A brilliant line up of hip hop and spoken word artists celebrated the legacy of revolutionaries such as Angela Davis and the Black Panther Party in Brisbane on 30 November.

“Words of Struggle”, a Red Flag fundraiser, hosted more than 10 performers who played tracks of resistance to the racism of the Australian state.

MC Triks, an inspiring Aboriginal beat boxer and rapper from Woodridge in Brisbane’s south, rapped about the need for fundamental social change. He found the experience of performing at a Red Flag event to be “more intimate than usual”.

“The understanding of my lyrics was more there compared to a lot of other audiences; they would sort of go silent or take offence or don’t know how to take me in a way.  I could just fully express myself and be straight out and not have to beat around the bush about anything with youse”, he said.

Young Indigenous artist CPG impressed with his live graffiti and created a piece which was auctioned for over $400 on the night. CPG said it was “so unique to have a crowd this big for my graffiti art. And I appreciate the love they showed for my one track and my a capella; I’ll be back for more.”

There were also performances by South Sudanese hip hop crew, No Pain No Gain (NPNG), who rapped about the struggle of refugees in Australia.

The evening was capped by a powerful performance by Ancestress, who said, “One of the things we need to do is spread the message … as an Aboriginal person, First Nations person, we need solidarity from the socialists, from the greens, from everybody. We want everybody: come listen to us, let’s talk together as equals to change.

“As Malcolm X put it, there’s a ‘miserable state that occurs, that exists on this earth at the moment’ – it’s all about peace and love to the depths of the words. And hopefully by my doing these things today, we’ll have a better tomorrow.”

Socialist Alternative Brisbane would like to give a shout out to all the other talented MCs and spoken word artists who so generously donated their time, work and talent to help us raise funds for Australia’s leading radical left newspaper.