Hip Hop and American History
“Welcome to the Terrordome: 9/11, Hip Hop and Culture as Foreign Policy”
Monday, November 9, 12 noon, 5233 Humanities
“Bearing Witness: Hip Hop and the Audiobiography Tradition”
Monday, November 9, 7pm, 1100 Grainger
WILLIAM JELANI COBB is an Associate Professor of History at Spelman College. He specializes in post-Civil War African American history, 20th century American politics and the history of the Cold War. Professor Cobb is the author of To The Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic (NYU Press 2007) which was a finalist for the National Award for Arts Writing. His collection The Devil & Dave Chappelle and Other Essays (Thunder’s Mouth Press) was also published in 2007. He is editor of The Essential Harold Cruse: A Reader, which was listed as a 2002 Notable Book of The Year by Black Issues Book Review. He has two forthcoming books: In Our Lifetimes: Barack Obama and the New Black America and a scholarly monograph titled Antidote to Revolution: African American Anticommunism and the Struggle for Civil Rights, 1931-1957. His articles and essays have appeared in The Washington Post, Essence, Vibe, Emerge, The Progressive, The Washington City Paper, ONE Magazine, Ebony and TheRoot.com. He has contributed to a number of anthologies including In Defense of Mumia, Testimony, Mending the World and Beats, Rhymes and Life. He has also been a featured commentator on National Public Radio, CNN, Al-Jazeera, CBS News and a number of other national broadcast outlets.