Howard University
Graduate School, in conjunction with the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center and
several grad student organizations, will host the Inaugural Hip-Hop and Higher
Education Symposium on March 30.
The event aims
to fuse Hip-Hop into the curriculum of Howard undergraduate and graduate programs.
Panelists for
the symposium include Lil’ Mo, BET Style host Melyssa Ford and video
director X, who will discuss various topics that are important to the Hip-Hop generation.
The panel will
be followed by "I Declare War: Emcee Battle" and an after-party.
"Hip-Hop
is one of the main voices and cultural lifestyle bases for many of today’s black
children, adolescents, and young adults," says Howard Ph.D. student Joshua
Kondwani Wright, who serves as chair of the symposium. "Hip-Hop has increasing
political, economic, spiritual and cultural influences on youth. Unfortunately,
it is currently receiving more attention for its association with violence,
materialism and misogyny."
If the symposium
is successful, Hip-Hop could be integrated into Howard’s studies, which would
make the school one of the first Historically Black Colleges and Universities
to add Hip-Hop courses to their educational requirements.
Harvard University,
University of California at Berkeley, Stanford University, and the University
of Pennsylvania all have classes devoted to Hip-Hop culture and education, according
to Wright.
"Hip-Hop
courses have a place in higher education and would warrant critical analysis
at Howard University just as it is being analyzed at other institutions,"
says Wright.
If added, courses
would range from broader discussions of Hip-Hop the culture to deeper issues
in the Hip-Hop community, as discussed in rap.
The Hip-Hop and
Higher Education Symposium will take place at Howard’s Blackburn Center and
Cramton Auditorium from 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. For more information, visit http://www.gs.howard.edu/hiphop/default.htm.
