Feminism and Hip Hop Conference: Participant Bios
Moya Bailey
Moya Bailey is a senior at Spelman College, where she is majoring in Comparative
Women’s Studies, is an honors student and a dean’s scholar.
She is active in many campus organizations including the Feminist Majority
Leadership Alliance (FMLA), of which she is president, AUC Peace, Sisterfire
and Afrekete. Her work with the FMLA and the SisterSong conference reflect
her commitment to the reproductive rights and concerns of women of color.
In addition to her activities on the Spelman campus she has served on the
steering committee of the National Alliance for Radical Prison Reform in
the Atlanta metropolitan area. Bailey is also a contributing writer for
Fierce Magazine, PopandPolitics.com and Wiretapmag.org.
She hopes to open a free clinic for women after completing her graduate
education.
Angie Colette Beatty
Angie Colette Beatty is a Black feminist/activist/academic/poet/beatbox
artist who specializes in Black female agency and gangstressism in popular
culture and American culture in general. She is currently a Ph.D. Candidate
in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Michigan.
Her dissertation historicizes female gangsta rappers and introduces a framework
of hip-hop gangstressism. This framework underscores the role of economic
violence, particularly the role of capitalist/racial/patriarchal hegemony,
in intra-female aggression and discusses the effect of Black female agency
as a mitigating factor. She is actively involved with the Progressive Women’s
Caucus, which was born out of a need to directly address issues that affect
women and girls in communities of color during the 2004 National Hip Hop
Political Convention in Newark, NJ.
Dionne Bennett
Dionne Bennett is an Assistant Professor of African American Studies at
Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA where she previously worked
as Visiting Assistant Professor of Women's Studies. She is currently a 2005
fellow at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American
Research at Harvard University. She is also the Culture, Media and Politics
Coordinator for The Hiphop Archive at Stanford University. She holds a Ph.D.
in Anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles and graduated
magna cum laude with a B.A. in Anthropology and Literature from Yale University.
She is the author of Sepia Dreams: A Celebration of Black Achievement
Through Words and Image (St. Martin’s Press, 2001) and co-editor
of Revolutions of the Mind: Cultural Studies in the African Diaspora
Project 1996-2002 (CAAS Publications University of California Los Angeles,
2003). She has been a Ford Foundation Minority Dissertation Fellow, and
a recipient of the UCLA Office of the President's Eugene Cota Robles Fellowship.
As a television writer and segment producer, she has worked for the NAACP
Image Awards, the Essence Awards, the Democratic National Convention (2000),
and the Fox Movie Channel. Dionne Bennett's work focuses on the politics
of African American emotional experience, intimate relationships, and popular
culture with an emphasis on the ritual performance and popular representation
of African American romantic love.
Ruth Nicole Brown
Ruth Nicole Brown grew up in Park Forest, IL and received her B.A. in political
science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She has recently
earned her doctorate at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor as well as
completed a certificate in Women's Studies. Ruth Nicole is passionate about
the stories young people share about the ways in which they define and construct
meanings of community, power, and, politics. Her dissertation work explores
African American girls' political socialization in a context of girl empowerment-mentoring
programming. Hip-Hop and particularly the media images young girls readily
critique, accept, and debate have been issues that have repeatedly emerged
in her ethnographic field work. Moreover, as someone who came of age in
Hip Hop’s second generation, Ruth Nicole’s identification of
Hip Hop with her girl/growhood and understanding of feminisms were reflected
back to her through her work with girls, and is poetically documented in
her academic writing.
Yvonne Bynoe
Yvonne Bynoe is the author of the book Stand and Deliver: Political Activism,
Leadership, and Hip Hop Culture. She is known as an astute cultural critic
and is regarded as a leading voice among a new generation of young Black
thinkers. Bynoe frequently lectures, writes and provides commentary on rap
music, Hip Hop and politics. Her writings have appeared in several anthologies
and in The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Colorlines, Africana.com,
AlterNet.org, PopandPolitics.com and The Black World Today. She holds a B.A. from
Howard University and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law.
Hazel V. Carby
Hazel V. Carby is Charles C. and Dorathea S. Dilley Professor of African
American Studies and Professor of American Studies at Yale University where
she has taught since 1989. Before joining the Yale faculty Professor Carby
taught at Wesleyan University for seven years. A graduate of the Centre for
Contemporary Cultural Studies she received her Ph.D. from the University of
Birmingham, U.K. in 1984. From 1972-79 Hazel Carby was a high school English
teacher in the East End of London. She received her B.A. in 1970 from Portsmouth
Polytechnic. Her books include Reconstructing Womanhood (Oxford University Press,
1987), Race Men (Harvard University Press, 1998), and Cultures in Babylon (Verso, 1999).
Recent essays include: “A Strange and Bitter Crop: The Spectacle of Torture,”
Open Democracy, http://www.opendemocracy.net/ debates/article-8-112-2149.jsp and
“The New Auction Block: Blackness and the Marketplace,” forthcoming in Lewis Gordon
editor Companion to African American Literature (Blackwell Publishing). Her current
work in progress is Child of Empire: Racializing Subjects in Post WWII Britain.
Hazel Carby is a dual citizen of the U.K. and the U.S.A.
Rosa Clemente
Rosa Clemente is a Black Puerto Rican grassroots organizer, hip-hop
activist, journalist, and entrepreneur. With a B.A. from the University
of Albany and an M.A. from Cornell University, she is committed to scholar-activism
and youth organizing. She has delivered lectures on topics such as African-American
and Latino/a Intercultural Relations, Hip-Hop Activism, The History of the Young Lords
Party, and Organizing to Free U.S. Political Prisoners. Clemente was a youth
representative at the United Nations World Conference against Racism in South
Africa in 2001. In 2002, she was named by Red Eye Magazine as one of the top
50 hip hop activists to look out for. Most recently Clemente was a co-founder
and coordinator for the National Hip Hop Political Convention, which drew over
3000 Hip Hop generation activists who were brought together to create a national
agenda for the hip-hop generation and merging the grassroots with electoral politics.
She is currently a co-host/co-producer of Where We Live (WBAI, 99.5 FM, NY),
an organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, a spokesperson for the
National Hip Hop Political Convention, a board member for the National Coalition
Against the Death Penalty (NCADP), and the coordinator of the “State of Black World
Youth Caucus.”
Alison Duke
Alison Duke is an award-winning filmmaker who has produced and directed
feature documentaries for television and music videos and commercials in
Canada through her independent production companies Raje Film House and
Goldelox Productions since the mid 1990s. In 2001, she made her directorial
debut with the acclaimed rap documentary Raisin' Kane: a Rapumentary, produced
by the National Film Board. Raisin' Kane, which examines rap artists as entrepreneurs,
was awarded best Canadian Documentary at the 2001 Reel World Film Festival, as well as
the HBO Award for Best Documentary at the 2001Urbanworld Film Festival. She is also the
director of Booty Nation. During the 2001-2002 season Duke worked as senior segment producer
for Sex TV, an internationally syndicated Canadian documentary magazine series that focuses
on sexuality and gender issues. She also wrote and directed A Deathly Silence, a feature
length documentary following a mother's campaign for justice one year after her son's murder.
She is currently in development for another feature documentary and is scheduled to do her
first TV drama in the summer of 2005.
Dawn-Elissa Fischer
Dawn-Elissa Fischer is an emerging anthropologist, filmmaker and educator concerned with the ways
youth around the world use Hiphop as a tool for political empowerment. Currently the Education
Outreach Coordinator at the Hiphop Archive, she has studied Hiphop throughout the United States,
as well as internationally in Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Senegal, South Africa, Sweden and
Tanzania. Additionally, Fischer was one of the founders of the National Hip-Hop Political Convention
and has taught courses on Hiphop cultural studies at the University of Florida, where she is currently
a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology. Fischer is the Executive Director of Edutainment
4 Life, a Missouri-based nonprofit organization that creates entertaining education for life skills
and self-help for underserved youth, and she serves on the board for HOTGIRLS, Inc. (Helping Our Teen
Girls in Real Life Situations), an non-profit organization that uses Hiphop to educate adolescent girls
about sexual health. Fischer has been featured on BET for her political work and academic commentary
regarding Hiphop in the United States. Her film, Nihon Style, a documentary project about Hiphop in
Japan with co-producer Bianca White, has been praised by many Hiphop publications and organizations
around the world.
Melyssa Ford
Model Melyssa Ford is probably best known for her appearances in videos
by hip-hop and R&B's artists like Jay-Z's "Big Pimpin," Jadakiss'
"Knock Yourself Out," Ghostface Killah's "Cherchez La Ghost,"
Mystikal's "Shake Ya Ass," 112's "Anywhere," and Sisqo's
"Thong Song Remix." She has made guest appearances in Showtime's
hit series Soul Food, UPN's series Platinum, and ESPN's
Playmakers. She has also hosted the Internet show Lifestyles
of the Phat and the Phabulous. Her film credits include several independent
films, including Psyche (2004) and Turn It Up (2000),
an action flick starring rappers Ja Rule and Pras. Ford writes a monthly
relationship and dating column for Smooth magazine, "Jessica
Rabbit." She has appeared on the cover of a variety of magazines, including
Smooth magazine, Black Men Magazine, Today's Black
Man, Peace Magazine, King Magazine, and SSX Magazine.
Her upcoming projects include an episode of MTV2's Ladies of Hip Hop.
She will be featured in upcoming issues of GQ and Maxim
and on the cover of Black and White Magazine in the near future.
Farah Jasmine Griffin
Farah Jasmine Griffin is a professor of English and comparative literature
and African-American studies at Columbia University. She is also the director
of the Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia. She
received her B.A. from Harvard (1985) and Ph.D. from Yale (1992). Prof.
Griffin is the author of Who Set You Flowin’: The African American
Migration Narrative (Oxford University Press, 1995) and If You
Can’t Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday (Free
Press, 2001). She is also the editor of Beloved Sisters and Loving Friends:
Letters from Addie Brown and Rebecca Primus (Knopf Press, 1999), co-editor
with Cheryl Fish of Stranger in the Village: Two Centuries of African
American Travel Writing (Beacon Press, 1998), and co-editor with Brent
Edwards and Robert O'Meally of Uptown Conversations: The New Jazz Studies
(Columbia, 2004). Prof. Griffin is the recipient of numerous honors and
awards for her teaching and scholarship. Her major fields of interest are
African American literature, music, history and politics.
Tamika Guishard
Tamika Guishard is the director of Hip Hop Gurlz, a film that focuses
on the positive and negative impact of hip hop culture on young women. She
is currently a seventh grade social studies teacher in East New York. She
received her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and
is attending Brooklyn College for a Master's in Education. After teaching
for a number of years, Guishard plans to acquire an MFA in Film/Video and
ultimately resurrect the "afterschool special."
Beverly Guy-Sheftall
Beverly Guy-Sheftall is the Anna Julia Cooper Professor of English and Women's
Studies at Spelman College in Atlanta. In 1981, she became the founding
director of the College's Women's Research and Resource Center, the first
of its kind on a historically black college campus. She earned her Ph.D.
in American studies from Emory University in 1984. Prof. Guy-Sheftall is
the author of Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist
Thought (New Press, 1995), co-editor of Sturdy Black Bridges: Visions
of Black Women in Literature (Anchor Books, 1979), the first anthology
of black women's literature published in the U.S., and co-editor of Double
Stitch: Black Women Write About Mothers and Daughters (Beacon Press,
1991). She recently completed an anthology with Rudolph Byrd entitled Traps:
African American Men on Gender (Indiana University Press, 2001) and
Sexuality and Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women’s Equality in
African American Communities (Random House, 2003) with Johnnetta B.
Cole.
Byron Hurt
Byron Hurt is the co-founder and associate director of the U.S. Marine Corps
gender violence prevention program. A former Northeastern University quarterback,
he also helped to establish the Mentors in Violence Prevention Program at
Northeastern, the first large-scale attempt to enlist collegiate and professional
athletes in the fight against rape and violence against women. Hurt is an
educator who teaches about racism, sexism and violence against women. He
produced the award-winning documentary I Am a Man: Black Masculinity
in America.
Zenzele Isoke
Zenzele Isoke is a Doctoral Candidate in Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers
University-New Brunswick. Her dissertation explores how Black women's participation
in local social networks enables mass mobilizations in communities of color. She
received her Master's degree in Political Science from the University of Michigan
at Ann Arbor and graduated magna cum laude from Clark Atlanta University, also
majoring in Political Science. Isoke has served as a graduate research associate
for the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan, conducted policy
research for the Southern Center for Studies in Public Policy in Atlanta, GA and served
as a legislative research consultant for Senator Hank Sanders of the Alabama State Assembly.
In 2004, Isoke spearheaded the Progressive Women's Caucus of the National Hip Hop Political
Convention. She is also a longtime member of the New Afrikan Women's Caucus of the
Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. She currently serves as Governor's Executive Fellow for
the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.
Cheryl Keyes
Cheryl L. Keyes is an associate professor of ethnomusicology at the University
of California, Los Angeles. She has conducted extensive field research on
rap and hip-hop culture since 1981. Among areas or communities where she
has executed study on hip-hop music are Bloomington (IN), Detroit, Los Angeles,
New York City, London, and Mali, West Africa. Her research has been published
in Ethnomusicology, Folklore Forum, the Journal of
American Folklore as well as edited volumes. Her recent book, Rap
Music and Street Consciousness (University of Illinois Press, 2002)
was among CHOICE’s (American Library Association Publication) Outstanding
Academic Book Titles for 2004. Other awards she received include a Ford
Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in 1992, and most recently a UCLA Center
for Community Partnership Grant with the hip-hop community organization
Justice by Uniting in Creative Energy (J.U.i.C.E.) for 2003 and 2004. In
addition to her teaching and research accomplishments, she is a songwriter,
composer-arranger, and musician who has performed and recorded with jazz
clarinetist-educator Alvin Batiste and New Orleans rhythm-and-blues veteran
Eddie Bo.
Felicia Miyakawa
Felicia Miyakawa is an assistant professor of musicology at the McLean School of
Music at Middle Tennessee State University. Her research areas include hip-hop
music and culture, Black nationalism, American popular music, and African-American
music and literature. Her book, Five Percenter Rap: God Hop's Music, Message, and
Black Muslim Mission, is scheduled to be released by Indiana University Press in May
2005. She has presented her work at both academic and popular music conferences,
including conferences sponsored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Experience
Music Project in Seattle. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. in musicology (with minors
in Afro-American studies) from Indiana University and her B.A. in both music and French
at Linfield College, McMinnville, Oregon.
Jessica Care Moore
Jessica Care Moore is one of the most anticipated published poets of this
generation. She is also a recording artist, playwright, actor, and publisher.
She is making a literary, theatrical and musical impact on the world that
will help define the art of words. Her dynamic young voice swept the nationally
televised It’s Showtime at the Apollo, winning a record five
consecutive weeks with her powerful lyrics. An international poetic force,
she has performed for audiences in London, Scotland, Berlin, Paris and Holland.
Her work has been appeared in several major anthologies, including Listen
Up! (Random House, 1999), Step Into A World (Wiley Publishing,
2001), Role Call (Third World Press, 2002), and Bum Rush The
Page (Crown Publishing, 2001). She is the author of The Alphabet
Verses The Ghetto (Moore Black Press, 2003), a collection of prose
and poetry, and The Words Don’t Fit in My Mouth (Moore Black
Press, 1997), another collection of her poetry. Her plays include There
Are No Asylums for the Real Crazy Women and Alpha Phobia.
Joan Morgan
Joan Morgan is an award-winning journalist and author and a provocative
cultural critic. Until recently, she was the Executive Editor of Essence
magazine, where she joined the staff as an editor-at-large in January 2000.
She began her professional writing career freelancing for The Village
Voice. Her first article, "The Pro-Rape Culture,"
explored the issues of race and gender in the case of the Central Park jogger.
The article and the heated response to it quickly established Morgan’s
reputation as a Black-feminist writer who was unafraid of tackling the most
highly charged topics. In addition, Morgan’s article won an award
from the New York Association of Black Journalists. A staff writer at Vibe
magazine for three years, she has also written extensively about music and
gender issues for Madison, Interview, MS, More,
and Spin magazine, where she was contributing editor and columnist.
Joan Morgan is the author of When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A
Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down.
Marcyliena Morgan
Marcyliena Morgan is an associate professor in the Communications Department
at Stanford University. Her research has focused on language, culture and
identity, sociolinguistics, discourse and interaction. She is the author
of Language, Discourse and Power in African American Culture (Cambridge,
2002) and the editor of Language and the Social Construction of Identity
in Creole Situations (CAAS Publications, 1994). Her other publications
include articles and chapters on African American culture and language,
urban youth language and interaction, language ideology, women's speech,
discourse and interaction among Caribbean women in London and Jamaica, and
language education planning and policy. Prof. Morgan is currently completing
a book on hip hop culture and language and the construction of social identity
entitled The Fifth Element: Respect and Recognition in the Hiphop Underground.
She is the founding director of the Hip Hop Archive at the W.E.B. Du Bois
Institute at Harvard University.
Mark Anthony Neal
Mark Anthony Neal is Associate Professor of Black Popular Culture in the
Program in African and African-American Studies at Duke University. Neal's
scholarly interests are in black popular culture, black gender and queer theory,
and black intellectual production. He is the author of four books, What the Music
Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture (1998), Soul Babies: Black
Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic (2002), Songs in the Keys of Black
Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation (2003) and New Black Man: Rethinking Black
Masculinity (2005). Neal is also the co-editor (with Murray Forman) of
That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader (2004). Neal's essays have
been anthologized in more than a half-a-dozen books, including the 2004 edition
of the acclaimed series Da Capo Best Music Writing, edited by Mickey Hart.
Professor Neal is also a weekly columnist for AOL BlackVoices and a regular
contributor to NPR’s News and Notes with Ed Gordon.
Kim Osorio
Kim Osorio is Editor-in-Chief at The Source magazine. When she
assumed the position in 2002, she became the first female face of “the
Bible of Hip-Hop.” She joined the company in 2000 as the Associate
Music Editor and quickly worked her way through the editorial ranks. As
Editor-in-Chief, Osorio is responsible for overseeing the entire editorial
content of the magazine, managing a staff of 25, and serving as a spokesperson
for The Source brand. Prior to joining The Source, she
earned a B.A in Fine Arts at Fordham University and a J.D. from New York
Law School. Kim Osorio's writings about hip-hop music have appeared in local
newspapers as well as national publications, including Billboard
magazine, The Source and Vibe. She makes frequent appearances
on such television networks as CNN and VH1 as an expert on hip-hop.
Imani Perry
Imani Perry is an assistant professor of law at Rutgers University School
of Law-Camden, New Jersey, where she teaches courses on contracts, law and
literature, and critical race theory. Her scholarly work is in the areas
of race, legal history and culture. Prof. Perry is the author of the recently
released book Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop
(Duke University Press, 2004), in which she suggests that "Hip Hop
…airs a much wider, more troubling range of black experience than
was projected during the civil rights era." She is also the author
of numerous articles and book chapters in law and cultural studies, including
"It's My Thing and I'll Swing it the Way That I Feel: Sexuality &
Black Women Rappers" in Gender Race and Class in the Media: A Text
Reader (Sage Press, 1994), edited by Gail Dines and Jean Humez, and
“Who(se) am I?: The Identity and Image of Women in Hip Hop”
in Gender, Race and Class in the Media: A Text Reader, 2nd edition
(Sage Press, 2002), edited by Gail Dines and Jean Humez. Prof. Perry received
her B.A. from Yale College in literature and American studies, her Ph.D.
from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in American civilization,
and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Gwendolyn Pough
Gwendolyn D. Pough is currently an Associate Professor of Women’s Studies,
Writing, and Rhetoric at Syracuse University. Her book, Check It While
I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, Hip-Hop Culture, and the Public Sphere
was published in June 2004 by Northeastern University Press. Her shorter
publications can be found in Colonize This! Young Women of Color on
Today’s Feminism, Catching a Wave: Reclaiming Feminism for the 21st Century,
Doula, College Composition and Communication, That’s the Joint!: A Hip Hop
Studies Reader, African American Rhetorics: Interdisciplinary Perspectives,
Get It Together, and Rhetoric and Ethnicity. She was awarded an American
Association of University Women Post-Doctoral Fellowship in 2003-2004 to
complete research on her next book length project about contemporary African
American women's book clubs and reading groups. She has served on the Executive
Committee of the Conference on College Composition and Communication and
the Editorial Board for Voices from the Gaps, a website devoted
to women writers of color. Already a national expert on hip-hop and an award-winning
writer, Pough earned her Ph.D. in literature at Miami University in Oxford,
Ohio in 2000.
Kimala Price
Kimala Price is a founding member of the Progressive Women’s Caucus
which emerged from the 2004 National Hip Hop Political Convention held in
Newark, NJ. Holding a PhD in political science from the University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, she is currently a research fellow at Ibis Reproductive Health
in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has been active in the women’s rights
and reproductive justice movements since the early 1990s, including working
for a number of feminist organizations in Washington, DC and Atlanta, Georgia.
Additionally, she has served as a legislative aide on gender and education
issues for Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA). She is currently working on
a book manuscript, A Tale of Two Pills, which documents the political controversy
surrounding mifepristone (the abortion pill) and emergency contraception
(the morning after pill).
Psalm One
Chicago-based Hip Hop/Rap artist Psalm One is known for her high level of
lyricism. She has performed with 50 Cent, Atmosphere, MF Doom, De La Soul,
Camp Lo, Jean Grae, Diverse, Blueprint, Brother Ali, and more. Her albums
include Bio Chemistry (Banarnar, 2002), Personal Surplus (Birthwrite, 2003),
Bio Chemistry 2 (Birthwrite, 2004), and Get in the Van Vol. 1 Mixtape (Vinyl
Addicts, 2004). Her forthcoming album, The Death of Frequent Flyer (Rhymesayers,
2005), represents her best work to date. It features emcees Brother Ali
and Thaione Davis, as well as DJ's DQ and Spontaneous. Psalm One has been
featured in publications like Billboard Magazine,
Elemental, URB, and RE UP.
Rachel Raimist
Rachel Raimist is a hip-hop feminist filmmaker, scholar, and activist. Her
film credits include the award-winning feature length documentaries Freestyle
(Best Documentary, Urban World Film Festival, 2000; Best Soundtrack, LA
Independent Festival, 2001; and Best Documentary, Woodstock International
Film Festival, 2000), Nobody Knows My Name (South by Southwest
Film Festival selection and Best Documentary, Denver Pan African Film Festival),
and Garbage, Gangsters, and Greed (Best Documentary, Santa Cruz
Environmental Film Festival, 1999). She has been frequently interviewed
about women in hip-hop, hip-hop feminism, and video activism by major publications
and news programs, including Spin, LA Weekly, The
Village Voice, and 60 Minutes. Her articles have appeared
in Urb, The Source, and BLU magazine. Raimist
is currently editing her documentary about incarcerated poets who meet inside
Stillwater Correctional Facility in Minnesota. She is also pursuing her
Ph.D. in Feminist Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Her
thesis focuses on hip-hop feminism and movements for social change. She
received her B.A. and M.F.A. in Directing from UCLA. She teaches Feminist
Film Studies at the University of Minnesota and Women of Color Feminisms/Third
Wave Theory and Practice at Macalester College.
Rokafella
Ana "Rokafella" Garcia is a hip-hop dancer, choreographer, and
instructor. She is the co-founder of Full Circle Productions, a collective
of hip-hop artists. She has performed with such crews as The Transformers,
The Breeze Team, and the New York City Float Committee. She toured Europe
as a member of the hip-hop dance company, GhettOriginal, joining the group
in 1994. She has also worked with artists like Will Smith, Mariah Carey,
Whitney Houston, and Tito Puente, to name a few. Rokafella has taught dance
workshops at NYU and Howard University as well as neighborhood high schools
and community centers. She was co-host of 88 Hip-Hop, an Internet
radio show. The show included a "Hip-Hop History" segment for
which she interviewed a number of pioneer artists.
Tricia Rose
Tricia Rose, Chair and Professor, American Studies Department at the University
of California at Santa Cruz, specializes in twentieth-century African-American
culture, urban history, cultural politics, race and gender theory, race
and sexuality, popular culture and music. Her book Longing to Tell:
Black Women Talk About Sexuality and Intimacy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
2003) is the first oral history about black women’s sexuality in America.
She is also the author of Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in
Contemporary America (Wesleyan Press, 1994) and co-editor, with Andrew
Ross, of Microphone Fiends: Youth Music and Youth Culture (Routledge,
1994). Black Noise was awarded an American Book Award from the
Before Columbus Foundation in 1995. Rose has been featured as an expert
commentator in newspapers and magazines and on television and the radio.
She received her B.A. in sociology from Yale University in 1984 and completed
her Ph.D. in American civilization at Brown University in 1993.
Akiba Solomon
Akiba Solomon is the health editor for Essence magazine. In this role, she
is responsible for assigning and editing health and fitness coverage. She
joined ESSENCE in September 2004. The Howard University graduate from West
Philadelphia has been on the staff of Washingtonpost.com, Jane
and The Source magazine, where she specialized in hard news and
politics. Her work has appeared in a range of publications, including Vibe,
POZ, Suede and BET.com. Solomon recently co-edited
a highly anticipated anthology of essays and oral memoirs about Black women
and body image entitled, Naked: Black Women Bare All About Their Skin,
Hair, Hips, Lips and Other Parts (Perigee), which is due out in August
2005.
Jessy Terrero
Jessy Terrero, director, marked his feature film directorial debut with Soul Plane.
Terrero’s short film, The Clinic, was chosen to screen at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival
and has been screened at the New York International Latino Film Festival, Urbanworld, and
the Los Angeles Short Film Festival. He was selected to be a participant in Fox Searchlight
Pictures’ new digital production unit, Fox Searchlab, which recognizes and mentors emerging
filmmakers with exciting new cinematic voices. Terrero made his first music video for Ghetto
Concept, which was nominated for a Much Music Award in Canada. Terrero garnered critical
acclaim and music video award nominations from MTV and Billboard Magazine for Gettin’ In
The Way for Jill Scott, which Terrero followed up with the MTV buzz-worthy A Long Walk.
To date, Terrero has worked with 50 Cent on Wanksta and Many Men, Nick Cannon on Your Pop
Don’t Like Me, Snoop Dogg on Tell It Like It Is, Musiq Soulchild on Half Crazy Remix, The Roots
on Break U Off, Mystikal on Bouncin’ Back, G Unit on Smile and I Wanna Get to Know You, Jonell
featuring Method Man on Around & Around, and Syleena Johnson on I Am Your Woman, which was nominated
for Billboard Magazine’s Video Music Awards Best New Adult Contemporary New Artist Clip of the Year 2001.
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