‘All histories matter.’ South Florida Book Festival celebrates 50 years of hip-hop
Hip-hop has always been the voice of the voiceless.
As a child growing up in New Jersey, hip-hop provided preeminent writer Kevin Powell a one-way ticket to different parts of the country. Uncle Luke could bring him to Miami. N.W.A. to Los Angeles. Geto Boys to Houston. Goodie Mob to Atlanta.
“It started explaining to me ‘Oh, this is what Black folks are dealing with in Miami or South Florida. Oh, this is what Black folks are dealing with in Atlanta, this is what’s happening in Chicago,” said Powell, an author whose time at VIBE magazine during the ‘90s established him as one of America’s most acclaimed hip-hop journalists.
So when Powell got invited to speak at the upcoming South Florida Book Festival, he knew he had to be here – and not just because of the region’s storied hip-hop history.
“Florida and Texas and other states around the country are rapidly trying to ban certain kind of books so people can’t learn their history,” Powell said, emphasizing that “many of us have learned the history of who we are” through hip-hop.
The South Florida Book Festival, which runs from Thursday to Saturday, will center hip-hop as the genre prepares to celebrate its 50th year. Entitled “WORD! Celebrating 50 Years of Hip-Hop Culture” and held at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center, the festival seeks to impart a greater “appreciation for Black creativity,” said AARLCC regional manager Tameka Bradley Hobbs.
“Hip-hop is overdue for this type of examination, appreciation and celebration,” Hobbs said. “Far too many people, especially in the Black community and older generations, have written hip-hop off because of some of the worst elements.”
And while Hobbs acknowledges the reality of some of hip-hop’s worst traits, there still needs to be an appreciation “for the roots of hip-hop, the diversity of hip-hop, the impact of hip-hop, whether we’re talking culturally, in fashion, in media and the fact that it’s global.”
Festivities begin Thursday with a conversation with New York Times bestselling author and poet Kwame Alexander followed by DJing, graffiti and dance workshops curated by Girls Make Beats, the Museum of Graffiti and Rennie Harris University. The Olujimi Dance Theater’s Transnational (dance) Works (and other practices that) Evoke Revolutionary Kinship (T.W.E.R.K.) will end Thursday evening with a stirring performance that explores the rhythms of West and Central Africa. Thursday specifically will center on children, which Bradley Hobbs said was extremely important from an educational standpoint.
“Specifically for hip-hop, there’s a lot of remediation and education that needs to take place,” Hobbs said. “The kids now are more into and have a different relationship to hip-hop perhaps than I did but like anything, I think it’s really important to understand the roots of the culture, to understand the core elements of the culture.”
Powell’s conversation will kick off Friday followed by a ticketed event featuring the sounds of DJ Demp and Jam Pony Express DJs. Saturday includes moderated conversations with Regina N. Bradley, professor and author of “Chronicling Stankonia: The Rise of Hip-Hop South,” Slip-N-Slide Records founder Ted Lucas, Grammy Award-winning producer Rico Love, DJ Tillery James and Rob Kenner, a founding editor of VIBE magazine and author of “The Marathon Don’t Stop: The Life and Times of Nipsey Hussle.”
“In this 50 year history, if we don’t tell our stories, others will,” said Renee Foster, the director of communications for the Universal Hip-Hop Museum, which serves as promotional partner for the festival. Partnering with AARLCC was important for the museum due to its mission to explore “the influences of hip-hop as it grew all over in every region of this country and worldwide.”
“Hip-hop is not a separate, segregated part of Black culture. It’s definitively a product of Black culture. It’s definitively a part of American culture,” added Hobbs. On the topic of selecting the presenters, she and her team wanted “to cast the widest net possible.”
With hip-hop being on of the most popular genre in the world, it’s easy for newer generations of fans to forget that protest remains one of hip-hop’s key elements. As book bannings continue to happen in Florida and across the country, this festival presents an opportunity to properly preserve and contextualize the genre while contrasting the will of the governor’s office, according to Powell.
“Why is the South Florida Book Festival important?” Powell said. “Because it’s saying that all histories matter. You can’t separate Black people, brown people, Latinx people or any people that feel othered in this country from the history of this country.”
IF YOU GO
What: “WORD! Celebrating 50 Years of Hip-Hop Culture” South Florida Book Festival
When: Thursday, July 13 to Saturday, July 15
Where: African American Research Library & Cultural Center, 2650 Sistrunk Blvd., Fort Lauderdale
For more information and tickets go to https://www.broward.org/Library/Events/SoFloBookFest/pages/default.aspx
