A Collection of “Field Notes”

• In Event: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and Teacher Education for the Next 50 Years: Interrogating the Tensions in the Arcs and Trajectories of Hip-Hop

Abstract

The paper is a series of meditations on the current moment, which includes Hip Hop and the state of education, particularly in a time of deepening uncertainty (e.g., climate crisis, perpetual health pandemics, growing right-wing nationalism, erosion of rights to reproductive care, attacks on critical perspectives in K-–20 school spaces, manufacturing legislation to harm LGBTQAI populations, and continued anti-Black state-sanctioned violence via police, etc.). The author refers to them as “field notes” not as a nod to traditional anthropology, but to the language of young people when they remind the author that it’s always “real in the field”. Where some may associate the term “real” with engaging in criminal or nefarious activity, the author understands it was being pushed to understand things differently. As a person who is deeply influenced by Hip Hop and the myriad of its utilities, the authors explicit goal of this chapter is not to offer a diatribe on halcyon days. To the contrary, the author aims to reflect on what they’ve seen and what is still to be seen when considering youth culture, Hip Hop, and educative responsibility to movement building. The paper, while not comprehensive of the culture of Hip Hop, are mere offerings that have shifted with time and are constantly evolving.

Author

• David O. Stovall, University of Illinois at Chicago