“We’re not gonna turn the other cheek & we’re gonna have a politic that challenges the system.”

We should be clear, adds there are different iterations of the Black Freedom Struggle & the iteration from which hip hop grew is Black Power & the politics of abandonment. Jesse kicks off the conversation by asking the authors to talk about the way that hip hop emerged as a Black & Brown youth response to & rebellion against the neoliberal era-including the gutting of social programs and shuttering of community centers. Here are some main points of the session from the tweet thread by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca, high school teacher and Zinn Education Project team member. Hip-hop is a way for history to be told about the streets rather than the history that America wants us to know. Loved the entire conversation and rethinking all of the ways to connect hip hop to such a wide variety of topics taught in U.S. I definitely want to go back and re-watch this session!!!Įverybody was so inspirational, and speaking to other educators across the nation was invaluable.

Here are a few reactions from the participants:ĭavey D’s comments on the commodification of hip-hop are really resonating with me, and how it connects to taking the test as opposed to truly learning. This discussion was designed to help educators understand the history of hip-hop, the way hip-hop has shaped history, and how it can help make our classes more relevant to our students’ lives.

Detailing hip-hop’s rise to global prominence - with attention to dynamics of race, class, gender - Chang and Davey D explain how young people - especially BIPOC youth - over generations have utilized the culture to express themselves and make their needs understood in a country that has abandoned and denigrated them.ĭespite the importance to youth and its immense impact, in too many classrooms hip-hop gets excluded. This seminal account of the music and culture situates the rebellion of hip-hop as a reaction to the neoliberal economic and social order that snuffed out the great social movements of the 1960s and 70s. The young adult edition of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop is an essential guide for not only understanding hip-hop music and culture, but also a critical analysis of the last few decades of U.S. This session was part of the Zinn Education Project’s Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online people’s history class series. On September 13, 2021, co-authors Jeff Chang and Dave “Davey D” Cook were interviewed by Jesse Hagopian about their young adult edition of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A Hip-Hop History.

Can't Stop Won't Stop by Jeff Chang