Break it down – Festival eyes early 2013 comeback

Okay B-Boys and B-Girls, Baton Rouge HOPS—the festival that body-rocked your world in 2011—returns for its second installment Jan. 30-Feb. 3, 2013, at the Shaw Center for the Arts.

Festival founder and artistic director Roxi Victorian says she is gearing up for a much larger event, delayed from its original date in August to attract the college-age crowd and allow more time for organizing.

Victorian says she was inspired to create the first HOPS festival to showcase real hip hop, not what was currently on popular radio. “So here we are, real hip hop aficionados, to tear down the negative [connotation] that pop rap has created and remind people that hip hop is an amalgamation of different art forms—hip hop is everything,” Victorian says.

The second HOPS is again joining forces with the Manship Theatre and the nonprofit Forward Arts, as well as adding the BR Walls Project as a sponsor.

Several outdoor concerts will feature performances by Luke St. John, Dustin Howells, Of Moving Colors and more.

The festival will again feature dance classes such as a master dance class by Paige Hernandez.

Other classes include graffiti art, a DJ-ing course by DJ Automatik and poetry performance and writing workshops.

The festival’s organizers are launching a Kickstarter campaign to raise $15,000 to keep registration costs at a minimum. Check out Baton Rouge HOPS on Facebook for updates.