Work and Advocacy
Rosa Clemente’s public work spans organizing, education, media criticism, and cultural activism. Her projects are rooted in community needs and designed to build collective power through knowledge and action.
HIPHOP for Social Change
Clemente co-founded initiatives that harness hip-hop culture—not just as music, but as a global movement of resistance. These programs engage youth in political education through graffiti, DJing, MCing, and breakdancing, connecting artistic expression to historical struggle and community identity.
She emphasizes that hip-hop was born from the same South Bronx streets that raised her, making it a natural tool for intergenerational dialogue and mobilization.
Know History / No More Campaigns
Through campaigns like “Know History,” Clemente challenges historical amnesia. She organizes community teach-ins on topics like the Young Lords, COINTELPRO, sterilization of Puerto Rican women, and the legacy of Black and Brown resistance.
“No More” initiatives address contemporary violence: police killings, voter suppression, environmental racism. These efforts blend memorialization with calls to action, ensuring that grief transforms into power.
Media Democracy and Independent Journalism
A fierce critic of corporate media, Clemente advocates for community-controlled storytelling. She supports independent outlets, trains citizen journalists, and speaks widely on media literacy.
She argues that without control over narrative, communities remain vulnerable to distortion and erasure. True democracy, she insists, requires media that is by, for, and about the people.
