The inaugural Baobab
Urban Youth Conference (BUC) will take place on Dec. 9th in Cape Town, South Africa.
The event will feature a keynote address from dead prez, as
well as recorded video messages from KRS-One and Chuck D.
Various South African artists including Emile Jansen, the BeatBanagaz,
Embawula will also deliver speeches.
Project Director Shamiel Adams describes the event as an important
step in educating youth and reaching a generation bombarded by commercialization.
"Combined with certain aspects of globalization, the explosion
of mass media and information technology have made it increasingly complex to
reach young people with alternate information," Adams said. "The disproportionate
balance between commercial and development info is worrying, and this goes across
the economic divide. The need to reach young people is urgent."
In combination with the special guests, the conference will
have workshops, concrete action programs, film screenings and an awards ceremony.
The event will be in a conference setting but will mix youth
culture elements to make it more appealing to the younger people in attendance.
"We understand and respect the standard conference formula,
but we don’t believe it works optimally for young people," said Shamiel.
"We have designed a program that we expect to revolutionize young people’s
experiences of conferences."
A similar conference will be held in Amsterdam on Dec. 17.
For more information
you can check out www.baobabconnections.com.
