Hip-hop shows feature locals, stars Promoters aim at changing Valley's image of the music genre
To Lehigh Valley native Jerry Deifer Jr., hip-hop is a culture, an art form, a way to keep teens busy and out of trouble.

Moving to the music
The ancient moves and sounds of Africa were roused back to life Friday, not on the plains of the Serengeti -- but inside a Yuma gymnasium.

What am I doing here?

I am standing in the middle of a 700-acre farm in rural Tennessee on a hellishly hot and muggy Saturday afternoon in June. No fewer than 80,000 people -- the vast majority anywhere between 18 and 30 -- are in the open field with me.

The feeling is a little like being at Jones Beach on the Fourth of July. Without the beach, and certainly without the water. And I am an aging baby boomer.

About a football field away, there is a giant stage. On it is a band I have never heard of, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Not only that, I can't make out a word they are singing. Most kids are clapping along. Others are lying near or on top of one another. A few others are losing their lunches after one too many beers, or something inhaled or swallowed.