The Raiz Up is a neighborhood collective of Southwest Detroit residents using hip hop as a tool to create social awareness in their community through community dialog, artistic creation and collective action.

Description from the Facebook page:

The RAIZ UP is a new hip-hop collective based in Southwest Detroit. Taking hip-hop back to its “roots,” we started gathering outdoors at Clark Park this past summer, with open mic/freestyle cyphers; beatmaking, graffiti and b-boy sessions; and dialogues.

We believe hip-hop has the potential to help build a better community through artistic creation, participatory education, and collective action.

Our initial goal is to provide an open space for everyone to practice, enjoy and/or learn about the different elements of hip-hop culture. We recognize that all those who love and appreciate hip-hop have something to contribute and are welcomed.

Understanding that hip-hop often plays an active role in raising awareness and fighting for social change, we also wish to encourage each other to critically explore the social issues that affect us as a community.

We will be organizing a series of upcoming activities: workshops, film screenings/discussions and live hip-hop shows. As your neighbors and friends, we invite you to help us build on these ideas by actively participating with your experience, talents, skills and opinions!

RAIZ UP!

“Everything That Grows Begins Underground”

Photos by Doug Coombe.