Show & Prove Hip Hop Conference Schedule
**Supported by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities and the NYU Humanities Initiative**
Saturday, September 18
8:00-10:00 am
Registration(721 Broadway, Lobby; Room 611 afterward)
8:45-9:15 am
Opening Remarks, Acknowledgments, Conference Goals (Room 612)
By Dr. Imani Kai Johnson
9:15-9:30 am
Artist’s Introductions to Photographic Exhibits(Room 612)
Featuring work by Amanda Adams-Louis & Victor Chiu.
9:30-11:10 am
Public Visibility: Gender, Sexuality, & Race (Room 612)
This panel explores the ways that Hip Hop has been used by some to foster an accepted public life and by others to shift the boundaries of the private sphere.
Jasmine Elizabeth Johnson, “What the Balance Held: Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu’s Negotiation of Black Motherhood in the Public Sphere”
Demetrius Noble, “Culinary Occupation: Hip Hop & the Transgendered Kitchen”
Laurica Brown, “Incite to Rhyme: Lesbian Hip Hop Artists in the San Francisco/Bay Area”
Dr. Kathryn Trevenen “Queering the Beat: From Homohop to Human Rights”
Respondent: Dr. Celiany Rivera-Velázquez and Dr. Aisha Durham
Methodology, Pedagogy, & Educational Practice(Michelson Theater)
Papers examine the academic possibilities in education, methodology, and pedagogy, from high school to grad school.
MiRi Park, “Using Academic Oral History Methodology in Hip Hop Scholarship”
Jen Johnson, “Hip Hop in Competitive Academic Policy Debate – Cultural Resistance, Code-Switching, and Speaking Truth to Power, From the Streets to the Academy”
M.C. K~Swift, “Hip Hop Contains Pedagogy”
Dr. Johan Söderman, “Academic rap! Strategies towards incorporating the hip-hop culture at the university”
Respondent: Dru Ryan
11:10-11:15 am
Coffee Break
11:15 am-12:45 pm
Aesthetic Dimensions of Hip Hop (Michelson Theater)
Papers analyze rap, graffiti, popping, and performative identities, exploring the varied qualities of Hip Hop’s aesthetic dimensions.
Joshua Bennett, “I Love it When You Call Me Big (Poppa)”
Jens Althoff, “The Influence of Blaxploitation on Hip Hop Music”
Jessica N. Pabón, “Aesthetic Liaisons: Feminism and Masculinity in Graffiti Art”
Naomi Elizabeth Bragin, “Popping and Other Dis/Appearing Acts”
Respondent: Dr. Jenny Stoever-Ackerman
Engaging Hip Hop’s Global Context (Room 612)
Community discussion about the challenges of Hip Hop research that substantively engages its globality. We open with a short film that engages Hip Hop's role as a global cultural form.
Facilitator: Martha Diaz
12:45-2:00 pm
Lunch will be provided.
2:00-3:00 pm
Roundtable Discussion Topic: “The Tensions, Contradictions, & Possibilities of Hip Hop Studies” (Michelson Theater)
A discussion on being uniquely situated between the Academy and various Hip Hop communities from a panel of scholars, students, and scholar-practitioners.
Shanté Smalls—Doctoral Candidate in NYU's Performance Studies Department; also known as MC Paradigm
Dr. David Kirkland—Assistant Professor of English Education at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, & Human Development
Eden Jefferies—an undergraduate at NYU’s Gallatin with a concentration entitled “Dismantling Systems of Oppression Through Art and Community Development”
Moncell “Ill Kosby” Durden—Locker, filmmaker, and dance historian, Durden is also about to begin a MA program in Dance Anthropology at Roehampton University in London in the Fall of 2010.
Discussion Facilitator: Marcella Runell Hall
3:00-3:10 pm
Coffee Break
3:10-4:30 pm
Performance, Embodiment, & Meaning (Michelson Theater)
Panelists explore performance’s capacity to communicate and shape cultural meaning and racial identity. Short solo performances follow.
Dr. Nicole Hodges Persley, “People in Me: Sarah Jones and Danny Hoch’s Sampling and Remixing Narratives of a Polycultural American Dream”
d. Sabela grimes, Untitled
Respondent: Shanté Smalls
Cultural Identity & Islam (Room 612)
Presenters explore the role of Hip Hop in the lives of Arab American, Puerto Rican, and African American Muslims.
Suad Abdul Khabeer, “Holding onto Hip Hop: How to Study Hip Hop in Everyday Life”
Omar Ramadan-Santiago, “Translating Insha’Allah to Ojala: Expressing Puerto Rican Muslim Identities Through Hip Hop Art and Culture”
Maytha Alhassen, “The Modern Remix of the Tawhid of Trinity: Black-Arab Muslim Hip Hop in the US”
Respondent: Zaheer Ali
4:30-4:35 pm
Coffee Break
4:35-6:00 pm
Claiming Hip Hop Through Its Elements (Room 613)
Issues of authenticity, race, credit, and belonging are explored in these examinations of Hip Hop’s elements.
Crystal McKinnon, “Fighting to Fight Again: Contemporary Indigenous Hip Hop resisting Australian settler colonialism”
Sarah, Jamal, “Consciousness the New (B)lack? Unpacking Mainstream Music Trends’ Use Of Resistance Discourse”
Dr. Antonio T. Tiongson Jr., “Claiming Hip Hop: Authenticity Debates, Filipino DJs, and Contemporary U.S. Racial Formations”
Respondent: Dr. Joseph Schloss
Engaging Untapped Resources: Oral Histories and New Perspectives on Hip Hop (Michelson Theater)
This session features oral histories of two respected Hip Hop community members, known locally or internationally. They will discuss their youths in Hip Hop, opinions on scholarship, commercialism, Hip Hop as a culture, & more.
Mariette “Peaches” Rodriguez—stand up comedienne and early popper, who came from Connecticut and became one of only a handful of women poppers in New York City in the early 1980s to actively participate in the early commercial life of Hip Hop dance.
Ernie Paniccioli—renowned photographer and visual artist, whose work Who Shot Ya? is just one among 10 available books from this prolific artist whose archive of Hip Hop dates back 35 years.
Discussion Facilitator: Michael Premo
6:00-6:05 pm
Coffee Break
6:05-7:25 pm
Closing Plenary: “The Tensions Between Hip Hop and the Academy” (Michelson Theater)
This panel explores various experiences with academia (past and present) of our esteemed panelists, giving voice to their concerns through an exchange with scholars. The goal is for an open and frank discussion that signals the possibilities of Hip Hop Studies beyond notions of Ivory Tower exploitation.
Michael Holman—a screenwriter/director and Hip Hop pioneer based in New York City, best known as the screenwriter of the film "Basquiat" (dir. by Julian Schnabel), host of the short-lived hip hop music program Graffiti Rock, and a founding member (along with Jean-Michel Basquiat) of the experimental rock band Gray.
Jorge “Popmaster Fabel” Pabon—Senior Vice President of the Rock Steady Crew, Fabel is a renowned Hip Hop dancer, choreographer, historian, respected activist, and spokesman within Hip Hop culture. Fabel is co-founder of GhettOriginal Productions, Inc. and is currently an Adjunct Instructor of Dance at NYU.
Carlos “Mare 139” Rodriguez—is an internationally acclaimed artist, sculptor and media artist. He has consistently brought innovation to the graffiti’s aesthetic and vocabulary. Mare’s sculptures are highly regarded and exhibited worldwide. He also lectures and writes about the evolution and history of urban art in New York City.
Dr. Kersha Smith—received her doctorate in Social/Personality Psychology from The Graduate Center of The City University of New York (CUNY), presently holding a position as Assistant Campus Director, at the College of New Rochelle School of New Resources, Brooklyn Campus.
Discussion Facilitator: Dr. Juan Flores
7:25-9:00 pm
Reception, & Performances (Room 612)
Open wine bar
Sunday, September 19
12:00-6:00 pm
Show & Prove Film Showcase will feature short documentaries and trailers that demonstrate how Hip-Hop is being used for research, and as an educational and organizing tool around the world.
Curated by Martha Diaz, Director of the Hip-Hop Education Center.
10:00 am-2:00 pm
Closed Writing Workshop (Room 613)
*Co-Sponsors include the Performance Studies Department of NYU, the Center for Multicultural Education and Programs, the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, the Hip Hop Theater Festival, the Office of LGBT Student Services, the Hip-Hop Education Center for Research, Training, and Evaluation, and the Office for International Students and Scholars