tiny drops is born
Film by Isaac Pierre Racine & Lydia Zimmerman
Tiny Drops is an up-and-coming hip hop community center with locations in Mumbai and Delhi, India. Our mission is to provide children living in slums with an alternative creative and social outlet through cultural activities such as dance, music, and film. We draw specifically from the global hip hop movement, offering children the tools to focus on traditions of break dancing, DJing hip hop music, and filming and editing to match the pace of modern urban culture.
Mumbai and Delhi are hubs of contemporary culture in India, yet children of the slums rarely have a chance to interact or actively participate in the cultural expression that streams from across the world. These children spend most of their lives between over-crowded classrooms and jobs that do not recognize or value their individual strength and character. Tiny Drops aims to bridge this class-divided gap, allowing children to break through a rigid socio-cultural wall, and to give these children a greater sense of dynamic purpose in their lives.
Our goal is to create a space for children to be active participants in creating culture on their own terms and to use it to transform their communities. At the same time, we stress the importance of attaining a basic education as a means of connecting with an ever-evolving and empowered youth movement that is located both virtually and on-the-ground.
Hip Hop is rooted in the alternative expression of oppressed people in the Bronx and New York City, and has rapidly traveled to be uplifted by communities in Brazil, Palestine, South Africa, and beyond. It is a global youth culture that connects young people who struggle daily and historically with multiple oppressions, and offers an outlet on a journey of identity formation.
Tiny Drops derives its name from the beginnings of rain in a monsoon nation – drop by drop, the water accumulates, until it becomes a flood that can sweep up the whole community in its arms. In such a way, Tiny Drops aspires to encourage children to manifest their individual potential – whether as a life-long source of personal delight or in order to connect it with a collective purpose and expression.
