The 6th Annual Lecture on Multiculturalism
Wednesday, Februray 9, 2004 at 7:30pm
Edwards Auditorium
Press Release

Robin D. G. Kelley, Professor of History and Africana Studies at New York University. he is the author of the prize-winning books, Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression (1990) and Race Rebels: Culture Politics and the Black Working Class (1994); co-editor (with Sidney J. Lemelle) of Imagining Home: Class, Culture and Nationalism in the African Diaspora (1994); and general editor (with Earl Lewis) of the eleven volume Young Oxford History of African Americans (Oxford University Press). He wrote Volume 10, titled Into the Fire: African Americans Since 1970 (1996) and co-authored Volume 9, We Changed the World: African Americans, 1945-1969 (1998), with Vincent Harding and Earl Lewis.

His most recent book, Yo' Mama's DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America (Beacon Press, 1997) was selected one of the top ten books of 1998 by the Village Voice.

He has published numerous articles covering a wide range of topics, including the black urban poor, Malcolm X, oral history, South African radicalism, cultural studies, Pan-Africanism, jazz and rap music. His essays have appeared in several anthologies and journals, including The Voice Literacy Supplement, New York Times Magazine, The Nation, Monthly Review, One World, ColorLines, Journal of American History, Lenox Avenue, Callahoo, New Politics, Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noir, The American Historical Review, New York Newsday, New York Daily Challenge, Boston Review, Fashion Theory, Social Text, and Radical History Review, among others.

He is currently completing a book titled Misterioso: In Search of Thelonious Monk, as well as a general history of African Americans with authors Tera Hunter and Earl Lewis.

Affiliations: Society of American Historians; New York State Council for the Humanities, Board of Directors; Editorial Board, Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire; Editorial Advisory Committee, Center for Black Music Research (includes Black Music Research Journal, Lenox Avenue, and the book series Music of the Black Diaspora, published by University of California Press); Editorial Advisory Board, book series Culture, Politics, and the Cold War, University of Massachusetts Press; Board of Directors, American Social History Project, Hunter College; Board of Directors, Davis-Putter Fund; Editorial Board, Journal of American History; Series Editor (with Jan Radway, Duke University), Popular Cultures, Everyday Lives, Columbia University Press; Editorial Collective, Radical History Review; National Historical Publications and Records Commission; Organization of American Historians; Board of Governors, Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, Brandeis University.

Fellowships/Honors: Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, 1997-1998; Visiting Fellow, American Studies Program, University of Melbourne, Australia, 1996-1997; ABC CLIO Award (Best Scholarly Article that Advances the Field of U.S. History), Organization of American Historians, 1995; Outstanding Book Award, National Conference of Black Political Scientists, 1995; Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan, 1994-1995; National Endowment for the Humanities, Fellowship for University Teachers, 1994-1995; Stephen A. Stone Research Award, University of Michigan, 1993-1995; Elliot Rudwick Prize, Organization of American Historians, 1991; co-winner of Francis Butler Simkins Prize, Southern Historical Association, 1991; Outstanding Book on
Human Rights, Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in the U.S., 1991; Fellow,Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1990-1991.

Suggested Reading

Baker, Houston A., "Hybridity, the Rap Race., and Pedagogy for the 1990's." In Constance Penley and Andrew Ross, eds., Technoculture: Cultural Politics. vol. 3 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991), 197-209.

Kelley, Robin D. G. "Kickin' Reality, Kickin' Ballistics: Gangsta Rap and Postindustrial Los Angeles." in William Eric Perkins, ed., Droppin' Science: Critical Essays on Rap and Hip Hop Culture (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996) 117-158.

Kelley, Robin D. G."We are not what we seem: Rethinking black working class opposition in the Jim Crow South." The Journal of American History 80 (June 1993) 75-113 (Available through ProQuest database)

Kelley, Robin D. G. "The people in me." The Utne Reader 95 (Sept. 1999) 79-81. (Available through HELIN - Salve Regina-stacks.)

Kelley, Robin D. G. "House negroes on the loose: Malcolm X and the black bourgeoisie." Callaloo 21 (Spring 1998) 419-436. (Available URI-stacks.)

Kelley, Robin D. G. "The crisis." The Village Voice (March 5, 1996) SS6-SS12.

Buhle, Paul and Robin D. G. Kelley. "The oral history of the Left in the United States: A survey and interpretation." The Journal of American History 76 (Sept. 1989) 537-551. (Available URI-stacks.)

Kelley, Robin D. G. "Integration: 'What's left?'" The Nation 267 (Dec. 14, 1998) 17-19. (Available through ProQuest database.)

Winkler, Karen J. "Robin Kelley's work on race and class explores culture politics and oppression." The Chronicle of Higher Education 21 (Feb. 6, 1998) A13+. (Available through ProQuest database.)

Perkins, William Eric. "Youth's Global Village: An Epilogue." in William Eric Perkins, ed., Droppin' Science: Critical Essays on Rap and Hip Hop Culture (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996) 258-.271.

Rose, Tricia. "A Style Nobody Can Deal With: Politics, Style and the Postindustrial City in Hip Hop." in Avery F. Gordon and Christopher Newfield, eds., Mapping Multiculturalism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, `996) 424-444.

Related Links
(URI and the URI Multicultural Center are not responsible for the content of the following Web sites.)

About Rap and Hip Hop
What's the difference between rap and hip hop? This essay explores that question and the future of hip hop.
http://www.geop.itu.edu.tr/~onur/rap_hh.html

Art Crimes: The Writing on the Wall
The ultimate graffiti Web site with photos, conference information, links, gear, resources and more.
http://www.graffiti.org/

Art Crimes
Essay on graffiti art from jump! Magazine, a publication of William and Mary College.
http://www.wm.edu/SO/JUMP/spring96/graffiti.html

Bring the Noise - The Golden Age of Rap
An album by album history of rap and hip hop music from Gadfly Magazine.
http://www.gadfly.org/1999-02/noise.htm

Exploring Appropriations of Hip-Hop Culture in the Internet and Nairobi
A study that attempts to show how specific communities of youth relate to hip-hop's expressive form and ideological authenticity.
http://lclark.edu/~soan/alicia/rebensdorf.101.html

HipHopCity.com - The Ultimate Hip Hop Directory
Resource list of links to graffiti art sites around the world
http://www.hiphopcity.com/directory/html/gp5.html

The Hip Hop Culture and a Common Challenge
From the Tribuno del Pueblo, a newspaper published by the League of Revolutionaries for a New America (LRNA) in Chicago
http://www.lrna.org/league/TP/!TP.97.07/9707.hiphop.eng.html

Hip Hop Culture Essays
A collection of essays submitted by visitors to Mr. Blunt's Hip Hop HomePage.
http://www.mrblunt.com/culture/

Hip Hop Graffiti Culture
Essay From the Newcastle, Australia Youth Arts Officer
http://www.graffiti.nsw.gov.au/HHGC.htm

Phat Hip Hop Links
Like the title says, a list of links to artist and fan Web sites.
http://www.hiphop.ch/links.htm

The Rap Dictionary
Searchable dictionary and related rap and hip hop information.
http://www.rapdict.org/

Youth Cultures: Hip Hop
An overview of the Hip Hop culture from Culture Shock, a site that explores modern youth cultures.
http://library.thinkquest.org/12426/hiphop.html

Last updated: 02/17/2005