Umar Bin Hassan of the Last Poets at Eastside Cultural Center, Thursday, March 6, 2014

Thursday, March 6, 2014

UMAR BIN HASSAN  (of The Last Poets)

At EastSide Cultural Center

2277 International Blvd

Oakland, CA  94601

4-6pm – Workshop on the roots of hip-hop

(with KEV and Don Juan from ESAA Beats Flows)

Youth 14-25 are invited.

8-10pm – Poetry reading at Holla Back

DONATIONS REQUESTED

Umar Bin Hassan from the legendary Last Poets will be at EastSide Cultural Center to conduct a poetry/hip hop workshop and also to be featured at EastSide’s weekly open mic poetry reading Holla Back.

In the early 70’s, Umar Bin Hassan was a member of the street-poet godfathers of rap, the Last Poets, a group of Black poets spreading a militant political message akin to that of the Black Panthers and Malcolm X.  He joined the group in 1969 after seeing them perform in his native Ohio.  With Hassan, the Poets released The Last Poets, This is Madness, and The Last Poets at Last.  In mid-1993, he released his first solo album, Bebop or Be Dead, Hassan combined rap, house, and jazz elements on the record. Umar recently recorded with Common on his latest hit, On the Corner.