HHCF Auctioning Lost Autographed Chessboards by RZA, GZA, Rakaa and Waitzkin

For Immediate Release:

PR Contact: Mek Gaborski

(657) 229-2787

memg@hiphopchessfederation.org

   L-R: Rakaa Iriscience of Dilated Peoples, Daaim Shabazz of The Chess Drum, RZA from Wu-Tang Clan and International Chessmaster Josh Waitzkin.

Hip-Hop Chess Federation Auctions Lost Autographed Chessboards by Wu-Tang Clan

Arts and Education Non-profit Raising Money for New Community Center

8/3/15 San Jose, CA- The Hip-Hop Chess Federation (HHCF) has just announced that it is auctioning three autographed chessboards signed by Rza and Gza of the Wu-Tang Clan, International Chessmaster Josh Waitzkin and Rakaa Iriscience from Dilated Peoples. The initial auction price of the boards is $150.00. The boards had been lost after they were signed in October of 2007 at the Chess Kings Invitational in San Francisco. They recently were found as the organization was moving items to take to the new facility. The auction is happening to raise funds for the new HHCF Community Center. The new community center will host various classes on Hip-Hop dance, chess, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and after school tutoring and mentoring programs.

HHCF Founder Adisa The Bishop recently finished serving as an Education and History Consultant on Hip-Hop and chess for the record breaking exhibit at the World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis, Missouri. The discussion on chess, martial arts and Hip-Hop as tools for non-violence has swept across universities like University of Connecticut, University Wisconsin Whitewater and Oberlin College among others. HHCF Summer Camps were hosted in San Jose and in East Palo Alto to help keep at-risk kids off the street and planning their future.

RZA serves as the Director of Outreach for the HHCF. In the wake of the police shootings of  Michael Brown and Vonderitt Myers RZA and Adisa spoke to St. Louis youth and visited incarcerated youth.  RZA shared his in depth wisdom about race in America, Ferguson, and the importance of chess as a tool for life strategies and  non-violence.

“These chessboards represent a unique era in the fusion between chess and Hip-Hop” stated Adisa The Bishop “These boards are not going to be reproduced. Whether you are a Hip-Hop or chess history buff, this is a truly one of a kind thing to have for any collector to own.”

To place your bid for one of the three autographed Hip-Hop Chess Federation chessboards visit: EBay now! For more information on the Hip-Hop Chess Federation visit www.hiphopchess.com or follow @realhiphopchess on Instagram.

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Feature on HHCF with shots of new HHCF Community Center!!

The Chess Drum caught up with Adisa Banjoko of the Hip Hop Chess Federation (HHCF) to discuss his new projects, the challenges, the successes and the organization’s sprawling new space for classes. The HHCF is on the move once again and has been progressive in trying to establish an fusion between different artistic expressions to draw from the strengths of each. Chess, Hip-Hop and martial arts all have their dualities and it is clear that this the HHCF has been able to take this concept where no one has gone before. Banjoko provides some important insights in this short interview. 

http://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2015/07/19/latest-vibe-with-adisa-banjoko-hhcf/

HHCF Hosting Speed Chess Tournament in Union City, CA June 27th at Mighty 4!!!!

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HHCF will be hosting a speed chess tournament at Mighty 4 in Union City, CA on June 27th!!! Come out and enjoy this all ages event. LISTEN to Mighty 4 Founder Paulskeee talk about the history of Hip-Hop in the bay and how it helps young people find themselves http://www.bishopchronicles.com/podcast/2015/6/3/37-hip-hop

The Chinese Connection: Hip-Hop and Martial Arts Pt. 1

 

The Chinese Connection: Hip-Hop and Martial Arts Pt. 1

By: Adisa Banjoko

The HHCF’s fusion of Hip-Hop, chess and martial arts has always been about the blending of art, science and subcultures. A lot of people laughed at us in the beginning. But after hosting the biggest opening exhibit at the World Chess Hall of Fame this October with RZA, our impact was undeniable. In the streets, juvenile halls and colleges, our method is working and the demand is growing across the planet.

As our organization got on the radar of various news and education outlets, our calls to promote STEAM over STEM began to gain a following. My obsession with these three arts and sports were built on a previous foundation.

The two most influential people on my approach to writing are Dr. John Henrik Clarke and Joseph Campbell. Dr. Clarke was great at being able to say in a sentence, what many folks need paragraphs to write. Joseph Campbell taught “perennial philosophies.” It is defined as “a perspective in the philosophy of religion which views each of the world’s religious traditions as sharing a single, universal truth on which foundation all religious knowledge and doctrine has grown.” While my work to date has not been as concise as Clarke or expansive as Campbell, this is my ultimate intent. The goal of this piece is meant to show how the Asian Kung-fu Cinema impacted African-American culture deeper than other minority groups.

Bruce Lee’s logo for his innovative art, Jeet Kune Do

August 17th 1973, Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon opened in NYC. On November 12th 1973 a gang leader from The Bronx unified the street arts of rap, DJ’ing, graffiti and various forms of dance as Hip-Hop. He founded the Universal Zulu Nation that year to preserve and maintain the subculture on a global scale. A year before, Brooklyn’s Bobby Fischer beat Russia's Boris Spassky in a game of global importance. In September, a new film called Pawn Sacrifice will drop about that chess match and everything that was at stake culturally and politically. These three moments of the early 1970’s impacted American chess, martial arts and Hip-Hop in ways none of us understood at the time. Today we are still discovering its impact. Unveiling these connections are still a beautiful work in progress.

The original logo of Mixmaster Mike (of the Beastie Boys) was based on Bruce Lee’s logo for Jeet Kune Do

While exciting entertainment to many, for African American males, Asian Kung-Fu Cinema opened a new door to the Black mind and spirit. Having had our warrior culture removed from us during the transatlantic slave trade though our experience in America, these films gave Black people new ideas and a new ways to reclaim what had been lost 400 years before. Outside of Bruce Lee’s movies films like Shogun Assassin, 36 Chambers of Shaolin, Master of the Flying Guillotine, Shaolin Vs. Wu-Tang, and Drunken Master had immense impact. The David Carradine show Kung-Fu (while riddled with many racist elements) also gave weekly wisdom in prime time to those who were smart enough to pay attention.

It is hard to say how many of the African-American’s embracing these films really understood the cultural differences between Chinese and Japanese culture. Obviously on some level this surface understanding could lead to huge generalizations. On the other, this lack of cultural clarity created a space where all of it was taken in, accepted and appreciated. Those that were sincere, took the time to learn the truth. Over time those numbers grew.  

Though many of the movies by Bruce Lee and the Shaw Brothers were not of the highest production quality, the wisdom shared was on point. Despite whatever flaws may have been in the overdubbed voices or the corny outfits at times, these films became an obsession in Black America. It appears the ancient wisdom, the discipline and the quest for universal truth all filled a hollow space in many African American hearts, minds and bodies. It is hard to imagine the rise in Blacks practicing Buddhism, the number of Blacks doing yoga and all of the Taoist references in Hip-Hop without Kung-Fu films. It is also hard to envision the rise of the vegan movement in Black America without the rise of Kung-Fu films. These movies changed minds, bodies and spirits. Rappers, DJ’s, Bboys and graffiti writers were all affected and reflected the wisdom in their artistic expression.

I don’t think anyone at the time, knew what a benefit these movies would be to Black America. It’s hard to say if Black America itself knew what was taking place and why they were drawn to the films so deeply.

RZA, actor and rapper of the iconic Wu-Tang Clan explained the NY scene in the early 1970’s “In Manhattan on 42nd street they had movies. They had a whole slew of shows. We would watch them every weekend. That was around the age of nine. By the time I was twelve or thirteen I started getting fascinated. I would go into Chinatown buying everything. Kung-fu books, slippers [the flat black shoes made famous by Bruce Lee). You name it, I was on a mission.”

RZA of Wu-Tang Clan showing Kung-Fu skills in Man With The Iron Fist

Reflecting on the impact of the films he says “The good thing for me was growing up in America, there wasn’t much history, outside of the 400 years that I was taught. The only thing they told us back to was Greek mythology, the colonial days, or cowboys and Indians. But I had a chance to watch the martial arts films.  You get to see stuff from the Tang Dynasty, Sung Dynasty, you are seeing 1500 years of history. It kinda opened my mind to a whole new world.... It kinda changed my whole philosophy on life. I started buying books on Buddhism and Taoism. Plus I was studying Christianity, and Islam at the same time. It all translated into my music.”

In the early era of Hip-Hop the teens and young adults gave themselves titles like Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster D and so on. It is still unclear if these were names that were inspired more by Kung-Fu films, or chess, but something new was happening. Rap crews named themselves the Wu-Tang Clan and DJ’s like Mixmaster Ice (of U.T.F.O. towering on stage above the rappers in a ninja outfit. It was all very hard to ignore, and hypnotic to almost anyone who saw it. Other Hip-Hop artists out there notable for showing an influence of martial arts philosophy and culture include Andre Nickatina, Jeru The Damaja, Afu-Ra, DJ Q-Bert and Beastie Boys DJ Mixmaster Mike.

Rap crew U.T.F.O. with Mixmaster Ice in front rocking a ninja suit, 1985.

Chess, first and foremost in many people's minds is about strategy. The word strategy comes from the Latin root word strategos meaning “leader of the army”.

The logo for revolutionary rap group dead prez is the I-Ching. The I-Ching (The Book of Changes)  is an ancient divination text going back to 1000 BC. It is  a book of various symbols that have rich meaning and various interpretations. The Dead Prez logo is of  hexagram, shi, meaning “Leader” or “the army”. Each hexagram is composed of “inner” and “outer” trigrams. The inner trigram represents water and the outer represents earth.

This idea of being grounded like earth, but flow like water was made popular in America by Bruce Lee. Within the world of jiu-jitsu, they have positions known as closed guards and open guards. In chess, there are positional developments known as open and closed games. In both arts, one must be clear about the differences and understand the importance of how and where to be strong and how and where to flow. These are continuous themes within martial arts and chess.

In part two, we will look more into this relationship between Hip-Hop and martial arts.  We have much more to explore.

Adisa Banjoko is Founder of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation (HHCF). The HHCF is the world's first non-profit 501(c)3 to promote music, chess and martial arts to teach nonviolence at-risk youth. RZA is the organization's HHCF Chess Champion and Director of Outreach. For more information visit www.hiphopchess.com .

HHCF Awarded Safe Summer Initiative Grant by City of San Jose for FREE Summer Camp for Teens

City of San Jose Awards Hip-Hop Chess Federation Grant for Chess and Life Strategies Summer Camp

HHCF Opens FREE Summer Camp to Keep Kids Focused on School and Off the Streets     

May 20th, 2015 San Jose, CA - The Hip-Hop Chess Federation (HHCF) is happy to announce they will be hosting a FREE Chess and Life Strategies summer camp starting June 15th to August 15th 2015 at the Seven Trees Community Center in San Jose, CA. This powerful, innovative education program is brought to you in part by the city of San Jose awarding the HHCF the Safe Summer Initiative Grant (SSIG). The purpose of the SSIG is to give funds to organizations that strive to help teens in underserved areas. “It is a deep honor for the HHCF to be awarded the SSIG.” stated VP of Outreach Meek Gaborski. “Our commitment to inspire and enable young minds to higher heights, is rapidly getting more recognition. Everyone in HHCF is excited.”

The HHCF Chess and Life Strategies program teaches more than chess. In the HHCF chess positions on the board are matched with lessons that teach teens the power of patience, planning and independent thinking methods. “We make the game more culturally relevant to young people by showing them rappers, business leaders and politicians who play chess.” stated HHCF Founder, Adisa Banjoko. “This gets their  attention and allows them to see themselves in the game. Sadly in the summer,  many kids get into gangs, drugs and bad behavior because they don’t have anyone to work with them. HHCF is here for the kids of San Jose. We have a lot of gang activity out here. ”

Adisa Banjoko recently served as the education and history consultant to the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) exhibit Living Like Kings  in St. Louis, Missouri. The Living Like Kings  grand opening broke all previous attendance records for WCHOF grand openings.  RZA from Wu-Tang Clan (HHCF’s Director of Ourtreach) and Adisa spent time in St. Louis last year after the police killing of Mike Brown. They spoke to more than 1000  at-risk teens, including incarcerated youth. Their lectures centered on the impact of chess and martial arts can have on their  discipline and decision making. In 2015, Adisa Banjoko gave powerful lectures at Lehigh, Oberlin College and University of Connecticut among others.

HHCF also released a mixtape promoting their ideals of chess and peace at www.soundcloud.com/hiphopchess .

For more on HHCF and their Chess and Life Strategies  programs visit www.hiphopchess.com

About HHCF: The Hip-Hop Chess Federation is the world's first nonprofit (501c3) to fuse music, chess and martial arts to promote unity, strategy and nonviolence. They host lectures, panels, and celebrity chess events to help at-risk, gang-impacted and gang intentional youth make better decisions in life. The HHCF has been featured on Good Morning America, Forbes, Chess Life, VIBE and Rolling Stone.  

 

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Chess, Choices and Needles in the Park....

This morning I was at a park in San Jose with my students. They were playing tag, pushing one another on the swings and throwing footballs as kids love to do. Suddenly one of the boys approached me smiling, waving a hypodermic needle.

"Mr. B, what is this for? What does it do?!"

"Put that down right now!" I barked. "Right now."

He dropped it. Scared. I never yelled at any of the kids like that before.

"Where did you get this?" I asked.

"By the bench. By the baby swings." he said in a low tone.

"Did you poke yourself? Did you poke anybody? I need to know the truth." My voice had less traces of panic it.

He shook is head. "I just picked it up. I did not know what it was."

I called all the students over. I explained what the needle on the cement was often used for. That people use it to shoot drugs and you can get HIV, Hepatitis C or B from getting cut by them and how those things often kill people. I told them "When I was your age, I never played in parks with needles and stuff in them. You shouldn't have do. But this is real life. So, you have to know what is going on in this world. I know people say 'Say no to drugs' but you guys have to know this will cut your life short. Immediately. Cut it right off..."

I told him to go wash his hands then I had him see the nurse to look at his hands for abrasions or cuts just to make sure he was ok. He was.

I got rid of the needle.

Just as I headed off I saw a mother bring two 3 year olds to the area where the needle had been laying. My heart started racing. "What if one of them found it and scraped themselves or their brother or sister with the needle, not knowing?" I asked myself. "What if the mother never saw. She'd always wonder." They waddled past me, oblivious.

 I had the next few classes come out with me and clean the park. I told most of them why. I got exhausted emotionally telling 12, 13, and 14 year olds what happened. I had a cousin die of heroin at 19...I kept seeing his face....Sometimes I see people who look like, what I think he would look like if he were alive....Their faces stay in my mind.... I recently had a dream about a student I mentored who was killed a few months ago. In my dream, he was in a fight with another student. In the dream I watched the fight and did nothing to break it up. I awoke shaken.

Sometimes I rub people the wrong way. Don't get me wrong. I'm friendly, and silly. I watch cartoons more than anything, mostly to escape the pain of reality. However, at times, I can be short with people or seemingly lost in thought. I often am.

I feel like when I do my job wrong, death happens. I know we all die anyway. I know. But when I don't get through to my kids, I know a jail cell or a coffin is waiting for them.

When I started jiu-jitsu at Ralph Gracies' he used to get so pissed off if he thought you were doing a move sloppily or without passion and focus. It used to boggle my mind. "Why is he tripping?" I would ask myself. I understand now though. His fear, was that learning his teachings wrong you might find yourself in a real situation and you would lose. He took your loss personally.

"Didn't that guy train with Ralph? I thought they knew how to fight better." That was Ralph's nightmare and he still gives his all passing on the wisdom and the toughness of mind and body.

"Didn't he learn from Adisa.? I thought she played chess?" That, is my nightmare.

I take these losses personally. So if I ever seem like I take the methods of HHCF too seriously. If I ever come off like understanding Hip-Hop history and subculture matter a lot...If I ever seem like I take chess and life strategies too seriously. This is why.

Because kids bring me hypodermic needs in class and I'm trying to make sure they live. Not just today, but ten years from now I want them to be alive because I taught them how to survive.

Over the course of cleaning the park we found a bag of weed (with a little left in it), a weed pipe and a lighter. Gang tags were all over the park benches. Our kids deserve better. I will do all I can to give them better and I promise you. I will die trying.

I don't have any love for any gang. I don't have any love for dope dealers.

VIDEO: Adisa Banjoko Presentation at Oberlin College

Hidden in Plain Sight: The History of Hip-Hop Chess

Oberlin College April 14th 2015

Part 1 : Watch Video (intro to HHCF philosophy)

Part 2: Watch Video (forgotten history of Bobby Fischer, Afrika Bambaataa and Bruce Lee)

Part 3: (no video-  technical difficulties)

Part 4: Watch Videos (new era of non-violence and innovation)

Testimonials after presentation:

Adisa Banjoko had forever changed the perceptions and trajectory of the Oberlin student body. The diversity and depth of his topics was astounding. Not only were we informed of a powerful intellectual history of Hip-Hop, we were also given a once in a lifetime perspective on non-violence. All the students that head his words were infused with his spirit and desire to positively impact the world. - Ali Amiri, Co-Head Oberlin Chess Club 

"Adisa painted an inspirational picture of how individuals can use whatever tools are at their disposal to affect change in the world. Adisa has proven that chess, hip-hop, and martial arts can be used as a powerful hybrid to empower young people discarded from our social system. His talk kindled a renewed spirit of service within our chess community at Oberlin, and his message is a powerful one which should be shared with many communities with the ability to improve the lives of those around them.”

          - Constantine Ananiadis, Oberlin Chess Club Advisor

A Word of Thanks from University of Connecticut

If you would like me to come speak at your University, education or business conference. Visit www.theguildagency.com !

LISTEN: HHCF Creates Soundcloud Page, Sharing Songs from NEW Mixtape Street Games Vol. 2

Go to www.soundcloud.com/hiphopchess and listen to the FULL release of Street Games Vol. 1 Mixtape and get a taste of what is to come in Vol. 2. The complete new mixtape drops July 4th 2015.

Three tracks from the new mixtape are Lost Souls, by Amaar, ft. Nio the Gift, Chess Hustlers Anthem by 5th Ryder and Warcry by Artson ft. Zumbu from Zion I and Rakaa Iriscience from Dilated Peoples.

Download the new PDF Sampler for the upcoming book Royal Wisdom: The History of Hip-Hop Chess

   The cover for Adisa Banjoko's upcoming book Royal Wisdom: The History of Hip-Hop and Chess

   Download a sample PDF of the book now at www.hiphopchess.com (look for this painting on the bottom left of the homepage!)

This painting is an amazing 8x12 foot piece by Carlos Rodriguez and Rene Guyiot for Reyes Muertos Army. Check them out at www.rmklothing.com Photo Credit: Helene Ehrlich

Tupac and the Search for Lost Gold

 

“ If they had lived in another kind of society, their exceptional mathematical talents might have been better used. But they were Black.” - Malcolm X

Malcolm X was mentored by many people as he learned to hustle on the streets of Boston and New York. One of the main people to help him survive on the streets was a man by the name of West Indian Archie. He was a numbers runner. The numbers game was kind of like a lottery for the hood.

West Indian Archie's claim to fame was that unlike other numbers runners who needed to write every customers number on paper, he had them all memorized. In the course of Malcolm’s adventures on the grimy underbelly of American cities, he came across many Black men who had brilliant, innovative minds. These minds were not refined by the American schools and polished for a higher purpose. Because of their color, and class they often fell to street violence from the drug trade, or were imprisoned. Just the other day a teacher at my job was asking about why we needed to teach the metric system since America does not use it. I told her the hood uses the metric system every day. Those kids know how to convert milligrams to ounces and pounds to kilograms all day. Sadly, its just for all the wrong reasons.

I created the Hip-Hop Chess Federation in 2006 in part to help find those gifted young souls who were unaware that their gifts could be cultivated for leadership at Google or on Wall Street. This idea came after meeting with a group of incarcerated kids who displayed amazing cognitive skill and ability on a chessboard, but made poor life choices and ended up in juvenile hall. I started taking the positions on the board, reframing them as life situations and helping them escape the traps in the street.

Under the alias of “Makaveli” Tupac Shakur arguably wrote some of his most aggressive raps ever. The name “Makaveli” came after Tupac (known to be a voracious reader) studied The Prince by Italian military strategist Niccolo Machiavelli. Machiavelli, like Tupac was far ahead of his time. He wrote things like “Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.” Niccolo Machiavelli was a logical man not mislead by emotion. I believe this helped Tupac greatly as he assessed his enemies and ideas about how to deal with them.

Niccolo Machiavelli, Author of The Prince

The works of Machiavelli resonated deeply inside Tupac on a near spiritual level. Almost as soon as he was free, the identity of “Makaveli” arises.  He wrote some of his most discussed work under this pen name. In the song Don’t stop, he spits “Mr. Makaveli moving pieces like telekinesis/ It’s a chess game, lets play with real pieces”

For the casual listener, this rhyme may have little to no meaning. However, I believe a deeper look at Tupac’s life inside Clinton Correctional Facility in New York State highlights a deeper experience unfolding.

Inside, many prisoners enjoy chess as a way to stay mentally sharp and gain philosophical clarity. Most jails however, are not supportive of prisoners playing chess. Despite a newsworthy victory in 2008 of New Jersey inmate over the Princeton Chess Team.

One of the alleged main fears of correctional officers and wardens is a false fear that prisoners might use algebraic notation (the method in which chess games are documented) as a way to pass on notes and messages that would be indecipherable.  

Nevertheless, many prisoners find themselves in solitary confinement without pieces or boards to play with. Lost in the blackness of “the hole”, inmates  communicate through the walls. One way they pass time is by playing chess. They do this by visualizing the chessboard and speaking to one another through the walls in the language of algebraic notation. This is a feat not easily achieved by those who can do it accurately.

One might call out ‘e4” signaling whites kings pawn moving the center. It is often a common way many start a chess game. A most common response by black is “e5” and so on. These kinds of game are commonplace in prisons across the country.

Famed French psychologist Alfred Binet conducted some of the earliest works on how the minds works while playing chess. He wrote in part “If one could see what goes on in a chess player’s head, one would find a stirring world of sensations, images, movements, passions and an ever changing panorama of states of consciousness.”

I have never researched his stint in prison long enough to know if Tupac went to the hole, or played chess in the manner listed above. I do however, personally know prisoners who played in that exact manner while held in solitary confinement. It would seem nearly impossible to me that he would not have heard about these kinds of games happening in “the hole”.  When Tupac speaks about playing with real pieces, he speaks, like the man he was. He was newly freed, and not always having the luxury of physical pieces he was sought to experience the entirety of all the game that chess and life have to offer.

Hip-Hop Chess tournament about to begin at juvenile hall in St. Louis, MO.

Any self taught chess players who can function at that level, should for all intents and purposes be builders of the next Apple, Intel and Adobe- not just work for them. These lost youth could be building a new digital infrastructure for the world. I’m talking about coders, designers, innovators of new technology methods and business models are boxed out before they can begin to change the planet. If we approached the identification and cultivation of these minds with sincerity and strategy we might be able to cut outsourcing for American businesses in half.   

These are the kind of people Malcolm X lamented in his autobiography. Some of the brightest innovators in business, education and science are not located in India or China. They are right here, right now, having their talents neglected and undermined by schools that do not value their gifts. That is why I walk the streets of the hood mining for lost gold. If you are in the hood and you want to know where the lost gold is that I’m seeking out, look in the mirror.

Adisa Banjoko is Founder and President of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation (HHCF). The HHCF is the first non-profit 501(c)3 to fuse music, chess and martial arts, to promote unity, strategy and nonviolence. To learn more follow on Instagram @realhiphopchess or visit www.hiphopchess.com .