Despite major last-minute venue changes, thousands of UW-Madison students and staff attended the third annual Hip Hop as a Movement conference this weekend.

Although plane delays caused the opening ceremony to be cancelled, most of the panels, workshops and concerts were successful, conference co-organizer Patrice Sulton said.

“Everything was beautiful,” she said. “The dialogue was thorough, and the turnout was good.”

The conference initially ran into trouble when the African-American studies department, who had sponsored the conference the past two years, delayed and finally refused the group’s request to be part of the event this year.

A university department is required to sponsor organizations that wish to use resources, such as buildings, for events that may include people outside of the university. The sponsorship does not necessarily require financial aid.

“The African-American studies department was not receptive to us,” said Matt Temkin, Logistics Coordinator. “We really didn’t get any support from them.”
Instead, the Wisconsin Union Directorate agreed to sponsor the organization.

No one from the African-American studies department was available to comment.

Sulton said the refusal is reflective of the university’s support as a whole.

“People who were supportive were very helpful, but I think the university in general was not as big of a part as it could have been,” she said.

Funding for the event, which Sulton said cost about $95,000, came from various sources. The Multicultural Council granted $19,000, and the Associated Students of Madison allocated $11,000 to the organization. Other funding came from sources such as the Humanities Council and private fundraising by the committee.

Paul Barrows, vice-chancellor for student affairs, was scheduled to speak Friday at the opening ceremony, which was subsequently cancelled. Due to apparent communication problems between organizers and Barrows, he did not speak.

Organizers attributed the cancellations to weather and personal circumstances. DJ Red Alert and rapper Heather B also failed to attend the conference.
Sulton said the most popular discussion, which drew about 100 people, was “The State of Hip Hop Radio,” held with MTV’s news correspondent Sway.

“Sway has a lot of knowledge about the business of hip-hop radio and the history of hip-hop,” said Sulton.

Memorial Union hosted a concert Friday night featuring underground artists such as the Intel Agents, Ang 13 and Abstract Rhude. Sulton said over 1,000 people attended.

Member of the planning committee Ben Runkle said this year’s attendance was on par with the previous conferences.

“Every year has been great,” he said.

Runkle did, however, lament the weather’s effect on the conference.

“Weather hurt our attendance and made logistics, like flying in the speakers, difficult.”

Some attendees said they were disappointed with this year’s conference.

“I was looking forward to seeing Ghostface, and he didn’t show up,” said UW junior Bryan Johns. “I heard that happened to a lot of acts.”

Students used rallying Friday as a method to draw attention to “restoring democracy” by uniting issues of affordable education, conflicts in the Middle East, mistreatment of immigrants and Wisconsin’s high incarceration rate of minorities.

About 100 students attended the rally that began in Library Mall and culminated with speeches, music and dancing on the Capitol steps.