A coalition campaigning for mayoral candidate Lewis Reed will host a youth rally tonight from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Coliseum, 2619 Washington Ave.
The Rock The Vote Youth GOTV Rally features Chingy, Tef Poe, Yung Ro, Vega Heartbreak and others.
“Young voters are an important part of our coalition, and we are holding a final rally to get youth to the polls,” said Reed’s campaign manager Glenn Burleigh. We are going to win, and we are going to win because we have the broadest and deepest grassroots coalition.”
Vanessa Williams, head of the National Conference of Black Mayors, will also attend and speak.
Hip-hop artist Tef Poe said he’s been a longtime supporter of Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed, even before Reed announced that he would be running for mayor in the March 5 primary.
“I think hip-hop music has a political undertone if you use it the right way,” he said. “It’s a good opportunity as artists to show people that we are familiar with the political process and that hip-hop people want to be politically active.”
The older generation needs to be more hands on with the youth, he said, and Reed’s campaign is definitely more hip than Mayor Francis G. Slay’s campaign.
“It should be a good turnout,” Tef Poe said. “The Coliseum is a good venue, and the line up is solid.”
The show is free and open to the public.
“What better way to get folks excited about the election than having a big night with well-known hip-hop artists coming out,” Burleigh said. “We want people to go to back to their schools and ask, ‘Did you get out to vote today?’”
Coalition volunteers have been passing out flyers on the ground, and sending it around Twitter and Instagram. See flyer here: http://instagram.com/p/WcBzF5KTCL/
