Tuesday, Nov 11, 2014
A full day of presentations, workshops, and panel discussions by hip-hop scholars and practitioners.
by Natasha Fuller
On Thursday, November 20, Rider University will be twerking and rapping with an all-day long Hip Hop conference on campus. Professors, Hip Hop artists and students will all come together to create, learn, appreciate and talk about the culture of Hip Hop.
Rider University professors Mickey Hess, Justin Burton, and Brea Heidelberg each teach classes that feature Hip Hop subject matter. They’ve been working together to coordinate this conference for the past year and are excited to bring a more diverse Hip Hop influence to Rider.
Dr. Burton says, “We want an academic Hip Hop presence on campus. So, the idea is to get thinking about Hip Hop and doing Hip Hop in one space and to talk about it.”
The conference, which will begin at 9 a.m. in Sweigart Auditorium, will focus on the musical aspect of the Hip Hop culture (deejaying and rapping). Professors Kyra Gaunt from Baruch College, Travis Gosa from Cornell University, and Barbara Franz from Rider University will present their Hip Hop influenced ideas at the conference. Philadelphia Rap artist Traum Diggs will hold a Hip Hop Writing Workshop in which he will use his Journalism major and rap background to teach and inspire all who attend. New Jersey Rapper Rah Digga who was a long-time member of the Flipmode Squad, founded by Busta Rymes, will also be a guest at the conference.
Hip Hop is a diverse culture that can offer insight and enhance various aspects of education. Hess says, “As an English professor I’ve looked at the lyrics as far as rhyme structures, rhythms, and poetic devices. I’ve looked at it in terms of rags-to-riches stories and self-made-man stories. But you know, somebody from the Philosophy department or somebody from the Psychology department is going to have their own take on it. It’s interesting you can come at it from any perspective and you’ve got something to say.”
Dr. Burton and Dr. Hess expect the roundtable talk and the concluding concert to be the highlights of the conference. The roundtable talk will give conference attendees and guest speakers a chance to discuss the impacts of Hip Hop in a casual setting. The final concert, which is only open to Rider University students with a valid ID, will feature Traum Diggs and Rah Digga, and it will be held in the Bart Luedeke Center Theater.
Dr. Hess says, “I’ve brought in a few other rappers over the years. I try to do one every semester, but I wanted to do an all-day event with a concert at the end of it to showcase what we’re doing. It would make no sense to spend a semester studying and never see live Hip-Hop. ”
“The content will be good because we’ve got good people coming in. But content aside, I just like the idea of all of these people in the same space creating a certain energy or excitement around the study of Hip Hop,” says Dr. Burton.
The conference will be Thursday, November 20 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., followed by the concert. For more information visit www.rider.edu/hiphop or contact Mickey Hess at [email protected].