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Hartford History Center Exhibits: Hip Hop in Hartford: 1981-1991

Online exhibits on Hartford history curated by the Hartford History Center team

Introduction

Dooney Bates, Myron Moye, Jonathan Baxter,
Mike "Nice" Wilson, and BT of "The Master Poppers"

Peace Train's Breaking and Popping Contest
Bushnell Park, Hartford, August 14, 1983
Photograph by Wayne Fleming

Hip Hop in Hartford: 1981 - 1991

Curated by the Hartford History Center at Hartford Public Library (originally presented physically November 2016)

Hip Hop is a global arts movement that was started by African American and Latino youth in 1973 in the South Bronx as a response to the criminalization of youth, the lack of quality education supports, and the burning down of their dilapidated housing neglected by property owners and the New York City government. These young people took their situation and flipped it into dance, visual arts, and music, which they shared at community block parties to tell their stories and express their realities. This community-rooted creative process resulted in the minimizing of gang culture, transforming the violence of the streets into playful dance and rap battles. Afrika Bambaataa of the Universal Zulu Nation pulled the elements of the culture together, including DJing, emceeing (rapping), bboying (breakdancing), graffiti, and knowledge (self-awareness, history, philosophy), to formalize and unify the culture under the term hip hop.

Hip Hop culture emerged in Hartford in the late 1970s and early 1980s in neighborhood landscapes similar to those of the South Bronx.  An exhibition at Real Art Ways in 1981 brought young up-and-coming New York City-based graffiti artists Lady Pink and Crash to paint on Real Art Ways’ (RAW) State Street Hartford walls. RAW, founded in 1975 by four Hartford-based avant-garde artists in music, visual art, and film, is today one of the nation’s great venues for contemporary art. A portion of RAW’s archives have been donated to the Hartford History Center, and RAW assisted the Hartford History Center in locating images, footage and newspaper articles that provide insight into RAW’s promotion of hip hop events. Tim Wolf, formerly of Peace Train, shared photographs, fliers, and recordings documenting the early 1980s bboying (breakdancing) and popping community in Hartford. Peace Train was a Hartford-based organization that produced large-scale concerts during the 1970s and 1980s. More on the story of Peace Train's Breaking and Popping All-Stars can be found here: Peace Train's Breaking and Popping All-Stars. The Hartford History Center at the Hartford Public Library would like to thank our partners at Real Art Ways and Tim Wolf for their help with this exhibition.

Please find our full Hartford Hip Hop Collection on the CT Digital Archive.

Photo Gallery

Chill Breakers Crew
Hungerford Street, circa 1980
Courtesy of Antonio "Apollo T" Villarini
Hartford History Center, Hartford Public LIbrary

Chill Breakers Crew was an early breakdancing crew that formed in the Frog Hollow neighborhood of Hartford and used to meet to practice their moves at this abandoned house off of Park Street on Hungerford Street. Villarini found out about the exhibit as a security guard at the Hartford Public Library and shared his personal polaroid with the history center.

Hartford Hip Hop Digital Storytelling Project

Hartford Hip Hop Digital Storytelling Project

This project was created by the Hartford History Center at Hartford Public Library in collaboration with students from Professor Seth Markle’s Global Hip Hop Cultures fall 2017 course at Trinity College and Tim Wolf. Special thanks to the Community Learning Initiative and the Center for Caribbean Studies at Trinity College. Digital stories, full interviews, transcripts, and photographs are archived at the Hartford History Center at Hartford Public Library.

Photo by Jen Fiereck (trincoll), February 13, 2018 featuring: Hartford Hip Hop pioneers (from left to right): Juanita Chislom aka Empress Nijuabi, Myron Moye, Rick Torres, Tony Villarini, Hjalmar Garcia; Trinity College students (from left to right): Enrique Loya, Kaytlin Ernske, Isabel Exstein, Giana Moren, Jervon Adams Jr., Karen Navarrete, Yisbell Marrero, Cody Maldonado, and Giselle Galan; Trinity professor Seth Markle, former Peace Train Breaking and Popping All-Stars manager Tim Wolf, and Hartford History Center team member Jasmin Agosto for screening of Hartford Hip Hop Digital Stories at Hartford History Center, Hartford Public Library.

Newspaper Clippings

Hartford Advocate article by Linda Blaker Hirsh
Photo by Steve Miller
July 22, 1981


Hartford Public Library 

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