“I’m an African”

Black Aesthetics and The Making of a Hip Hop Globe

Sujatha Fernandes
Assistant Professor of Sociology, Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York

Tuesday, September 13, 4:30 PM, Margaret Morrison 103

This talk explores whether the culture of hip hop can forge global alliances between Afro-descendant people. The American culture of hip hop was integrated into the arsenal, repertoire, and landscape of black youth across the globe. But through an exploration of hip hop in four cities, the talk reveals that the global hip hop ‘hood may be more a fantasy than a reality. Hip hop had galvanized the imagination of young people around the world, but it couldn’t erase the differences between them, or the difficulties of translating lives, cultures, and political visions.

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LIVE! ON THE RADIO: CARACAS AND PITTSBURGH 8.30p-10p (Pittsburgh time) - airing on 88.3 WRCT, broadcast live from The Waffle Shop, 124 S. Highland Avenue 8p-9.30p  (Caracas time) - airing live in Caracas, broadcast live from Caracas
 
La Cocina Arepas, the third iteration of Conflict Kitchen, presents a one-time community-based radio show hosted by Sujatha Fernandes in Pittsburgh and grass-roots radio operators in Caracas, Venezuela.
 
Presented in collaboration between Caracas community organizers and local Pittsburgh radio personalities, LIVE! ON THE RADIO will simultaneously air both Pittsburgh and Caracas, highlighting contemporary culture and politics in Venezeula through live hip-hop performances, readings by Venezuelan science fiction writer Israel Centeno, guest of City of Asylum in Pittsburgh, and interviews with Chavista barrio activists in Caracas.
 
The show will be presented in both Spanish and English.