Manifesto Festival 2011 Indigenous Showcase

This year marked the first Indigenous hip-hop Showcase at Toronto's Manifesto Festival 2011. Here are some great videos from the event.

Manifesto Festival 2011 brought Toronto, Ontario, eleven days of hip-hop events that stretched across the great metropolis. This year also inaugurated a special showcase involving some of Canada's elite Indigenous hip-hop artists in an event entitled, Origins: The Firekeepers.

Artists included Plex, Kinnie Star, Q-Rock, 2oolman & Sese, J-R.E.Z., and Red Slam Collective with DJ Ariel, all hitting the stage at The Great Hall in Toronto.

Here are a couple of excellent live videos from the event:

Kinnie Starr Speaks About Aboriginal Women and Hip-Hop at Manifesto Festival 2011

Rabble.ca's The F Word caught up with genre-busting Mohawk artist Kinnie Starr backstage at the 2011 Manifesto Festival of Community & Culture.

Manifesto Community Projects is a non-profit, grasroots organization working to unite and celebrate Toronto's diverse arts community. This year they presented a showcase of six Ontario-based Indigenous artists, including Kinnie, in Origins: The Firekeepers. Kinnie is always one to engage in provocative, honest and intelligent conversation and this interview with The F Word's Ellie Gordon-Moershel, about Kinnie's position in today's hip-hop culture and her participation in Manifesto's Indigenous showcase, is a worthwhile listen.

Stream it from Rabble.ca: "Manifesto Festival repping for women and aboriginal people involved in the hip-hop scene" [mp3]