Ep.31 Hip Hop Impresario, King UpRock, Exports Brooklyn-Born Beats to Communities Worldwide

Ralph Casanova, aka King Up Rock—hip hop dance pioneer, international teacher, and a community organizer with deep roots in his neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn—shares his life, art, and love for his community with host Desire Wandan.  His father was a noted conga player, his mother an expert salsa dancer and Casanova was playing drums and piano at neighborhood parties by the age of five.  As he grew up in the 1970s, there were hundreds of dance crews in Brooklyn developing moves distinct from those in the Bronx—and Casanova brought them out across New York City, the U.S., and, eventually, Europe as well.  He has brought his unique hip-hop dance to Russia, Ukraine, Spain, Switzerland, and Germany.   His Dollar Jams, parties that bring young people, dance veterans, and parents together to sustain and build community through dance, have been going on for decades in Bushwick. https://www.gofundme.com/f/dollar-jam-charity ----more---- Welcome to All Power to the Developing, a podcast of the East Side Institute. The Institute is a center for social change efforts that reinitiate human and community development. We support, connect and partner with committed and creative activists, scholars, artists, helpers and healers all over the world. In 2003, Institute co-founders Lois Holzman and the late Fred Newman had a paper published with the title “All Power to the Developing.” This phrase captures how vital it is for all people—no matter their age, circumstance, status, race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation—to grow, develop and transform emotionally, socially and intellectually if we are to have a shot at creating something positive out of the intense crises we’re all experiencing. We hope that this podcast series will show you that, far more than a slogan, “all power to the developing” is a loving activity, a pulsing heart in an all too cruel world. ----more---- The East Side Institute is a hub for a diverse and emergent community of social activists, thought leaders, and practitioners who are reigniting our human abilities to imagine, create and perform beyond ourselves—to develop.  Each episode will introduce you to another performance activist or play revolutionary from around the world.   To learn more about the East Side Institute you can go to https://eastsideinstitute.org/   Made possible in part by Growing Social Therapeutics: The Baylah Wolfe Fund.