A Recipe to Healing from Lyrics Attacking Women
By Kathleen, Young Women of Color Leadership Council
 When it comes to healing, women have been mixing all kinds of ingredients into recipes that give them strength and courage to face difficult odds. One young activist’s awareness about the destructive targeting of women in mainstream hip hop has furthered her love of music and noise. Kathleen, a member of the Young Women of Color Leadership Council at Advocates for Youth, organized Momma’s Soup Kitchen for the Hip Hop Soul at O. Henry Learning Center School in New York City. The event was held on Saturday, February 16th, in celebration of Valentine’s Day, to show how love for hip hop can be synergic to the love for women. Momma’s Soup Kitchen provided a free, safe space for women, especially young women of color who seek social and reproductive justices through Hip Hop.
Here are a few words from Kathleen:
For me, Momma’s Hip Hop Kitchen means active change. I did this event because I wanted to showcase talented, beautiful, smart, and socially conscious sistahs down for creating change and changing how hip hop treats women. I want our daughters, sisters, hermanas, amigas, and everyone to realize that hip hop is a vehicle of change, and women demand and will receive respect. As people, we are multifaceted and filled with love and oneness. We are reclaiming hip hop and the abuse that we have suffered in the past. We will forgive, but won’t forget. But we will move on. We are starting a movement to save the soul of women in the world.
Starting with a candle light ceremony as a symbol of the unity and love of women worldwide, the young women at Momma’s Soup Kitchen for the Hip Hop soul presented an evening of strength and empowerment. The night was filled with inspiring acts from spoken word, to street stepping, to a rap about the lack of access to health care by an inspiring 10-year old performer! Outside the packed auditorium were several tables filled with materials from local and national organizations, such as Advocates for Youth, providing information about sexual and reproductive health issues and how to take action to fight for women’s rights.
Young artists showcased their art, decorating the rooms with their own unique perceptions of women in the world. Many left the event feeling inspired to do more work on social justice; some were men who had never given thought to becoming an activist for women’s rights before that evening. The beauty of the event was that it allowed women the space to take ownership of hip hop and express their love for the music when it is stripped of the destructive objectification of women that has been the norm for mainstream hip hop.
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