The Cornell Hip Hop Collection
In order to reflect growing campus diversity, special collections and archives are now actively seeking material which encompasses intersectional identities, including race, economic status, gender and sexuality, religion, and politics.This stands in contrast to the traditional archive, which collects in line with Euro-centric ideas of knowledge. Collections like the Hip-Hop Collection of Cornell are challenging the definitions of what is scholarly and archival. As the curator of the Hip-Hop collection at Cornell, Ben Ortiz preserves, interprets, and makes accessible the archival material of Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Caz, Bill Adler, Charlie Ahearn, and Joe Conzo. With the documentation of Hip- Hop itself as an intersectional body of knowledge, a Hip-Hop archive relies on oral transmission, social justice action, and call and response. Ben will present his work in this session, and dj at a listening lounge in the evening.
3:45 – 5:15 p.m. Schapiro 129. Co-Sponsored by Special Collections, the Davis Center, Africana Studies, Music, the Black Student Union, and WCFM.