At recent Saturday night at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center was taken over by women of all ages for Indayog 2, an all women's hip-hop show.

Organized by Pinay Sa Seattle, a local group of Filipina women, the night included a range of artists from Chief Sealth High School's Filipino Club to nationally know spoken-word poet Laura "Piece" Kelley Jahn.

"We focused on making a space for women to politically organize," said Irma Bajar, organizational director of Pinay Sa Seattle.

The night started off with the Chief Sealth Filipino Club performing a mix of tinikling (a sort of jump-rope game played by beating sticks against the ground and having people jump through them), hip-hop and spoken-word poetry. Though the students were visibly nervous, the crowd was engaged and supportive, and they soon picked up the pace of their performance.

Melissa Noelle Green, a spoken-word poet, got the crowd going with her lyrical poem about her roots. Her poem began, "Where are you from?" Answers ranged from Seattle and L.A. to the Philippines. With her powerful voice and arresting stage presence Green piqued the interest of the crowd and wove them into her poems.

The tone of the evening changed when a short film about gentrification of the Central District was shown. It focused on the threat to close a community eatery. Hidmo Eritrean Cuisine, a restaurant and meeting place for activists, is under attack from some community groups that see it as a gathering place for the criminal element, according to the film.

Hidmo was created as a place where the needs of the community could be met; a place that welcomed women, youth, social and cultural activism, art and music, according to the film.

The documentary showed the struggles faced by small-business owners who are being forced out and the patrons who see the restaurant as a safe and important place in their lives.

Out of respect for the show's all-women bent, the local group Beyond Reality was downsized for this performance. Kylea did quite well on her own with DJ B-Girl dropping the beats. The music was a bouncy form of rap, still powerful, but less harsh than most conventional rap. At one point she admonished the crowd by shouting, "Why you all standing around like you don't want to dance?"

"We perform all over the place," said Thera Langham of Albee's Angles, a hip-hop dance troupe. "Most of our performances are at non-profit shows."

On the younger end of the age spectrum, the troupe added some youthful energy to the show with their graceful and powerful moves.

The night was put together by a number of groups concerned with social-social issues. Communities Against Rape and Abuse was created by survivors of sexual and domestic violence and the group works not only against sexual violence when it happens, but on the root causes.

Youth Speaks Seattle, another participating group, seeks to provide art and literacy support to youth. The volunteers and mentors are poets, educators and activists of all ages. They lead workshops, performances and host open mic readings.

Pinay Sa Seattle, the main organizer of Indyog 2, organizes women from the Philippines and women of Philippine descent. They support the democratic movement in the Philippines and work to help women celebrate their cultural roots and history. The group organizes monthly meetings in addition to conferences and larger gatherings in the community.

Hidmo offers open mic night the first Saturday of every month. Everyone is invited to support both the poets and the performance space.

"Ladies first is a great space for women," said Irma Bajar. "Women take the mic and they just flow."

Sarah Greenleaf is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory and may be reached via wseditor@robinsonnews.com