‘We’re all hip-hop family’: the artists fighting to get Afghan breakdancers to safety

Nancy Yu, AKA Asia One is drawing on the hip-hop movement's activist roots to help a group of artists and their families escape the Taliban

A veteran of the hip-hop scene and internationally celebrated breakdancer, Nancy Yu - AKA Asia One - has her fair share of people contacting her looking for advice. But the message she received in 2019 from a young Afghan was a little different.

Frustrated by his breakdancing crew's inability to get visas to perform internationally, Moshtagh* was wondering if Asia could help. He felt they were really good, but they felt, like, invisible to the world," she says. I liked him. He wasn't trying to bug me or say we need this right now' ... He seemed rather humble and honest."