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Over the years, eager diplomats from all over the world have come to the Holy Land, hoping to finally make peace between Israel and Palestine.
Earlier this month, ambassadors of a very different kind landed on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Mahogany Jones is a hip-hop artist who has been America’s musical ambassador for the past decade, traveling and teaching in conflict zones around the world. Hip-hop, art, and activism that represent America.
She toured Israel for a week, leading workshops and performing in concerts that drew hundreds of Jews, Muslims and Christians both on stage and in the audience. She played shows in Nazareth and Jerusalem with System Her Ali, a Jaffa-based band of mixed Palestinian and Jewish citizens in Israel.
“I lived in New York City,” said Jones. “Busking is always done. I was too chicken. Klezmer. He travels the world with his band, but his performances on the streets of hip-hop never flinch.”
One day, while leading a workshop in Haifa, she heard the sound of live music outside and sat down to freestyle with a Klezmer band that was playing on the street.
“I was doing a workshop and suddenly I heard this magical music,” Jones recalled in a telephone interview Wednesday. Jewish insider. “If you take a break and look outside, you see this tuba-like thing, and you see an accordion and an instrument. and asked the musicians if she could participate.
“They’re like, ‘Hey come on.’ We’re rapping. Come down. They’re playing Klezmer,” Jones continued. She appeared on the New York spoken word scene 20 years before her, but she appeared around the same time as artists such as Talib She Kweli, Mos Her Def, Erika She But this was her first impromptu street performance. “I took — I lived in New York City. Street performances are always on. I was too chicken. Klezmer travels the world with her band, but The streets of hip-hop never flinch from her performance.”
The 44-year-old Jones first made headlines for her music more than 20 years ago when she won four consecutive BET Freestyle Fridays programs. Her latest album, Better, was released last month. But throughout her career, Jones has become best known around the world for her activism (what she calls “artivism”) and has become known in her adopted hometown of Detroit. became.
With the State Department, she has visited 16 countries, including Bosnia, Uzbekistan, Iraq and Finland. She works with locals who, like Israel, are experiencing tension and mistrust. She also arrives in these countries as America’s goodwill ambassador, helping people to trust their embassies and the American government employees who are there to serve them.
“A lot of times people can be intimidated or intimidated coming to the U.S. embassy. I just want to see them in person and dispel them,” Jones said. We want to help you feel comfortable and belonging.
“We do programs like this with artists like Mahogany Jones, who has done this in so many difficult spaces. Paul Rockower, who led Next Level, a State Department program that uses hip-hop to foster intercultural connections, now works with Greater He is Executive Director of the Council on Jewish Community Relations in Phoenix.
A short documentary film from Jones’ time in Sarajevo shows her leading a call-and-response group of animated teenagers. On the first day of the program, the two are smiling but nervous. By the end of the program, two weeks later, they are freestyling and dancing on stage.
“The tools in my bag that I can share with you are at your disposal to make you feel comfortable. You may not be the next Eminem or anything like that, right? But express yourself.” a chance to be more content with yourself, a chance to express and say the things that matter to you in a way that matters. Want to.”
Jones was invited to Israel by Polina Levi Eskinazi at the Embassy’s Cultural Affairs Department. The trip was scheduled to take place nearly three years before him, but the COVID-19 pandemic intervened. Eskenazi did not respond to a request for comment.
In Israel, Jones worked primarily with educators to teach students the skills that brought hip-hop and poetry to life.
“I was trying to teach ‘how to use art to defuse uncomfortable conversations,'” she said. Rather than involve participants in uncomfortable conversations, she focused on pedagogy. Instead of having politically charged conversations about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, participants got to know each other through music.
“I wanted you to take [from the workshop] To be able to create a safe space where students feel safe when they make mistakes, to feel comfortable enough to share their creativity, to feel comfortable enough to share their vulnerabilities. is what you can do.” Hop and Songwriting.
The trip had a double meaning for Jones, a Christian who was able to visit religious sites he had read about since childhood.
“I knew it was going to be emotionally moving for me. I didn’t know it was going to be fun,” said Jones, who has never traveled to Israel. “It was beautiful. Everyone was so open. It was like a place all rolled into one.”
She saw the beauty of a small, ancient place where three world religions blended together. There, random date palm trees can have biblical meanings, and every stone can be an archaeological wonder. But seeing and feeling the tension there, Jones added it was also “cool.”
“I’m here in Nazareth and it’s six o’clock now. It’s December. There’s a big Christmas tree. I’ve passed nuns, I’ve passed monks. And I’m listening. [Muslim] A call to prayer, and five minutes ago, I heard someone just [prayer] Matt,” she recalled.
“Look at that, what’s wrong with us, can’t we figure it out? I live on this side of my beliefs. I live on the other side of my beliefs.” “But hey, we’re all on the same side, we share space,” she pointed out. , respecting who we are and doing what it takes to figure out how to live life together somehow.”
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