Hip Hop Users Guide: Conference at Cornell

Opening of the two-day conference marking Cornell University Library's acquisition of the collection, A panel of speakers featuring Jeff Chang, hip hop historian and award-winning author of Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation opened a two-day conference marking Cornell University Library's acquisition of the collection, "Born in the Bronx: The Legacy and Evolution of Hip Hop."

"This is history, Cornell!" Those words started a panel discussion among an impressive array of hip hop's founders: Roxanne Shante, Popmaster Fabel, Disco Wiz, Pebblee Poo, Tony Tone, Grandwizzard Theodore, Grandmaster Caz and Afrika Bambaataa. They gathered at Cornell's Bailey Hall on Oct. 31, 2008, to talk about their music, defining moments in their lives and the future of hip hop, as well as answer questions from the audience.

Why should we archive hip hop? What gets into an archive, and who controls it? Is there a particular narrative of the genre's history that will be privileged over others? These questions were asked by Travis Gosa, assistant professor in Africana Studies at Williams College, who moderated a panel on the academic and journalistic study of hip hop. Panelists included Johan Kugelberg, collector and author of "Born in the Bronx: A Visual Record of the Early Days of Hip Hop"; Gabriel Mckee, archivist of the Born in the Bronx collection; Vernon C. Mitchell, Jr., Ph.D. candidate in the department of history at Cornell University; Jennifer Stoever-Ackerman, assistant professor of English at SUNY Binghamton.

Mark Anthony Neal, professor of black popular culture at Duke University, lectured and led a discussion during Cornell University Library's hip hop conference on Nov. 1, 2008, in the Alice Statler Auditorium. Neal has written four books about race, gender, music and popular culture. Danielle Heard, Ph.D. candidate in the department of English at Cornell University, introduced Neal and served as moderator.

Tricia Rose, professor of Africana Studies at Brown University, spoke and answered questions about hip hop culture and responsibility in a lecture on Nov. 1, 2008, in the Alice Statler Auditorium. Rose's lecture summarized topics addressed in her book, The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters. Margaret Washington, professor of history at Cornell University, introduced Rose.