Visiting scholar Afrika Bambaataa on campus Nov. 27


Joe Conzo
Afrika Bambaataa poses with his contract naming him a Cornell visiting scholar, an appointment made by the Cornell Library's Hip-Hop Collection in conjunction with the Department of Music.

DJ Afrika Bambaataa will make two public appearances Nov. 27 in Ithaca, his first since his appointment in August to a three-year term as a Cornell visiting scholar.

The hip-hop founding father will participate in "The Roots of Hip-Hop" at 5 p.m. in G10 Biotechnology, with guests DJ Rich Medina and Crazy Legs (Richard Colón) of the Rock Steady Crew and photographer Joe Conzo. Bambaataa will join Medina for an 8 p.m. DJ show at The Haunt, 702 Willow Ave., co-presented by Cornell University Library's Hip-Hop Collection and Dan Smalls Presents. Doors open at 7 p.m.

The talk on campus is free and open to the public. Tickets to the Haunt performance (open to ages 16 and up) are $12 general admission, $10 for students, available online.

In addition to those public events, Bambaataa also will lecture on hip-hop culture in a new Cornell course taught by associate professor of music Steve Pond, Hip Hop: Beats, Rhymes and Life; meet with young men at the Finger Lakes Residential Center and speak to students at Ithaca College.

Bambaataa was instrumental in the early development of hip-hop in the South Bronx during the 1980s and is responsible for spreading hip-hop culture throughout the world. One of the originators of break-beat DJing and founder of the Universal Zulu Nation, he was nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.

His Cornell appointment -- made by the Library's Hip-Hop Collection in the Department of Rare and Manuscript Collections, in conjunction with the Department of Music -- is the first such university affiliation for a hip-hop figure of Bambaataa's stature.

As a visiting scholar, he will visit Cornell's campus several times each year to talk to classes, meet with community groups and perform the music he helped create and expand. The Cornell Hip-Hop Collection is the largest national archive of hip-hop culture, documenting its birth and growth by preserving thousands of recordings, fliers, photographs and other artifacts.

 

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