Viacom Backs Black August, Focuses On AIDS Awareness

This year’s 8th Annual Black August Hip-Hop Benefit Concert kicks off this summer with shows in New York City (August 7) and Tanzania, East Africa. The annual concert sponsored by KNOW HIV/AIDS and Viacom aims to encourage HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness among young adults in the hip-hop community. Throughout the festivities, HIV/AIDS resource materials will […]

This year’s 8th Annual

Black August Hip-Hop Benefit Concert kicks off this summer with shows in New York

City (August 7) and Tanzania, East

Africa.

The annual concert sponsored

by KNOW HIV/AIDS and Viacom aims to encourage HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness

among young adults in the

hip-hop community.

Throughout the festivities,

HIV/AIDS resource materials will be distributed and customized PSAs from the

KNOW HIV/AIDS Initiative’s

will be shown.

The KNOW HIV/AIDS organization

is known for its youth-targeted HIV/AIDS campaigns featuring Chicago MC Common.

"With the number of

HIV/AIDS cases in the US recently hitting the one million mark for the first

time since the 1980’s and the overwhelmingly rapid spread of HIV/AIDS related

deaths among youth in Africa, it’s imperative that we assist in reaching out

to as many young people as possible, especially in the Hip Hop community,"

Black August concert co-coordinator Meron Wondwosen said in a statement.

Concert headliners include

Mos Def with Smif N Wessun, and Black Moon.

The Black August concerts

serve to expose human and civil rights issues, including political prisoners

in the U.S., education reform, and police brutality.

In recent years, Fat Joe,Talib

Kweli, Dave Chappelle, and the Roots have freely participated in the event,

one of the largest annual hip-hop benefit concerts in the States.

The New York show takes

place August 7 at B.B. King Blues Club in Times Square, and shows in Dar es

Salaam and Arusha, Tanzania kick off on August 18 and 20.

Tickets are available

at Ticketmaster locations and ticketmaster.com.