Dreamscaping: J. Cole’s Dreamville and the Ecologies of Black Masculinity in Hip-Hop

Session Submission Type: Panel

Description for Program

Masculinity often arises as a vexed, amorphous mass of often violent confusion in the context of a White patriarchal society. Black feminists across gender have spent decades trying to understand it and decide how to survive it. Of late, scholarship has turned to the project of redefining masculinity, especially Black masculinities in ways that engender liberation and communal healing. This project is on full display in hip-hop culture. In his founding of Dreamville, both the festival and the recording label, rapper Jermaine “J.” Cole emerges as an engineer of a new enterprise in Black masculine ecologies. His dreaming offers a space for interrogation of Black masculinities and potential for reimagining and envisioning hopeful futures.

Sub Unit

• ASWAD

Chair

• Brandon Manning, Texas Christian University

Individual Presentations

• “Put My City on the Map”: The Restorative Project of J. Cole’s Dreamville - Victoria Washington, Texas Christian University

• “This album is in no way intended to glorify addiction”: Hip-Hop Therapy Through J. Cole’s KOD - Da-Shiva Francois

• Complicated Terrains: Black Masculinity, J. Cole, and Building a Methodology of Softness - Brandon Manning, Texas Christian University

• “I’m Back Outside”: Emerging from Spaces of Recovery to re-Join Community - Victoria Washington, Texas Christian University