Exclusive: Brother Ali and Guante Speak On Occupy Minnesota Movement
The two Twin Cities artists check in from their local occupation.
Brother Ali and Guante, two MCs well-known throughout the Twin Cities for their decidedly political music and community involvement efforts, spoke briefly to aboveGround and Minneapolis-based Spilt magazine in a video interview at the Occupy Minnesota protests that are taking place this month. The two artists expressed their support for the movement and spoke on the importance of unified demonstration.
“One of the beautiful things about this movement is that it’s not a single-issue movement,” Guante told us in the interview, after performing in front of the crowd gathered at the Government Plaza in Minneapolis. He explained that the single message from the movement revolved around the idea of justice, explaining that many economic and social issues took a part in that overarching theme.
Also in attendance, Rhymesayers MC Brother Ali offered some words on the protests. “I was really inspired by the ideas of Occupy Wall Street,” he explained. “Mainly the concept of people working together in the most-deeply-democratic way to shape what the movement is and what the conversation is.”
The Occupy Minnesota protests are one of dozens of global demonstrations that have stemmed from the one-month-long Occupy Wall Street protests that continue to take place in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park. The movement, although often characterized as lacking a singular goal, has centered many of its grievances around corporate greed and financial inequality.
The Occupy movement’s central theme is based largely on sustained occupation of a public area. For more information on Occupy Minnesota and the Occupy movement at large, visit OccupyMN.org or OccupyWallSt.org.
Watch the footage from Occupy MN featuring Brother Ali and Guante below.
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