Left of Black S2:E31 | Words, Images and Literacy with dream hampton & Professor Elaine Richardson

Left of Black S2:E31 | May 7, 2012

Words, Images and Literacy with dream hampton and Professor Elaine Richardson

Host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined via Skype by writer and filmmaker dream hampton.  Neal and hampton discuss her passions for writing and visual art, the cultural importance of the city of Detroit, directing her first music video for THEESatisfaction and her collaboration with Jay Z on Decoded (2010) and the unpublished The Black Book.

Later, Neal is joined via Skype by Ohio State University Professor Elaine Richardson aka Dr. E..  An nationally regarded expert on literacy among Black youth, Richardson is also an accomplished vocalist.  Neal and Richardson discuss balancing her academic career with her artistic career, her forthcoming memoir, PGD 2 PHD, which details her transition from a life on the streets, and the 2012 HipHop Literacies Conference (Ohio State University, May 9-11) which she curated.

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Left of Black is a weekly Webcast hosted by Mark Anthony Neal and produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University.

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Episodes of Left of Black are also available for free download in HD @ iTunes U

PBS' 'Need to Know': Dream Hampton and Jay Z

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

Interview with Dream Hampton, contributing writer of the new book, Decoded.

Inside Jay-Z's Launch of "Decoded" With Droga5, Bing

Inside Jay-Z's Launch of "Decoded" With Droga5, Bing
by Tyler Gray|Wed Nov 24, 2010

For the launch of his autobiography, hip-hop's premiere entrepreneur turned marketing into interactive art and a scavenger hunt that rewarded his die-hard fans. Here's an exclusive peek inside Jay's bag of tricks.

On Kanye West's new song, "So Appalled," Jay-Z raps, "I'm so appalled, I might buy the mall, just to show [...] how much more I have in store."

As Jay's protégé's album dropped this week (and leaked much earlier on the web), Jay himself was revealing what he'd long had in store for the publishing world: a game-changing marketing plan for his autobiography, Decoded, itself a groundbreaking book.

Beyond a mere collection of stories--which many readers would find plenty tantalizing--Decoded is also a rap Rosetta Stone. Listeners can literally decode Jay's lyrics on 11 studio albums to unlock new details about the 40-year-old's personal history. The marketing for the book took the idea further, mashing up old-school billboard advertising, new-school social media, mobile apps, and more for an interactive game that let players unlock pages of the book and enter to win concert tickets and memorabilia. Jay's corporate partners, meanwhile, scored a fortune in buzz.

Read the Full Essay @ Fast Company

Jay Z & Michael Eric Dyson Rock the Bourgeois and the Boulevard

Jay Z Goes 'Fresh Air'

from NPR

The Fresh Air Interview: Jay-Z 'Decoded'

Decoded: Jay-Z in Conversation with Cornel West

Pretty Amazing Conversation--Jay Z and Cornel West at the New York Public Library