Hip-hop conference returns to Cal U
The annual Hip-Hop Conference will return to California University of Pennsylvania to explore and discuss the criminal justice system, film, campus safety and will feature a hip-hop cultural expert and the hip-hop pioneer group, Mobb Deep.
Cal U Professor Dr. Kelton Edmonds conceived the idea of the conference when he was a Frederick Douglass Institute visiting scholar and used his fascination with hip-hop music for his research presentation.
The first conference was just a two-hour-long panel, but Edmonds said it has grown to be as long as three days for some years.
In its eleventh year, the event will be two days, April 21 and 22.
“It’s the longest running-and some say the best-hip-hop symposium in the eastern region of the country,” Edmonds said.
The headliners for this year’s conference will be Mobb Deep, which is considered to be a pioneer of “reality rap” that portrays life in the inner city as the group originally hails from Queens, N.Y.
Mobb Deep members Havoc and Prodigy will join Dr. Zoe Spencer, an associate professor at Virginia State University for “Hip-hop and the Prison Industrial Complex” at 5 p.m., April 21 in Morgan Hall Auditorium.
Spencer teaches sociology, social work and criminal justice. She is the author of “Murda’, Misogyny, and Mayhem: Hip-Hop and the Culture of Abnormality in the Urban Community” and teaches sociology, social work and criminal justice.
Edmonds has participated on panels with Spencer in the past and said she is just one of the many fresh and new scholars the Cal U Hip-Hop Conference has attracted over the years.
“She’s a phenomenal scholar and speaker and will electrify the audience when she gets there,” Edmonds said.
Edmonds said “Hip-Hop and the Prison Industrial Complex” will be an external critique of the prison system and internal critique of what ways the hip-hop culture has influenced the prison system with the disproportionate number of black men who are incarcerated.
Also for this year’s event, organizers scheduled such topics like the criminal justice system, college campus safety and a critique and discussion of the feature films, “Chi-Raq” and “Straight Outta Compton” with the Black Student Union.
The 2015 film “Chi-Raq” was directed by Spike Lee and centers around the violence on the South Side of Chicago, and the 2015 “Straight Outta Compton” is directed by F. Gary Gray and shows the story of the hip-hop group N.W.A.
Discussion of the two films with both students and scholars will be from 2-4 p.m. April 22. Edmonds said the two films will not be screened, so those attending the discussion would be best suited to see the films ahead of time.
A panel moderated by Anika Tillery, a 2006 graduate of Cal U who is a director of social work in Brooklyn, N.Y., will discuss “Sexual, Emotional and Physical Abuse on Campuses and Beyond” at noon, April 22.
Edmonds said he’s happy to be in the eleventh year of the conference and loves the participation from the students and scholars and is happy with the support from the students, the community and the university.
“The administration at Cal U has been extremely supportive since day one,” Edmonds said. “
Events at the Hip-hop Conference are free and open to the public. Parking is available in the Vulcan Garage, off Third Street, near the campus entrance.