This course is an examination of this movement of Hip-Hop as counterculture, its place in history and global impact. Students will examine the idea of Hip-Hop as a shadowed art form for muted voices. The contemporary foundations of Hip-Hop, the influence of the African Diaspora, the role of the Slave Trade, of cultural syncretism, the development of Jazz, Spoken Word as an art, and the influence of the Harlem Renaissance will be studied. Various artists will be explored along with their immediate and long-term impacts on the musical genre. Students will also study the uncanny connections between Hip-Hop and WEB Dubois, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, the Nation of Islam, Clarence 13x and the Black Panther Party. Students will also examine the voice of women and gay artists and their role in the culture of Hip-Hop, which often is misconstrued as a male dominated, misogynistic and/or homophobic art form. Students will end the course looking at the Globalization of Hip-Hop and the role of Hip Hop on the international scene as a form of political and youth advocacy in areas where people are voiceless. There will be 4 face-to-face (F2F) meetings over the course of the semester. Dates and locations to be announced as available (the final will be an in-studio field trip to a professional recording studio).

About the Instructor

Sanjev deSilva – The Athenian School
Sanjev brings over 15 years of expe­ri­ence in education, youth devel­op­ment, and com­mu­nity ser­vice to the BlendEd consortium. His life’s mis­sion is to empower young peo­ple to be lead­ers and to cre­ate pro­gres­sive change in their com­mu­ni­ties. Sanjev is currently a humanities seminar teacher at The Athenian School. Sanjev also brings two decades of work in the music industry field, working with many different artists, producers and labels in developing, marketing and promoting their brand.