'Hip-hop Renaissance man' Marc Joseph brings his cultural mixtape to ACT

"Obama in the White House is a direct result of the politicized nature of hip-hop culture," says Marc Bamuthi Joseph. "He does not get into the White House without hip-hop culture, period."

Them's fighting words. But they come from a gentle, soft-spoken performer- provocateur who is a walking ad for the hip-hop "movement."

"When we talk about hip-hop it's not just records or videos," notes Joseph, who performs his piece "the break/s" at ACT Theatre starting next week. "If someone asked you about Mexican culture, you wouldn't hold up a burrito and say 'this is it,' right?"

He sees hip-hop in a larger cultural context, not only as a performing style but also an ethos, a style of YouTube-era communication and urban activism.

"the break/s" surely is the first main-stage ACT show to feature a beat-boxer (Tommy Shepherd, aka Soulati), a DJ (DJ Excess) and be subtitled "a mixtape" (literally, a mixture of recorded music that comprises a single play list).

In this case, the mix also includes short film clips based on person-in-the-street interviews, poetry (Joseph is a former National Poetry Slam champion), travel stories and dance moves.

Joseph believes he can reach a broad theatrical audience with such theatrical/musical montages. So far, he's been proved right.

"This show opened last year at Actors Theatre of Louisville, a big regional company," he explains. "I think folks enjoyed themselves, despite themselves. It wasn't always easy for those who had a certain level of expectation around form, to find their rhythm in this piece. But once they were along for the ride, I think a great time was had by all."

Seattle audiences embraced Joseph's earlier show, "Word Becomes Flesh," in its 2003 run at On the Boards. In that compelling piece, the charismatic, physically and verbally eloquent artist conveyed his unintentional fathering of a son with an ex-girlfriend, and decision to help raise the boy.

Joseph's son M'kai is now "a spectacular" 7-year-old, according to his proud dad. "Me, M'kai and his mom are just back from Hawaii. We're totally New Age parents. We don't live together, but we go on vacations together. I coach his soccer team, we home-school him with other kids, and we're continuing to evolve in our alternative parenting style."

Staying involved in his child's day-to-day upbringing has not broken the Oakland, Calif.-based Joseph's stride as a so-called "hip-hop Renaissance man," who teaches (at Mills College) and helps teens create "transformative" arts projects through the San Francisco-based group Youth Speaks.

Joseph also has been helping to nudge hip-hop culture in a more political direction. "For me, it's evolving into a place of social activism and deeper integration of social accountability," he says. "Artists reared in hip-hop, we find it can't just be an aesthetic thing. We need to move beyond aesthetics to have a greater effect on the social climate, then integrate that back into the work."

Joseph is now working on a new show about the green movement, called "Red, Black and Green: A Blues" — which he says was inspired by the "relative segregation" of environmental groups.

"It's not malicious or intentional, but there's something about the branding of green that has ostracized poor communities of color," he contends. "We want to reframe the conversation."

To that end, Joseph and cohorts have devised daylong festivals in underserved parks around the country. "We have discussions about eco-equity and empowerment, but also dance battles, basketball tournaments, tree planting, a free breakfast."

No such events are planned in Seattle during ACT's run of "the break/s," a presentation of the Lorraine Hansberry Project. But Joseph believes the hip-hop culture he champions is having a national impact. He notes that President Obama recently hosted the first "poetry slam" at the White House.

And how did hip-hop help get Obama elected?

"It's that kind of speed and velocity of information, the viral marketing, the widespread sampling," says Joseph. "It's all in the mainstream now. It's less exotic than you may think."

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com