Circling Our Wagons Conference: Stories and Histories of Hip Hop April 16-19, 2015

full name / name of organization: 
Albany State University Department of English, Modern Languages, and Mass Communication.

Call for Papers for Albany State University Department of English, Modern Languages
and Mass Communication.
Circling Our Wagons Conference: Stories and Histories of Hip Hop
April 16-19, 2015
Rap music is a black cultural expression that prioritizes black voices from the margins of urban America. Rap music is a form of rhymed storytelling accompanied by highly rhythmic, electronically based music. It began in the mid-1970s in the South Bronx in New York City as a part of hip hop, an African-American and Afro-Caribbean youth culture composed of graffiti, breakdancing, and rap music. From the outset, rap music has articulated the pleasures and problems of urban black life in contemporary America.
--- Tricia Rose, Black Noise
The Hip Hop arts movement has left its mark on theatre, poetry, literature, journalism, criticism, performance art, dance, visual art, photography, graphic design, film, video, name your genre, not to mention the recombinant and emerging versions of any and all of the above. I've said this elsewhere, but it's worth repeating: hip-hop is one of the big ideas of this generation, a grand expression of our collective creative powers.
---Jeff Chang , The Art and Aesthetics of Hip Hop

Both Tricia Rose's and Jeff Chang's insights on Hip Hop's and Rap's Storytelling/Histories speak to the complex evolution of the musicality of the genre as well as the versatile utility of Hip Hop's core elements. DJs, Emcees, B-Boy/B-Girls, and Graffiti artists have crafted a body of work that tells the stories and histories of three decades of insightful Americans. These stories and histories are meant to be passed on—even as the Hip Hop Empire continues to evolve.
This conference seeks essays/papers that relate to any aspect of Stories and Histories of Hip-Hop or Hip Hop studies and pedagogy. Subjects may include, but are not limited to: literature, demographics, history, politics, economics, education, health care, fine arts, religion, social sciences, and business. Each presenter will have 15-20 minutes for paper presentations or 45-minutes for round-table discussion on targeted issues or topics. Other formats (i.e., ethnodrama, performance, poetry, autoethnography, and fiction) are welcome as well. We are also seeking regional and local talent to perform on the final night of the conference. Please include your name, and your institutional-affiliated contact information, including email address and phone number. Dr. Mark Anthony Neale and Joan Morgan are two of our keynote speakers for this year. Please view our website for other conference information: http://circlingourwagons.wix.com/hip-hop-conference . Send 200-300 word abstract for papers, round tables, and other formats to andre.johnson@asurams.edu by December 21, 2014.