This isn”t your grandfather”s lecture series. Unless your grandfather digs hip-hop.
The Ina E. Gordy Honors College at Mississippi University for Women will open its 2010 Forum Series Thursday with a lecture titled “Chuck D, Public Enemy and the Beginning of Modern Day Hip Hop,” followed by a Feb. 11 lecture from Chuck D, himself.
Dr. Thomas Velek, director of the Gordy Honors College, who will present the opening lecture, is hoping to supplement the series” academic rigor with a healthy dose of social relevance.
“The honors series used to be professors getting up and talking about what they”re doing in class. We need to present a good, dynamic, interesting, energetic series that gets people to campus. It”s all about making things at The W interesting and important to the community,” said Velek.
Chuck D, co-founder and front-man of the hip-hop group Public Enemy, has seen his popularity as a mainstream musician wane significantly since the mid-90s. Since then, he”s parlayed his celebrity status and notoriety for socially and politically conscious rhymes into a second career as a public speaker and political activist. He”ll present a lecture titled “Race, Rap and Reality.”
Velek”s lecture will stand alone as an examination of the social change surrounding and inspired by hip-hop in the late ”80s and early ”90s, but will also provide a foundation of knowledge on the impact made by Public Enemy.
“What I”m talking about is the arrival of Run-DMC, NWA and Public Enemy and how they brought a harder edge. A much more socially conscious and more visible presence to hip-hop,” explained Velek. “Before them hip-hop had been seen as party music. These groups used it to shine a light on social issues.”
He says the honors forum has sought to bring “fairly high profile individuals” to MUW to speak on relevant topics and, at the same time, generate interest in the community.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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