Temple of Hip Hop Hosts Their Annual International Hip Hop Festival

Bella Chirkis ’27

Editor in Chief

From April 10-12 Trinity’s Temple of Hip Hop Chapter organized their annual International Hip Hop festival. Although the main events occurred over the weekend, the Chapter had exciting events throughout the week, winding up to the weekend. 

The first event began on Tuesday, hosted in the library. Titled “Calypso Beats:Calypso Beats HipHop” featuring GWhiz and Jesse Allen. The event featured the Watkinson’s vinyl record collection of Calypso, and the DJs played excerpts from some of the 4,000 vinyl records at Trinity. The records are available for anyone in the Trinity community to listen to at the Watkinson. Temple Chapter Advisor Professor Markel stated at the event: “what does Calypso have to do with HipHop? I’d say everything.” Students danced and enjoyed food and refreshments, the event was the perfect prelude to the weekend. 

Throughout the week, students and staff were able to view Photo Exhibits on Global Hip Hop in the City of Hartford. Located in the Cave, the collage included information about hi- hop history and involvement right in the Trinity community. The collage can be viewed until April 19, and is definitely worth taking a peek!

On Thursday April 9, Shakia Barron hosted a master class for hip-hop open to the public. After a variety of lectures at Trinity on Friday, where artists came to the college to speak about their art and experience with hip hop, and a showcase to end the night, we made it to the last two days of the festival. 

 Over the weekend, the events were featured at Parkville market. Outdoors, there was a graffiti showcase where the public could watch artists formulate graffiti, next to a variety of hip hop showcases so that audiences could see what the different forms of hip-hop look like in real time. Outside as well were a multitude of different vendors selling hip-hop merchandise and food, creating an environment where you could never run out of things to do! Saturday night ended with a hip hop dance battle and the crowd was hyped up and ready to watch the dancers move!

The amount of effort and time taken into promoting and creating this event was evident. With good vibes all around, Trinity students and staff as well as the Hartford community were able to learn something new about hip hop and immerse themselves in the high energy that the genre brings.