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Rap took root in Italy in the creative hothouses of the centri sociali or cultural centers. The centri are one of the lasting socio-cultural experiments of the politically charged 1970s. Centri members, dedicated to a radical left and often anarchist vision, consider themselves to be part of a national Movimento Antagonista, or Antagonistic Movement.
Chanting "Power is like space — you don't ask for it, you take it" (Il potere è come lo spazio — si prende non si chiede), students and workers appropriate abandoned buildings to create sites that "autonomous" from the influence of the state and the market place. While the centri were first founded in the center of Northern industrial cities, in the past decade they have been established among the hideous and numbing high-rises built on the periphery of sprawling cities, as well as throughout the South.
Young squatters convert empty factories, schools, prisons, gas stations, and stores into cultural retreats offering films, concerts, discussion circles, and photography workshops. A number of centri publish fanzines, operate sophisticated recording studios, and broadcast pirate radio stations. These community initiatives also provide sorely needed social services like Italian language courses, day care, AIDS prevention, and drug counseling for students, workers, the unemployed, the homeless, and immigrants.
While members view their voluntary associations as significant contributions to the cultural life of underservered urban neighborhoods, they are under constant threat of police eviction and arrest.
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