Immediate Release  

Contact for HSAN: Jody L. Miller, Ellen Zoe Golden
JLM PR, Inc.
212-431-5227
[email protected].
[email protected]
 
Visionary Marketing Group, Inc.  LaRian Finney, 410.235.4427
Marcy Crump, 443.864.8236

MARYLAND HIP HOP SUMMIT ‘TAKING BACK RESPONSIBILITY’

Hip-Hop Icon Russell Simmons joins Lt. Governor Michael S. Steele for Financial Literacy Summit “Creating Legacy Wealth”

BALTIMORE– Thursday, April 14, 2005 – On Thursday, April 21, 2005, Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael S. Steele joins Hip-Hop Summit Action Network Chairman Russell Simmons, Warner Music Group Executive Vice President and Baltimore native Kevin Liles, and Russell Simmons Music Group (RSMG) artist Reverend Run of the seminal hip-hop group Run-DMC, as well as various hip-hop artists and the Academic Achievement Awards Foundation to present the Maryland Hip-Hop Summit on Financial Empowerment at the Murphy Fine Arts Center located at 2201 Argonne Drive on the campus of Morgan State University. The theme of the Maryland Hip-Hop Summit is Financial Literacy & Creating Legacy Wealth: Get Your Money Right. The one-day conference features workshops, a Summit Town Hall Meeting and a Post Reception.  

The Financial Literacy workshops, conducted from 12noon – 3pm, will provide workable tools and solutions for home ownership, credit bank relationships, credit repair, and lifestyle management. The Summit Town Hall Meeting, 4-6pm, will include a panel discussion with a question and answer period involving Russell Simmons, Chairman-Rush Communications and HSAN, Lieutenant Governor Michael S. Steele and representatives from the business and hip-hop community.
 
The event is free. Pre-registration is strongly suggested and workshop registration is mandatory to attend the Town Hall meeting. Online registration is available at www.vmginc.net or call 410.235.4427.
The Maryland Hip-Hop Summit on Financial Empowerment is part of a national tour propelled by the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network. Founded in 2001, the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) is dedicated to harnessing the cultural relevance of Hip-Hop music to serve as a catalyst for education advocacy and other societal concerns fundamental to the well-being of at-risk youth throughout the United States. HSAN is a non-profit, non-partisan national coalition of hip-hop artists, entertainment industry leaders, education advocates, civil rights proponents, and youth leaders united in the belief that hip-hop is an enormously influential agent for social change which must be responsibly and proactively utilized to fight the war on poverty and injustice.  
Maryland’s Hip Hop Summit is co-sponsored by the Harbor Bank of Maryland, Afro American Newspapers, Rush Card, Baby Phat, Phat Farm, Stop, Shop and Save, 92Q Jams, Downtown Locker Room, Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, Morgan State University, Baltimore’s Tremont All-Suite Hotels and Meeting Places, and the Murphy Fine Arts Center. Portion of the proceeds will benefit Baltimore’s Academic Achievement Awards Foundation, the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network and Upliftment Jamaica.