible through the platform of Hip-Hop culture! We are grateful for your help and will continue to provide more opportunities to help Hip-Hoppers in need. Stay tuned for more projects!
We want to recognize these people and groups that helped this project forward: Jacyln Fortini-Laing, Sound Central Festival, Travis James beard, Avant Guard lawyers/AGL, Menno Van Gorp, Spanish government, People Help org, Silvia Sala, Monica Moya, Lizzy Davies, Jeskilz and Khalid, Lilou, Hong 10, Flearock, Bboy Robin, Bgirl Ami, Bgirl Kastet and others for helping us make the video for our fundraiser called #saveafghanhiphoppers.
This endeavor took the connection of people into breakin and Hip-Hop, paired with a nonprofit organization, legal counsel, and an international help agency to work in tandem.
A little background on this effort by Michael Holman
Asia One reached out to me to help her complete this mission – of bringing The Superiors Crew, AK 13, and their family members to safety – and I am so grateful she did. The gift of helping others in true need is an amazing and beautiful thing, but there is a bigger idea behind this project that has historic and evolutionary ramifications. In rescuing and supporting The Superiors Crew, AK 13, and their family members, and eventually evacuating them to Spain (with the specific help of an NGO called People Help), an international hip hop community got together to help their brothers and sisters on the opposite side of the world, escape political persecution and find a new home where they can be free to express themselves as artists and human beings. The message is: Hip-Hop culture is more than just art and entertainment; it is a lifestyle and a belief system so comprehensive and global that it can change the world. Hip-Hop can bring about social and environmental change, bring about racial and gender equality, and give voice to the voiceless. Hip hop has that power and one day it will change the world, more than it already has. Big ups and thanks to all the people who helped us along the way! Peace!!
From Asia One
Sajad a Bboy from Afghanistan reached out to me in 2020. He just wanted to connect and build about Hip-Hop culture and help get some connections to get invited to large international breaking and Hip-Hop events. He let me know that his crew, the Superiors Crew and AK13, really needed to get out and see and be inspired by other Bboys and Bgirls and connect with the global Hip-Hop community. As time passed, he also told me how bad things were getting in Afghanistan and that they were being harassed for breakin and rapping by extremist groups and threatened. Eventually he called me in August 2021 saying that they were going to escape out of Afghanistan [due to the Taliban take over] and that their lives were in danger as Hip-Hop artists. He said that they needed help and that their lives depended on us helping them.
Sajad said, “we are all part of this Hip-Hop family, and we should want to help and care about each other, shouldn’t we?”
The immediate plan and call to action was to create awareness and raise funds to help them. This resulted in a video featuring internationally recognized Bboys and Bgirls proclaiming #saveafghanhiphoppers that spread virally resulting in $15,000 in donations! Fast forward a year later, they survived a yearlong perilous journey, and got to safety!
We were just the helping agents in the project and the real star is Sajad, a man of many talents who tirelessly worked, suffered, and sacrificed his needs for the group’s ultimate freedom. He, merely 26 years old, led this project relentlessly, never giving up, in true Hip-Hop fashion, believing in a dream. Thank you, Lord, for keeping them safe and delivering them, it is because of your guidance we stayed the course. Be encouraged and let’s continue to help one another!
