F241. Uncovering Hip Hop Poetry

Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3
Friday, February 28, 2014
3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

 

Since Kool Herc put his two turntables together in the South Bronx back in 1973, Hip Hop has evolved into an international phenomenon. As with the Black Arts Movement and the Harlem Renaissance, Hip Hop is a multi-disciplinary artistic enterprise. Yet the poetics of Hip Hop have not received the same attention as other aspects of the art-form. Five poets will discuss Hip Hop poetics, exploring form, aesthetics, messaging, and Hip Hop’s position in the literary poetic conversation.


Participants

Moderator:

Pamela L. Taylor is a data guru by day and a poet by night. She has a doctorate in Psychology from UCLA, an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and she is a Cave Canem Fellow. As part of Living Poetry, she organizes and promotes poetry events in the Triangle area of North Carolina .

Victorio Reyes is currently an MFA student at VCFA. She was featured in the anthology of emerging writers: Chorus, edited by Saul Williams. He was also a member of Broadcast Live whose most recent release, Boomerang Metropolis, reached #25 on the CMJ Hip Hop Charts.

Adrian Matejka is the author of The Devil’s Garden, Mixology, which was a winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series, and The Big Smoke. He teaches creative writing and English literature at Indiana University Bloomington.

Roger Reeves, awarded a 2013 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, has poems in or forthcoming in Poetry, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, Boston Review, and Tin House. His first book, King Me, is forthcoming.

Tara Betts is a PhD candidate at SUNY Binghamton. She is the author of one full-length poetry collection and the libretto "The Greatest!: An Homage to Muhammad Ali." Her work appears in numerous anthologies and journals.

#AWP24

February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center