HIP-HOP HOPE: Bonn Park Media film project provides platform for local musicians with support from WRCF Arts Grants Fund
Sara Geidlinger, Co-Founder, Bonn Park Media - Photo Credit: Andy Wright
Bonn Park Media describes itself as “Waterloo Region’s Local Storytellers.”
So, when Bonn Park Co-Founders Sara Geidlinger and Marshall Ward sensed there was a local story to be told, there was only ever going to be one conclusion.
They’d tell the story, of course.
Hip Hop Hope is that story. The documentary film created by Bonn Park Media shines a light on Waterloo Region’s burgeoning hip-hop scene, showcasing the victories and challenges experienced by many local emerging and established artists.
Bonn Park’s latest project received financial support in 2022 from Waterloo Region Community Foundation’s Arts Grants Fund, which, since 2020 has been providing funding to small or medium sized arts organizations and collectives, as well as projects focused on the arts.
Hip Hop Hope will be released in 2024 but the genesis of the project goes back to 2022. Organizers were planning the first edition of the Mel Brown Music Festival and Symposium – celebrating Black heritage and the legacy of the famed guitarist who called the region home for the final 20 years of his life -- when Bonn Park caught wind of the buzz.
“We very quickly started to poke around and try to find out who was running that (festival). We inserted ourselves into the conversation,” said Geidlinger.
She and Ward arranged to have full access to all the festival artists, interviewing everyone from rapper Haviah Mighty (fresh off becoming the first female artist to win a Juno Award for Rap Album/EP of the year) to Muhleak from local rap outfit Life of Dreamerz.
“We interviewed everyone and through those conversations, the same theme kept recurring, which was, ‘Where’s the space for us?’” Geidlinger said. “Here we have this emerging Black youth doing this music in town … where is the space for this music? It just kept repeating itself, repeating itself, repeating itself.”
Around the same time, Geidlinger and Ward watched Betty Anne Keller’s Rock This Town music documentary highlighting the region’s rock scene heyday in the ’60s and ’70s. At the end of the film, they concluded that, while a different era, the region’s music scene is very much alive and well today and the hip-hop community specifically deserves to be spotlighted.
The central character in Hip Hop Hope is local artist and podcaster Jon Corbin, who was heavily involved in the Mel Brown festival and teaches a hip-hop workshop for Black youth.
Kitchener-based hip-hop artist, producer and small business owner Sam Nabi served as a valuable point person in terms of helping curate local talent – “he’s got his finger on the pulse of everything, Geidlinger said” – while local Juno Award-winning artist Carlos Morgan, and Sandra Tyler, host of 98.5 CKWR’s Black Exposed program, were a few other notables to lend their voice to the film.
While meeting with local hip-hop artists such as Young Lungs, Ramsay Almighty and Shad during the film’s production, common themes were quickly cemented.
First, said Geidlinger, “there’s lots of great music happening here and beyond.”
Problematic, however, is that so many of these artists are fighting for the same arts grants and financial support, she said.
“That these artists are fighting for these same arts grants is troubling because there’s only so much of that in the region,” she said. “Again, support the arts as hard as you consume them. Maybe I’ll make bumper stickers. There shouldn’t be such barriers to access for the hip-hop, soul, R&B, jazz, and gospel communities.”
The filmmakers were also disappointed to learn that some of these artists continue to face racism within the industry.
“Some of these artists are required to get police checks to book venues. I’ve called up the same venues and they don’t ask me for one. They don’t ask Sara Geidlinger for police checks. That’s a problem,” she said.
Help from WRCF’s Arts Grants Fund meant the film producers were able to pay musicians for their time and talents in addition to covering their production costs.
“That’s huge. We’re very passionate about artists being paid, and being credited,” Geidlinger said.
“Working with Bonn Park Media on this documentary has been a dream. Sara and Marshall set a high bar for professionalism, and I can feel confident that the artists I invite to participate will feel comfortable being their authentic selves.”
Bonn Park’s documentary partnership is an extension of a pre-established relationship with WRCF. In addition to receiving financial assistance in 2022, the media company purchased upgraded and new equipment thanks to support from the Arts Grants Fund one year earlier.
“Everything has gone hand in hand. It’s like Lego. Each piece is built upon the next piece, Geidlinger said, adding the support from WRCF, Wilfrid Laurier University, Kitchener Public Library, and The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada has been instrumental in making these projects a reality.
“I’m so touched that WRCF believes in the work that we’re doing. We believe in it. It’s volunteer work. We’re not getting paid for it,” she said. “Every dollar that we get goes right back into the project to keep the machine running. So that somebody believes in the work that we were doing is huge. That’s the power of that type of support.”
For more information on Bonn Park Media, visit bonnpark.com.
To learn more about WRCF’s Arts Grants Fund, go to wrcf.ca/artsgrants.
