Rachel Kurzius
Talib Kweli. (Photo by John Sciulli/Getty Images for Samsung)
Hip hop artist and activist Talib Kweli says he’s heading to Rock Creek Park at noon on Monday to figure out how to resist Donald Trump, and it’s an open invitation.
The meeting agenda, according to his post on Instagram, is to “strategize on removing Donald Trump from the White House. We plan on staying a while.” The meet-up is happening at the corner of 23rd Street and P Street NW.
Kweli, formally one half of the group Black Star, is often referred to as a “conscious rapper.” He uses his time at the microphone to advocate against police brutality and tactics, and the prison-industrial complex, among other issues.
He is a big proponent of protest. “You can’t just sit at a computer and be an activist. You have to get out there in the streets,” he told Huffington Post in 2012. “I don’t care if you’re on Pinterest, I don’t care if you’re on Tumblr, I don’t care if you’re on Twitter, you have to physically get up there and get your body on the line and put your life on the line to express your thoughts and what you believe.”
Kweli is in D.C. for a show Monday night at Marvin called “Freedom Sounds,” which includes “artists engaged in resistance in support of immigrant and refugee rights in Trump’s America.” Kweli will DJ a set, as will at least three other DJs beginning at 9 p.m.
He gets shout outs from the likes of Jay Z, who said in his song “Moment of Clarity” that “If skills sold/Truth be told/I’d probably be/Lyrically/Talib Kweli.”
After Kanye West complained in a pro-Trump rant that Jay Z wasn’t returning his calls, Kweli used that lyricism to reach out to the troubled star.
“Real niggas still got love for you. But our ppl dying out here. Never Trump,” Kweli tweeted at West. “we love u. u r everything u say u are. A genius, an icon. U added greatness to my life. But lifting Trump up kills us. Come home.”
