Welcome!

We invite you to join us in our Institute, which begins in the Harlem Renaissance and ends with Hip-hop! Through course lectures, readings, seminar discussions, and trips to important artistic, literary, and cultural sites in New York City, our Institute will create a deeply engaging study of the historical and cultural contexts that shaped and continue to impact societal and racial dynamics. By using a variety of media, including primary and secondary readings, scholarly lectures, seminar discussions, and trips to important historical, cultural, and literary sites in New York City, Institute participants will leave with a deeper understanding of this important time period, particularly the relationship of history, literature and song in shaping culture, as well as how this knowledge can be shared with their students. Given the current tensions in our country, this topic is both underrepresented and needed. By centering the cultural content on literature and song, we access the complex historical context through content that is familiar. Through contextualization, we will explore the extraordinary artistic and historical connections and synergies that gave rise to moments of cultural apotheosis that helped to define our national culture.

In addition to musical study, hip-hop requires literary and historical analysis in order to better place it in the rich African-American cultural timeline. We designed this Institute not only to examine the individual streams of music, literature and history, but also, and more importantly, the powerful confluence of these three fields and their role in creating an American identity. Further, we will reflect upon how popular culture, in particular, has fueled social movements, and how social movements, in turn, have shaped popular culture.