Lords Of The Land II (Hip Hop & Street Dance Festival)

Presented by 10K Movement, the second annual Lords of The Land (LoTL) is a weekend-long summer festival bringing authentic Hip Hop culture to downtown Cleveland, Ohio and the surrounding region. The main event (Saturday, July 30) will happen outside in Cleveland Public Square and will specifically highlight Hip Hop and a variety of Street Dances.

Generally defined by its four main elements of MCing, DJing, Breaking (dance), and Graffiti, as well as its five values of Peace, Love, Unity, Having Fun & Knowledge—Hip Hop is the most impactful folk culture on the planet. LoTL will bring it all back home, providing firsthand access to these dance forms for the local youth and the Greater Cleveland communities. 

Hip Hop culture has come a long way since its original early '70's upbringing in the Bronx and Brooklyn, NY. The fact that it's become a global, commercially successful phenomenon has people sometimes forget its origins as protest art, and how it wields its power to deeply transform lives on an individual and at the local level. Each dancer has a different personal reason for why they dance, a unique relationship to their craft that reflects their background, city, and how it allows them to connect with themselves and those around them.

The core 10K team fell in love with Hip Hop [music/culture] for different reasons—its wordplay, story-telling capacity, and social justice imperatives to name a few. Only later into adulthood, we began to learn different forms of Street dance, which are all improvisational by nature. Dance quickly became more than just a hobby. It became a personal practice, a creative playground, a vocation, and a viable discipline requiring hours upon hours (10,000 to be exact) to hone. 

The festivities will include: 

• Free dance classes/workshops for the general public 
• Performance showcases from local dance groups
• A multiple styles Hip Hop & Street Dance tournament where dancers will compete for a cash prize and the soon-to-be coveted LoTL championship title. 

AND 

• Local Black-owned vendors/businesses (food trucks, drinks & more) 
• Local musical artist performance & live Graffiti demonstration 

10K Movement’s educational programs, performances, and events cultivate and present Hip Hop, paying homage to its lineage, all the while utilizing it as a tool to empower and mobilize our students and the larger community. 

The Steps 

• Launch Marketing and fundraising campaign
• Sponsorship outreach 
• Vendor outreach (food & beverage) outreach
• Local Black-owned businesses and organization outreach
• Tournament judges, performance group & artist services outreach
• Secure & finalize venue / event equipment (dance floor/stage, audio & lighting, tents)
• Social media and print marketing materials
• Order apparel 
• Finalize vendors and sponsors
• Finalize judges, guest groups and artist services. 
• Final marketing push 

This culminating summer event is part of 10K Movement’s larger work addressing the need for socially and culturally relevant education and programs for young people and neighboring communities in Cleveland. 10K Movement is a platform for highlighting the ecosystem of Hip Hop & Street Dance culture, its concrete, expansive disciplines through which we “move” and act as agents for our community. 

LoTL is an example of how Hip Hop (Dance) creates an environment where people of all backgrounds can congregate around the music and culture, which speaks for itself in facilitating an atmosphere of organic exchange.

We want people to walk away from the LoTL festival with a fresh outlook on Hip Hop culture and a renewed sense of connection with one another.  LoTL will create awareness of our community, to open doors for partnership and collaboration opportunities, and paid jobs for dancers in the Greater Cleveland community. 

We also want our city to be considered seriously as a major dance arts community and metropolitan area, having contributed to these cultural inventions all throughout their creation, and evolution. LoTL will let it be known that Cleveland is a hub for the practice, cultivation, and showcasing of these Black and Latinx American art forms.