Moderator: Jeff Chang
Jeff Chang is the editor of the new book, Total Chaos: The Art & Aesthetics of Hip-Hop (Basic Civitas), and the author of the award-winning Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation (Picador/St. Martin’s Press). He was a co-founder of ColorLines Magazine and SoleSides Records, now Quannum Projects.
Websites: www.totalchaoshiphop.com, www.cantstopwontstop.com
Panelists:
Toni Blackman is a rap lyricist, vocalist, actress, writer, and the first ever U.S. Hip Hop Ambassador, assigned by the U.S. Department of State. She is the founder and director of the Freestyle Union which is a New York based organization for hip hop artists and rappers. Blackman has served as a King-Chavez-Parks Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan, hasreceived a Washington Area Music Award and an invitation to the White House Millennium Celebration with Bill and Hillary Clinton. Blackman was listed in ESSENCE Magazine’s 2000 listing of 30 Women to Watch, and has been featured in the NY Times, SAVOY and Newsweek Japan. Blackman’s first book "Inner-Course" (Villard/Random House) was released late 2003.
Website: www.toniblackman.com/
Juba Kalamka is a rapper, producer, curator, and speaker. He is the
founder of Sugartruck Recordings,director of PeaceOUT World Homohop Festival and a founding member of Deep Dickollective (D/DC). D/DC’s
fifth release "On Some Other" and his second solo CD "Ooogabooga Under
Fascism" will be released in fall 2007.
Website: www.jubakalamka.com
Jorge POPMASTER FABEL Pabon was born and raised in Spanish Harlem, NYC where, at an early age, he developed his dance and choreography career at Hip Hop jams and clubs throughout the city. Fabel is Senior Vice President of the Rock Steady Crew and also co-founder of GhettOriginal Productions, Inc. With GhettOriginal, Fabel co-authored, co-directed, and co-choreographed the first two Hip Hop musicals ever, "So! What Happens Now?" and "Jam on the Groove" (first official Off-Broadway Hip Hop musical). Fabel gives lectures, demonstrations, master classes, and participates in outreach programs and conferences internationally. He is a pioneer, historian of and activist within Hip Hop culture.
Website: www.myspace.com/toolsofwar
Vijay Prashad is the director of international studies at Trinity College, a leading thinker around questions of polyculturalism, and the award-winning author of:
Myth of Cultural Purity, The Karma of Brown Folk, and Fat Cats and Running Dogs
The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World
