The next Hip Hop Voter Project will be held Friday, May 7 at The Paramount Nightclub. Voter registration will be hosted by The Southwest Organizing Project. If you've never checked out Friday night, this would be a great time to start. In addition to voter registration, there also will be registration for two reserved tickets to the De La Soul show May 22 at Paolo Soleri.
Here's some history on the project. The Reporter and Chicanobuilt launched our voter project in January, 2004. The first Friday of each month, during Chicanobuilt's hip hop night, different organizations and groups from the area host voter registration. To date, those groups have included The People of Color AIDS Foundation, Santa Fe County Green Party, The New Voters Project and Forum 2004. Other groups lined up for future months include Planned Parenthood, Santa Fe Democrats and more.
The idea behind the project is to reach out to the young people who attend this very popular night at The Paramount Nightclub and get them registered so that come November, 2004, they have a voice in the future of our country. At the same time, by having different organizations host the voter nights, there is the opportunity to interest Santa Feans in a wide variety of issues and causes.
The Hip Hop Voter Project is not affiliated with any of the national projects linking hip hop and politics, but there are many. An article in today's Salon, in fact, describes the GOP's mistake in attacking John Kerry's support from today's hip hop movement.

Another article posted on Salon today proposes that Rock The Vote type efforts won't work, because 18 to 24-year-olds are too apathetic and won't be moved by glitzy efforts from organizations like Rock the Vote are ineffective. We hope to also use this blog to create dialogue on these types of issues.