Taking so much powers because theyre scared. We know this and they dont know what to do about it. When you do not know what to do about it you do what you can do most easily invest. These are people who run these comments to the corporations, so what theyre doing is trying to do what they do best. By digging in harder and harder. Theyre trying to get every bit out there. Its a little bit like Football Players a quarterback is winning a game but he starts handing over the vaulted opposition. He wants to go for 50 points or something. Thats kind of the system we have. When will it change . It will change right away, it is changing but we have to keep sending that message that it is not the number of touchdowns you make, its not the money you make that counts. You and i we all need to send a new message out there. Lets lets face it, we have been sending a message that says, i want good tennis shoes at a reasonable price and if that means it has to be made by slaves in indonesia, i will just look the other way. I want cheap petroleum for my car, that means destroying the amazon rain forest, i will just look the other way. We have sent sent that message. We need to change. We have to send a very, very strong message that we want alike economy. We want corporations to be driven by one goal, and that is to serve us. As well as future generations, to create a life accommodate serves us, our children, our grandchildren, future generations of all species. That is what we are going to insist upon. When we insist upon it strongly enough, when will it happen . Once we insist upon it strongly . Once we insist upon it strongly enough with enough of us really determined, really committed as you are all doing tonight it creates that a world my grandson will look back on when he is my agent 15 years, he will look back and say thank god and you know what, this is so much fun. So i mentioned that when i was an economic hit man i was living a life that i thought was right but i was living off of valium and alcohol. I was miserable. I do not travel first class very often, i travel so much that sometimes that Airline Kicks me up to an empty seat up there because i have a lot to miles. I dont stampers class hotels, stay, stay with friends. Thats even better. And im really happy. This is fun, there is theres nothing more fun than this revolution. I used to say dang, i wish i was born in the 1700 so i could participate in the the American Revolution. This is bigger, much bigger. You know what, if economists have lost the American Revolution it would affected a few people in america, if we lose this revolution, it is going to be the end of human life as we know it. We must win it. It is time to win. We are going to win it. It is the most blessed thing you can possibly do. It is a lot bigger than the American Revolution and it is a lot more comfortable. [laughter] so, are you guys going to win it . Yes. Yes, you bet you are. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. It is wonderful to be here. [applause]. Please stay in your seats, well call by rose and we will go from there. Please buy the book and browse the bookstore. Do not feel feel the need to rush out we are open until 10 00 p. M. [inaudible conversation] you are watching book tv, nonfiction authors and books every weekend on cspan2. Television for serious readers. Starting now, a panel on hiphop and literature from edgars college, host of the 13th National Black writers conference. This panel contains language that some may find offensive. I am now here representing, i am in mc invited here from your college, i will be associate professor in the department of Teacher Education where i have been chair. I have been been charged with talking with educators. The job has to be having teachers even some who love our children to start teaching from the love of our culture, the love of our heritage, for the love of our souls of our children rather than judge them. That is why this particular panel is so important for us. I was in a situation and i am confessing that i thought hiphop this and that, this is in the 80s when i grew up. One of these people in the audience was a hiphop artist. And he said well ms. , i wasnt even, i wasnt smart enough to know what i didnt know. He said im a hiphop artist and he started to tell the story of some of what was in the words, in that messaging of the art form, it awoken awoken me, it awakened me rather and i am still needing to be awake and to the depth of an art form, we will not know all of in a short time but we will get a glimpse of our study must be. Does that make sense . So today our moderator, joe morgan is stuck in traffic and you note new york, so need i say more . So, when she does come a new moderator in her place is a wonderful, phenomenal michael, michael i say this, you say that, michael he will be introducing each of the pants will it panelists and following that introduction and after they speak will be time allotted for question answer. , please give a hand, before it is coded hiphop imac and a spend a lot of time discussing the prominent language of hiphop, this panel will be discussing that. I am honored to be jorma morgan for a little bit, i always wondered what it would feel like. With this exchange and not as fine and brilliant as she is, but is, but we are going to work with what we have. It is a real honor to be here on this panel, these these are all friends of mine. I happen to know some of the smartest people in the world and this is an honor to extend this conversation that we often have offline into this particular situation. Let me introduce people who really need no introduction, to my right bestselling author, awardwinning film maker, a hiphop artist in tenured professor at Morgan State University he can say what you want to say. And still not get fired. It is a school that we know what it do it anyway, he is author of four books and i am holding in my hands here is a memoir, he is serving at the Sundance Film Festival now as a feature film developed for the movie adaptation of this book. Its a brilliant book, a memoir, and you see i have pulled out right here shoot me with this knowledge. He and i, we were in studio and we were spent together. We might freestyle up in here. Im looking at this book it looks like a gun gun and i say is this you son . [laughter] he is a brilliant young man, a brilliant artist, a brilliant writer, and he is presented and performed more than 40 countries and received a key to the city of dallas. You have no doubt seen his film, engaging with kwanzaa. He is a remarkable artist and a man who operates in several different genres simultaneously. Really knocking knocking down these artificial barriers between the digital, expression and articulation of knowledge, the sonic articulation of knowledge, and the literary one. We are we are honored to have him here today. Next to him is doctor morgan. You have heard professor peterson shout out her deconstructing, old dirty master and others in such a way that it is stuck in my way. Method man, so some of the greatest artists ever. She is a professor in the department of african and africanamerican studies and founding director of the hiphop archives in Research Institute at Hutchins Center for african and africanamerican research at harvard university. She earned, thats right, she is at the big age. She. She bring in hiphop to harvard son. [applause]. Yell think you have lyrics, we leave you in hysterics, but she her degree at university of illinois chicago, and ma of linguistics and a phd at the graduate school at the university of pennsylvania. She is a very well regarded authority in linguistics, race, culture, and identity. She is an author of many works in those fields. Her books include the real hiphop, battling for knowledge, power knowledge, power and respect in the underground. She is currently launching projects for the hiphop archive website and harvards low Music Library classic of the most influential hiphop albums. 200, while we are going to have to talk about that. And see whats up on that list. See see what they have up in there. Did future make it . I want to understand what is happening in hiphop culture now with the kind of dissonance, the blooms that is pervasive like drake going to the deeply melodic to the kind of rock him inspired, monotone expression, but i want to find out what that is about. Finally we have doctor james peterson, certainly one of the most brilliant as i said earlier. A younger scholar here in america on literary production. Hes director of African Studies in atlee i university. You see you see him on msnbc thrown it down. Wrestling with these people, taking a switch to vers and beaten him. He is the founder of hiphop scholars and the association of hiphop generational scholars dedicated to research and developing the culture potential of hiphop, urban, and youth cultures. He has also been a journalist, you have read his essays in magazines and in newspapers where he is trying to articulate ideas that are of interest to the broader public. He has written about the underground as we have already indicated. Also, his book book that will be published soon about headphones and his book about the prison industrial complex. A gifted and wonderful scholar, all of them of course are and were going to have wonderful and rich conversation. I want to start with doctor morgan. Some people think that hiphop archive is in oxymoronic statement. In the sense that what is being archive may not be high culture, whats been archived is not worthy of a legacy of literacy that would perpetuate its presence and influence into the next decade and indeed arguably into the next century. Tell us the logic behind one of the most elite if not most prominent centers of learning in the western world, that at the heart of that institution you have marked it in a memorable fashion with the power, insight insight and intelligence of predominantly young, black creators who could never darken those iv walls in terms of test scores but whose lyrics are now studied by the smartest scholars we produced. First of all, thank thank you so much for saying that and putting it that particular way because i think what happens, especially when you start a career, i was listening to james talk about the linguistic conference we are at. Think with sticks is an elite field and i mean theres really nobody there. So you know everybody. Theres just a small segments and section of people. They spend most of their time like this just really studying system. I i am a system kind of person. I really notice when people Say Something and our meaning Something Else and different layers that you need to know to do that. I grew up on the south side of chicago in a very vibrant at blackett community of art and culture and music. So you had to listen, pay attention, all of these things are you are going to miss what was really going on. So the concept of what is going on becomes important. So i grew up automatically thinking we must be the most creative, most intelligent people in the world because we understand our families. They are very complicated, very well educated, often self educated, smartest people in the world. We used to have as kids this category called smartest people in the world. And they were all cousins. So were all cousins. So when you come out of that kind of environment and then you go into institutions, all you can think is oh, they dont know. They dont get it. And at a certain point you begin to think about the power of those institutions to stop you. To hurt you, hurt you, to break you, to challenge you. It is that sort of background that put me in a position when i decided to do linguistics, to be very interested in what we understood about speech, interaction, ideology, philosophies of africanamerican communities, african cultures because all of these were studied by others outside of those contacts. We were taught this is what we know about how we really mean, how we intend and how we communicate. This is the law, these these are the rules on this. When you realize, they dont know, they actually dont know, they, they think they know they dont know. So as you begin to work in that capacity you develop a real sense of, i am not going to be stop by their ignorance, but i also have a responsibility to do the job, do the work, and it is not easy and it is not pretty all the time. If you look back at my career there been some really incredibly rough times. But the key is that when you are around young people especially and they are being incredibly creative, incredibly supportive of each other, it is not like in a classroom where you are dealing with, i Say Something you Say Something back. It can feel chaotic, but it is an incredibly powerful learning environment. My interest became how do we really make sure that keeps happening. We want to keep turning that on, will never let it turn off. Never let anybody take it down. As i began more and more to look at the material people were giving me when talking about it became even more important to me to keep going, irrespective of what people didnt understand. I did not think they hated hiphop or anything like that, everybody in the beginning hated hiphop, everybody did. They just didnt get it. They didnt get it. So, that is how it becomes the archive. And lets call it something they value as a name and make them have to deal with it. Its not like the collection or Something Like that. There was a group of very young people who worked with me on what to call it, how to do it, et cetera to make sure that it kept a sense of really about hiphop and not about my needs in a job or whatever. They are the ones who are like lets call it archive. Let me say one more thing before we have joan take over. Hiphop hiphop kids, especially in the beginning collected everything. You think about this piece books coming think about all of these things that matter, that they saw as being part, they cannot articulate at this point but it was the culture they were building. So you have this material culture and anybody who is an anthropologist knows that you do not throw away material culture. You are like oh, oh, look whats happening. You begin to see the patterns and the beauty and development of it. That is how it became clear to me that it belongs in this world, because its serious, its about us and is something we should take seriously. [applause]. Hello i am joan morgan, i am the panels moderator and grateful to be that. My apologies for being late. If any of you are a student are student of hiphop, this is my home. And its very difficult to get to brooklyn if there is no five train running. I had to huber over here. It took 33 movers in a minute but thats another story. This panel is full of people that i have worked with and if i have not, i admire and hope to work with at some point. Im not even sure where we are,. We just had the first question. Okay. Can i add one piece to the archive. Doctor morgan is being very humble in her discussion of what the archive is and what it means. It is really important to know that folks like doctor morgan, and joan as well, laid out a certain kind of foundation for younger scholars to be able to follow. Its interesting to see how this is developed into the harvard archive over time because at first it was doctor morgan supporting graduate students and i dont even know we can keep count of the number of graduate students that have harvard but to think about how that evolves over time is amazing, so that now the archive it has resources to support artists, to bring in scholars who are nontraditional, to work around certain themes that are important to the hiphop generation into our community. You you have evolved the resources at the archive, i dont know exactly how long its been around for over a decade. You have helped shape and form the careers, for at least by my count, scores of scholars in almost every discipline across the academy. Now even people who we think of being scholars outside of the academy. There is important, professional work important mentorship, important platforming for younger scholars that the archive has done under your leadership [applause]. Theres also now a hiphop archive at cornell. So the idea has had traction and emulation is a good thing. My heart goes out to anybody who ever wants to do that. It really hard to keep that kind of thing going. And i really am so proud of everyone and happy to see that is people keep pushing on this. Could ask a question. Yes. The panel that we are doing some decoding and talking about the links between hiphop and literature. I also wanted to expand it to the idea of hiphop being in the academy as a form of scholarship and making different disciplinary disciplinary inroads but i also want to talk about the relationship to journalism. Size size wondering if you could talk to us about the backandforth between hiphop journalism as a forum and what we see now. Absolutely. I think it is safe to say that early on the relationship between hiphop journalism and hiphop scholarship was really tight. I dont think it is as tight now as it was early on. We were reading, as young folks who were consuming hiphop in that first generation, one of the things that was not marked well enough was how deeply influenced and inspired we were by the young journalists are ready at the time. Hanson, there are so many folks, there were writing across different platforms back in the day when magazines were in popular when people went out but magazines on a regular basis. I cannot tell you how jones writing or how dreams influenced me as a thinker and scholar because what happens in hiphop is there are a lot of discourse communities thats talked about. Theres a lot of people and barbershops, and homes, clubs, who sit, who sit around and talk about hiphop. Theres a lot of folks, a lot of conversations, the rapper, the producer, those conversations i think are amazing and incredible conversations to have. Theres a lot of different hiphop spheres where those conversations occur but what the hiphop journalists were doing very early on, they were engaging in the level of sophisticated discourse that was impressive and inspiring. It was also poetic and beautiful. We gave young folks who are aficionados of the culture, not not artists but people who love the culture a sense of how deep and how far you could go in thinking, talking, talking, and writing about it. I think that made us, it made the partnership between journalists and scholars better. You are ready know this but as im getting older i am really invested in the relationship that were able to build to help folks in the cut academy. Ive worked with everyone on the panel, doctor morgan was on my dissertation. Im writing this dissertation on hiphop and its very traditional english