No need to be quiet in the library Thursday.
The College of William & Mary’s Swem Library will host the second annual Hip Hop Celebration, which will feature performances, a panel discussion and display of hip hop artifacts.
The event celebrates the William & Mary Hip Hop collection, a project dedicated to Virginia’s hip hop culture and history. It includes oral histories, music recordings, publications and materials created by Virginia and Virginia-based artists groups and businesses. The collection also documents the origins and effect of hip hop culture on college campuses across the state.
Free and open to the public, the celebration will run from 1 to 7 p.m.
Music starts at 1:30 p.m. with outdoor performances by J’sar, Intalek, the Virginia Grind Family and William & Mary graduate Jerome Waller ’13, who is also known as J.B. da Pilot. Later in the afternoon, local DJs will be spinning records while the student dance group S.M.I.L.E.S. Crew performs in the library’s Botetourt Gallery.
Watch art unfold on the Special Collections patio, where a Virginia artist will be creating a mural in the early afternoon. From 4 to 5 p.m., guests can visit Special Collections to get a look at the materials in the hip hop collection.
A reception will be held at 4:15 p.m. followed by a panel discussion on “Neglected Communities, the Grey Economy and Cultural Creation.”
The panel will feature Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, professor of black popular culture at Duke University. Neal has written and lectured extensively on black popular culture, black masculinity, sexism and homophobia in black communities, and the history of popular music. He is also a frequent commentator for National Public Radio.
Also on the panel will be: Mustafa Malik Shabazz, the local creator of an online 24-hour hip hop radio sation; Rashid Shabazz, media and communications specialist currently working for the Campaign for Black Male Achievement; Zulu Queen MC Lisa Lee, one of the pioneering women MCs of hip hop; and Quinelle Holder, digital content manager for a hip hop website and media personality.
Click here for more information on speakers and musicians and a full schedule of Thursday’s events.
The Hip Hop Celebration is sponsored Swem Library, Alma Mater Productions and the American Studies Program.
