From workshops on breakdancing and graffiti art to panel discussions about hip-hop and higher education, organizers of the Midwest Hip Hop Summit seek to use this cultural medium as learning tool.
The Hip Hop Congress will host its 5th annual Midwest summit, “It’s Our Time: Completing the Cypher of the Hip Hop Generation,” as part of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium.
The summit, scheduled Feb. 6-7, is sponsored by the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs (MESA). It is the second year the summit has been hosted at U-M.
“The summit is a forum in which students of all sorts of intersecting identities participate because of the broad cross-section of interest that exists on campus and beyond,” says Amer Ahmed, summit organizer and associate director of MESA.
Organizers expect the event to draw at least 800 people from Michigan and as far as California and New York.
A hip-hop concert at 8 p.m. Feb. 6 at the Michigan Union Ballroom will feature artists Little Brother, K’naan, OneBeLo and Invincible. Tickets are $25 at TicketMaster.com or $20 for U-M students through the Michigan Union Ticket Office. Events on Feb. 7 are free.
Although hip-hop culture is an intercultural phenomenon, the University also seeks to remind participants of the root behind the cultures they engage, Ahmed says.
“Too often in popular culture, participants lack the context behind what they engage in,” he says. “Highlighting the foundations of hip-hop as related to black culture (and the circumstances of the South Bronx from which it emerged) allows us to discuss numerous socio-economic, political and cultural issues from which hip-hop has emerged.”
Many of these issues are addressed in summit workshops and panel discussions on prominent domestic and world issues related to hip-hop such as race, gender, sexual orientation, spirituality and globalization. Additional element workshops will be offered in DJ mixing, MC’ing, breakdancing and graffiti art.
One presentation will focus on higher education and hip-hop, and how the music form increasingly is used as a tool to engage students and as a subject of study.
The summit is designed to highlight for participants how their interest in hip-hop can be integrated into a life committed to social justice.
“Hip-hop as a global phenomenon is engaging in these efforts in numerous cultural contexts and can serve as a bridge between cultures around the world,” Ahmed says. “Meeting people who are doing the work helps make all of these things real for our students who participate. I view the Summit as an on-campus experiential learning opportunity.”
