1/ CALL 911 Overview

Established in Lille in 2000, Call 911 is an association that supports the creation and diffusion of hip-hop culture in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Region and, more broadly, in the whole northern half of France.

Through diverse activities, it attempts to bring together the entire hip-hop movement with public, non-profit or private sector partners who can assist in promoting the development and recognition of hip-hop performers outside their usual context.

The association offers its diverse membership a practical and coherent approach to developing their projects. It does this by situating introduction to hip-hop, creation and dissemination activities within a framework of training, organisation and project support.

Specifically, CALL 911 offers:

• creation of workshops for training and professional development in the different artistic disciplines associated with hip-hop

• organisation of cultural events: festivals, concerts, performances, and special evenings in partnership with local cultural organisations and associations. In addition to promoting the various components of hip-hop culture, these happenings provide an opportunity to showcase the work of emerging local artists alongside that of accompanied practitioners. They engage the public at large, in the context of a festive event, through programming and workshop exhibitions.

• artistic and/or cultural project support in the form of a broad range of services, from everyday tasks such as reception and information to artist management, to the organisation of periodic professional meetings on project-related themes.

These activities centre around four main events:

• The Battle of The Year: a dance “battle”

• Urbaines Connexions: workshops, including a festive closing event, organised with residents of a Nord-Pas-de-Calais district

• Hip Hop Highschool: training workshops for amateur and emerging artists

• Hip Hop Dayz: a hip-hop festival

2/ Interview ( click here to download the whole text in PDF format )

With Abdallah Aderdour, cultural mediator and coordinator

2.1 Promotion of hip-hop culture

“The Hip Hop Dayz Festival in 2000 was the first event of the association. It was important to schedule a powerful annual event where all hip-hop disciplines could be represented, with one day each dedicated to dance, rap and graffiti, along with debates, meetings and exchanges. The goal is to reveal the emergence of local artists by programming them alongside national and international artists.”

“ The Battle of The Year is a qualification round for the final that takes place in Montpellier. We created this competition in Lille because there is strong dance potential here, but few events that showcase the discipline. The idea is to turn the spotlight on dancers from Nord-Pas-de-Calais by juxtaposing them with other artists from the northern half of France”.

2.2 Building a network

“Call 911’s work has allowed many regional artists to turn professional and build organisational structure, thanks to all the events and involvement with project leaders.”

“The Festival High School is an event with a pedagogical intent. Its goal is to offer training and professional encounters with well-known figures from hip-hop culture to amateur and experienced artists alike."

"This event grew out of the idea of creating a hip-hop school."

"Through this activity, we aim to take hip-hop beyond the neighbourhoods that usually give birth to it. We want to work in adequate spaces with appropriate material and show artists the different locations in the city that are available to them, but that they don’t know about."

“However, hip-hop culture continues to have difficulty gaining recognition and entry to certain concert halls because it suffers from a poor image. Yet this access is essential, as artists can no longer work or perform in inappropriate spaces. Nonetheless, we had to program dates once again this year in ill-equipped concert halls.”

2.3 A local, national and cross-border network

“We work locally within a regional territory with concert halls, including the Maisons Folies, socio-cultural structures and associations for hip-hop culture. (Up Rock, Secteur 7, RIF)”.

“On a national level, beyond our work with artists, the creation of a network of hip-hop festivals has allowed us to work for a year with the Festival l’Original in Lyon, Attitude in Montpellier, the Casa Musicale in Perpignan and Pick Up in Nantes”.

“Due to our proximity, we also work with Belgium through the free movement and exchange of artists ­— Ghent and Brussels being an important breeding ground for hip-hop culture”.

2.4 Introduction and Awareness

“ Urbaines Connexions has been developed within one of the city’s regional political plans, Nos quartiers d’Été. Its objective is the promotion of the hip-hop movement through practical workshops in July, led by young people from the region, as well as the organisation of a great closing event that attracts a large and diverse audience."

"The project, which takes place in a different area each year, has been set up thanks to a partnership between several associations in the amalgamated city of Lille and other entities within the region."

“In 2006, at the behest of socio-cultural and municipal structures with which we are associated, Urbaines Connexions followed up on a long-term project on urban cultures in Douaisi,. That is why it seemed important to us to programme a 2007 Hip Hop Dayz event in that area."