Scared of Revolution

Umar Bin Hassan hasn’t even hit 70 yet, but he walks with difficulty and there’s sadness and fatigue in his eyes. As a member of The Last Poets, a group of performance poets who expressed the progressive spirit of the times starting in the late 1960s, he was a major influence on later hip-hop artists. The legacy of the Last Poets is an essential Black Arts Movement contribution and part of the African diaspora oral tradition that includes storytelling, the blues, spoken word, and rap. This influential group of performance poets and musicians emerged from the 1960s civil rights movement and black nationalism, and their work has had a significant impact on hip-hop. In intimate conversations with Hassan and those closest to him, Scared of Revolution gives audiences their first true insight into this groundbreaking group's history and follows the visionary artist as he confronts the hardships of his past and strives to reconnect with his family.