2012 Hiphop Literacies Conference: The Globalization of Black Popular Culture conference is designed to bring together scholars, educators, artists, students, and community members to explore Hiphop. The conference takes place May 9th-11th, 2012.
Hiphop and Black popular culture are central to global youth culture. An artistic, social, and cultural movement, it is diverse and reflects the local histories, cultures and concerns of its worldwide practitioners, while adhering to Hiphop's ideological and aesthetic imperatives. Global Hiphop has emerged from the "collision and collusion between two powerful globally pervasive forces; transnational media and capital and African American popular culture that remains steeped in Africanist expressive modes." Hiphop is a powerful force, a "lingua franca for popular and political youth culture around the world." Its cultural codes, such as coming from something to nothing, being authentic, leaving one's mark on the world, having aspirations, having self-confidence, being relevant, and most of all being cool, are drawn upon to sell brands and have been used to "[re-write] the rules of the new economy." Brand marketing extraordinaire Steve Stoute has termed this global tanning, a state of mind, an attitude, a mental complexion. What tanning promotes both here and abroad all tangled up in Black popular culture is the "American dream," a myth that has helped to promote individualism, civic abandonment, inequality and maintenance of the status quo that has been assailed by Black political activists and other progressives for generations.
A major goal of "Hiphop Literacies" is to promote interdisciplinary research, teaching, and outreach around Hiphop, to stimulate ongoing dialogue and outreach across various disciplines in the academy and in the community. In addition to scheduled talks and workshops by renowned Hiphop scholars, artists and educators, the conference will host presentations and performances by scholars, students and community members. The conference will also feature a lecture and headline performance by MC Lyte.
Schedule of Events back to top
Day One
| 9 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. | Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, Professor of Black Popular Culture and African American Studies Keynote & Town Hall (Wexner Film and TV Theater) |
| 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. | Lunch (on own) |
| 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. | Hiphop and the Caribbean Diaspora (Ramseyer 166) Brazil and Japan (Arps 243) |
| 2:30 - 4:00 p.m. | Hiphop Practitioners (Arps 177) |
| 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. | Panel: Hawaii (Ramseyer 100) Panel: Zimbabwe, Egypt and Kenya (Ramseyer 166) |
| 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. | Break for Dinner (on own) |
| 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. | Hiphop Art for the People: (Evans Lab 1008) Speech is My Hammer: Hip Hop Art and the Reconstruction of African-‐Centered Cultural Semiosis, Dr. Samuel Livingston DJing for the People, J. Rawls |
Day Two
| 9 - 10:15 a.m. | Dr. Marcyliena Morgan, Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard University, Executive Director of the Hiphop Archive Keynote and Q&A (Wexner Film and TV Theater) |
| 10:30 - 12:00 p.m. | Featured Roundtable "Race, Theory and Gender in Hiphop's Global Future" (Wexner Film and TV Theater) Drs. Treva Lindsey, James Braxton Peterson, Scott Heath and Ms. Regina Bradley |
| 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. | Lunch (on own) |
| 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. | Linguistics and Literacies (Arps 002) Hiphop and Urban Education (Arps 200, Martha King Center) |
| 2:30 - 4:00 p.m. | Hiphop Pedagogies: Visual, Community and Youth Literacies (Arps 002) |
| 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. | Local Schools Panel/Community Town Hall (Wexner Film and TV Theater) |
| 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. | Break for Dinner/Reception for Educators, Students and Community Members (University Hall 014) |
| 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. | Workshop for Educators (University Hall 014) Daniel Gray-Kontar Group and Yvonne Gilmore of Cornel West Theory |
Day Three
| 9 - 10:15 a.m. | Dr. Ronald L. Jackson III, Professor, African American Studies, Media and Cinema Studies Featured Workshop "Representations of Global Masculinity and Black Malehood" (Wexner Film and TV Theater) |
| 10:30 - 12:00 p.m. | Sexualities and Feminisms (Ramseyer 200, Martha King Center) Roundtable Social Movements and Socially Conscious Songs (Arps 386) |
| 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. | Lunch (on own) |
| 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. | Diasporic Experiences and Global Masculinities (Arps 002) Cosmopolitanism, Exile, and Social Movement (Arps 012) |
| 2:30 - 4:00 p.m. | MC Lyte Keynote & Q&A (Wexner Film and TV Theater) |
| 4:14 - 5:15 p.m. | Reception and Poster Session (Ramseyer College Commons) |
| 7:00 - 10:00 p.m. | Concert featuring Special Hit Medley Performance by MC Lyte and Local Artists (Hitchcock Hall 131) |
