Honoring Trap Epistemologies in History Education: The Case of Atlanta’s Trap Music Museum

• In Event: Critical Histories and Racial Consciousness: Exploring Power, Pedagogy, and Representation in Social Studies Education

Abstract

Through a grounding in trap critical theory, this paper explores how the Trap Music Museum in Atlanta engages in a pedagogical approach to teaching history that illuminates the systematically excluded counter-narratives of individuals experiencing oppression while rejecting anti-Black narratives of respectability that attempt to dictate how individuals make sense of oppressive lived experiences. Specifically, this paper demonstrates how the Trap Music Museum engaged in history education by positioning trap history as a site of counter-storytelling that illuminates the desire for Black survivance, a grounding in sociopolitical awareness, and Black joy.

Author

• Kelly R. Allen, Augusta University