The Youth Popular Culture Institute, Inc. (YPCI)-along with the Health Resources and Services Administration's Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other public and private partners-will sponsor an unprecedented and substantive national youth summit to be held in the nation's capital in from Oct. 31 through Nov. 3, 2002.

The summit will trigger excitement, concern, dialogue, and critical action around the vital role that youth leaders, adults and Hip-Hop culture can play in national efforts to encourage young people to choose healthy lifestyles and strive for academic excellence. The summit will provide participants with knowledge, strategies, and resources that will enable them to collaborate effectively in order to mobilize and empower America's most disadvantaged youth, their families, and their communities.

The title of the summit reflects the guiding philosophy behind the event. "Turning the Table" refers to a creative style used by Hip-Hop deejays, who make inimitable scratching sounds by artistically and rhythmically moving a record back and forth on its turntable. Similarly, this Summit will approach Hip-Hop and health and education issues from more than one direction. "New School Agenda" implies that the summit will go beyond traditional, "old school," linear discussions of health and education.

Once exposed to the information, strategies, and resources that have been found to work, young people along with input from adults, will design and develop their own platforms on these issues, using their popular culture and its positive elements as a foundation. A draft platform for a culturally sensitve "New School Agenda on Public Public Health and Education" will be produced and disseminated.