Bolt Partners with Hip Hop Theater Festival; Companies Inspire Creativity with Voice on Blast Online Competition.

NEW YORK -- Keeping with its goal of motivating people to create, Bolt Media today announced that it has partnered with the Hip Hop Theater Festival to provide a platform to make hip hop culture more accessible to the masses.

Bolt will create a Hip Hop Theater Festival profile on bolt.com (www.bolt.com/HipHopTF) for all festival-related information, links to purchase tickets for the events and an opportunity to enter the Voice on Blast Competition. The Voice on Blast Competition allows people to submit their own hip hop content - anything from monologues, rants, poems, music or video. The winner of the Voice on Blast Competition (to be announced on June 5) will be a featured performer in the New York City Hip Hop Theater Festival, including an exclusive audition with the producers of Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam. Bolt members will have the opportunity to select the Top 10 finalist.

The Hip Hop Theater Festival, kicking off today in Chicago, is fully dedicated to introducing new artistic creations by artists who stretch, invent and combine a variety of theatrical forms, including theater, dance, spoken word and live music sampling from a diversity of cultures and points of view to the public. Dates for all the festivals in Chicago, San Francisco, New York City and Washington DC can be found on the Hip Hop Theater Festival site.

"We share the same DNA as the Hip Hop Theater Festival - we're both encouraging people to create their own content and bring it to an audience," said Aaron Cohen, CEO of Bolt Media. "The partnership reinforces Bolt as a creative networking site."

"The Hip Hop Theater festival has grown into one of the most influential outlets for showcasing hip hop performance art. Our partnership with Bolt demonstrates our commitment to bring the hip hop culture to the masses," said Clyde Valentin, Executive Director of the Hip Hop Theater Festival.

Combining creative networking with social interaction, Bolt.com motivates people to build a personal audience. Bolt caters particularly to the millions of burgeoning auteurs looking to distribute their content to their own audience.

Started in 1996 as a teen community, Bolt has evolved into a creative network focused on helping 18-34 year old find an audience. To provide value to its original audience, Bolt Media today also launched Bolt2.com, enabling kids, tweens, and younger teens to create content, meet people, and play games in a safe, no pressure, and age-appropriate environment. Bolt2.com is organized around games, pop culture and self-discovery.

About Bolt Media

A creative network constantly changes. Social interaction begins with creativity. Bolt members upload anything - a photo, video, comedy sketch, song - to get feedback. Feedback spurs more creativity and the formation of a broader audience. Based in New York with 10.8 million unique users, Bolt gives members an audience. In turn, they put up more content.

About the Hip Hop Theater Festival

The Hip-Hop Theater Festival (HHTF) presents live events created by artists who stretch, invent and combine a variety of theatrical forms, including theater, dance, spoken word and live music sampling. Through open submissions and aggressive curating both nationally and internationally, the Hip-Hop Theater Festival is fully dedicated to finding, developing and introducing new artistic creations from a diversity of cultures to the public. The Hip Hop Theater festival has been in existence for 5 years - starting in New York City and expanding to Chicago, DC and the Bay area.