Hip Hop/Global Flows 2003 :: durham, north carolina

Hip Hop/Global Flows

february 17-22 @ duke university

durham, north carolina

** David Lamb’s lecture has been rescheduled for MONDAY, MARCH 3, 7:30pm, White Auditorium **

Hip Hop Global Flows is a multifaceted and interactive venue that brings together academic interests, public performances and community outreach around the art and politics of Hip Hop. This is to be a multi-pronged effort organized by one department, one program, and one center on campus. We will focus on a number of different but overlapping issues:

(1) The Form of Hip Hop: How has Hip Hop developed musically and historically in the U.S. to become a prominent genre? What relationship is held between the different components of Hip Hop–graffiti, dress, rapping, sampling, DJs–and what shifts have occurred in all of these over time and with the increasing popularity as well as commercialization of Hip Hop?

(2) The Roots/Routes of Hip Hop: What about race and nationality? While still considered an African American form, Hip Hop is extremely popular with diverse audiences both within the U.S. and outside on the global marketplace. In Asian countries like Japan, for example, Hip Hop is a fashionable trend with deeply engaged community of artists and fans. How does Hip Hop change meaning, form, and identity politics as it moves across such borders as nations and ethnicity? Does the transnationality of Hip Hop constitute a subcultural cosmopolitanism that rap to the disenfranchised young peoples worldwide?

(3) Gender and Commodification of Hip Hop: What role is played by gender given the predominance of male rappers and artists and the misogynist lyrics Hip Hop is often accused of? What relations of style, culture, politics, and industry have produced Hip Hop and how has Hip Hop been variously consumed and engaged by different audiences and at different moments?

Our aim is to speak to multiple audiences with multiple media in this event. Rather than hosting academic speakers alone, we add to this: film viewings, performances, a photo exhibit, workshops, graffiti boards, open mikes, rapping competitions, breakdancing, and a panel discussion including D.J.s. We intend for this to be an event that will appeal to a wide range of students and faculty, as well as the Durham community.

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schedule of events

Monday 2/17

Lecture: "The Miseducation Of Lauryn's Girls (From Queens To Queen B*****S): The Image Of Women Of Color In American Entertainment” ** RESCHEDULED for MONDAY MARCH 3, 7:30pm, White Auditorium **

David Lamb, Adjunct Professor at John Jay College.

Sponsored by the National Pan-Hellenic Council

LOCATION: Richard White Auditorium, East Campus, 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday 2/18

Lecture: “The Asian American Word in Movement, in Sound, in Rhythm”

Deborah Wong, Associate Professor of Music at University of California, Riverside.

LOCATION: Biddle Music Building Room 101, East Campus, 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday 2/19

Blue Roach: Spoken Word, Students and Local Artists.

LOCATION: Coffee House (Crowell Building), East Campus, 9:00 p.m.

Thursday 2/20

Film: “Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme" directed by Kevin Fitzgerald in 2002.

Post-film discussion led by John Jackson, Assistant Professor, Department of Cultural Anthropology, Duke University.

LOCATION: Richard White Auditorium, East Campus, 7:00 p.m.

Friday 2/21

Panel: Hip Hop Global Flows I

LOCATION: Nelson Music Room (East Duke Building), East Campus, 4-6:30 pm.

"Conscious Rappers or Celebrity Gramscians?"

Mark Anthony Neal, Assistant Professor of English at University at Albany, State University of New York.

“Race and the Cultural Politics of Japanese Hip-Hop”

Ian Condry, Assistant Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies at MIT.

“The Politics of Hip Hop"

Davey D., activist, DJ and MC in the Bay Area.

Moderated by Dawn-Elissa Fischer Banks, Anthropology, University of Florida

Friday Night Performance: Dilated Peoples, Little Brother, and DJ Seoul.

LOCATION: Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro, 9:00 p.m. For ticket information call 919-967-9053

Saturday 2/22

Break-dancing: The Mighty Arms of Atlas (UNC)

LOCATION: The ARK, East Campus, 1:00–1:45 p.m.

Panel: Hip Hop Global Flows II

LOCATION: Nelson Music Room (East Duke Building), East Campus, 2:00–5:00 pm.

2-2:50 Charting the Musical Journey

Moderator: Anthony Kelley (Music)

3-3:50 Globalization/ Commodification

Moderators: Anne Allison (Cultural Anthropology) & Leo Ching (AALL)

4-4:50 Race and Gender

Moderators: John Jackson (Cultural Anthropology) & Bianca Robinson (Cultural Anthropology)

Also featuring Vinnie Brown, Grant Farred, K8Erwin, Dawn-Elissa Fischer Banks and other panelists.

House Party. DJ Battle/Freestyles

LOCATION: Coffee House (Crowell Building), East Campus, 10:00 pm.–2:00 am

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featured speakers

David Lamb, Adjunct Professor at John Jay College, author of Do Platanos Go Wit’ Collard Greens? Go to his website.

Deborah Wong, Associate Professor of Music at University of California, Riverside, author of Sounding the Center: History and Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Performance (2001). Read more about her.

Mark Anthony Neal, Assistant Professor of English at University at Albany, State University of New York, author of What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture (1999) and Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic (2002). Read more about him.

Ian Condry, Assistant Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies at MIT. Read more about him.

Davey D, activist, DJ and MC from the Bay Area. Go to his website.

Dilated Peoples, a hip hop group originally formed in Los Angeles, CA in 1992 comprised DJ Babu and MCs Evidence and Iriscience. Their albums include The Platform (2000) and Expansion Team (2001). Go to their website.

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list of sponsors

These events are presented with the support of:

Center for Asian and Asian American Studies

African and African American Studies Program

Department of Music

Andrew W. Mellon foundation grant for “Making the Humanities Central”

Asian/Pacific Studies Institute

Black History Month

Carolina Asia Center

Center for Documentary Studies

Dance Program

Department of Cultural Anthropology

Department of Asian and African Languages and Literature

Department of Women’s Studies

Duke University Institute for the Arts

John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute

Mary Duke Biddle Foundation

Mary Lou Williams Center

National Pan-Hellenic Council

Office of the Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies

Popular Music Study Group at Duke

Program in Literature

WXDU

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Special thanks to Hisashi Tenmyouya for the use his artwork on this website

Last updated February 20, 2003