Hip-hop scholars explain the importance of the genre to education
To celebrate 50 years of hip-hop, the College of Education at East Carolina University invited three hip-hop artists and scholars to talk about the importance of the genre to the field of education.
“Today we embark on a journey that echoes the profound words of J. Cole in his introspective anthem, ‘Apparently:’ ‘I keep my head high, I got my wings to carry me. I want my dreams to rescue me,’” said Dr. Janeé Avent Harris, assistant dean of community engagement and wellness. “These powerful lyrics encapsulate the essence of our event, reminding us that through the power of hip-hop in education, we can elevate our minds, soar towards our dreams and find the freedom to shape our own destinies.”
The three scholars invited to speak on how hip-hop has impacted society and education were Dr. Dawn N. Hicks Tafari, Dr. Kafi Kumasi, and Akua Naru.
Tafari is an associate professor at Winston-Salem State University who also serves as an educational consultant for Guilford County Schools and the interim coordinator for the birth-kindergarten education program in the Department of Education. Her research focuses include Black feminist thought, Black male educators, critical pedagogy, critical race theory, hip-hop feminism, and narrative research. Recently Tafari published “The Journey of Kamau Miller: Hip Hop Composite Stories for Black Men Teachers,” which she talked about during the event.
One of the topics that Tafari discussed was how concepts that have been researched in academia were being addresses by hip-hop artists years prior.
“Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron coined the term cultural capital around 1977,” she said. “It wasn’t until 1985 and then again in 1996 that they started to develop that concept further and explain how culture impacts education and how social mobility impacts how students achieve a higher form of social status in this country. Special Ed was talking about all of that in 1989.”
Kumasi is a professor in the School of Information Sciences at Wayne State University and has research interests including school library media, urban libraries and education, multicultural education and social and cultural approaches to adolescent literacy development. Recently Kumasi completed a three-year federal grant aimed at incorporating the values of hip-hop into education in the library setting.
Through her research, Kumasi has compared hip-hop to an amoeba due to its ability to permeate diverse information worlds and can reshape what constitutes normative behaviors. She also reflected on a memorable text that influenced and shaped her identity, “The Coldest Winter Ever,” written by Sister Souljah.
“I was in college by then and I’m not ashamed to say that was the first text that I really read cover to cover outside of class,” she said. “What does that say about our schools and our education that I’m 20 years old before I read a full length novel? I’m a school librarian now, and books and literacy and literature are all around me but again, it kind of puts you back against the traditional notion of what is literary.”
Naru is a hip-hop MC, rapper and poet who was a Nasir Jones Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University and a practitioner fellow in arts and expressive culture and Race and Media fellow, artist and expressive culture at Brown University.
To start, Naru shared a video of her performance with Drea d’Nur, “Walking the Block.”
“I think of myself as a storyteller and a romantic lyricist in the hip-hop tradition, because it is a tradition,” she said.
The three scholar artists ended the event in a panel discussion, moderated by Dr. Ben Blaisdell, an assistant professor in foundations in the ECU College of Education. While Blaisdell had some questions ready for each scholar, the audience was also able to participate and ask questions. Faculty, staff and students from ECU attended as well as educators and other community members from the Greenville-Pitt County area.