January 31, 2014
Table of Contents:
Call for Papers: The Brazil Issue Words Beats & Life: Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture
GSU Jamaica Study Abroad and Maroon Immersion Program June 11 - June 25, 2014

Call for Papers: The Brazil Issue

Words Beats & Life: Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture

 

Hip-hop has grown into a multilingual, multiethnic, intergenerational, global yet localized and regional collection of cultural expressions. In this global hip-hop reality, few scenes are bigger than Brazil. Since the early 90s, Brazilian hip-hop has had a significant musical presence in the country, especially in cities like Rio de Janeiro and S�o Paulo, where in the favelas colorful graffiti decorates every spare surface and hip-hop beats dominate the soundscape. Like the first artists out of New York City, hip-hop in Brazil was born out of 1980s favela street parties, where DJs played the latest American funk and soul records to largely Afro-Brazilian crowds and young people began rapping as a way to express the economic and social problems of their neighborhoods.

 

Today, many celebrate Brazilian hip-hop as the antithesis of the multi-million dollar industry of the United States. And yet, while an important segment of Brazil's hip-hop scene continues to emphasize socially conscious messages and favela realism (especially in S�o Paulo), hip-hop has also diversified and spread across the country. While Rio de Janeiro has become known for baile funk's party style, artists (which now increasingly include women as well) in Brasilia, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Salvador and other cities have experimented with various musical styles including Afro-beat, reggae, samba, and electronic to create new sounds, dances, artwork, and movements.

 

This special issue of Words Beats & Life aims to represent the vast diversity of hip-hop expressions in Brazil as well as the unique and significant history of thiscountrywide phenomena. We seek well-researched essays, between 3,000-8,000 words including citations, pertaining to hip-hop and hip-hop related movements in Brazil. We are also soliciting personal essays, book reviews, interviews, artwork, poetry, and photography for the issue.

 

Due date: April 15, 2014.

Please send all inquires to guest editor Melissa Castillo-Garsow, American Studies & African American Studies, Yale University; melissa.castillo-garsow@yale.edu

 

About the Journal:

Words Beats & Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture is a peer-reviewed, hybrid periodical of art and hip-hop studies published twice a year. Inside, you'll find a platform for both emerging and established intellectuals & artists who use this unique medium to elevate hip-hop theory and practice in a common resource. Today, the journal is the world's only peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the subject of hip-hop culture. For more information visit http://wblinc.org/shop/journal/

 

   


GSU Jamaica Study Abroad and Maroon Immersion Program

June 11 - June 25, 2014

 

The Jamaica Study Abroad and Maroon Immersion Program (June 11 - June 25, 2014)  is a two-week Summer voyage to Jamaica, which focuses on the history and culture of the Maroons. The Maroons are descendants of rebel slaves from West Africa who defeated the British and formed autonomous societies in the remote interiors of Jamaica in the 17th century. This program offers a first-hand opportunity to explore and research over 500 years of Jamaica's diverse and dynamic history and culture, including the contemporary challenges of a developing island-nation in a globalizing world. Participants will visit National Heritage sites relating to the peoples, places and events of significance to Jamaican history, spanning the pre-colonial era of the indigenous Tainos, Spanish and British colonialism, the arrival of enslaved Africans and indentured Asians, and 50 years of political independence. Students will learn about pirates such as Henry Morgan; High Priestess Nanny of the Maroons; Pan-Africanist pioneer Marcus Garvey; Reggae music icon Bob Marley; and world's fastest man Usain Bolt. Program highlights include hiking the 500 year-old Cunha Cunha Pass Maroon Heritage Trail, lodging at the Ambassabeth Eco Lodge Cabins, and home-stays with Maroon families in the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park - home of the Windward Maroons. Lectures will be delivered by community experts, University of the West Indies and international faculty.

 

This Georgia State University program is open to undergraduate and graduate students in a variety of disciplines from other universities, as well as professionals in the field. These applicants would need to register as Transient/Visiting Students with GSU, and after completing the program and writing a research paper based on the trip, would earn three credits from GSU to transfer to their home institution.  Students may apply to the program now by clicking on the following link - http://www.studyabroad.gsu.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=21811. Transient/Visiting Students should also click on the following link to apply for admission to GSU - http://www.studyabroad.gsu.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Abroad.ViewLink&Link_ID=DBEAF657-26B9-564D-D68CDAF3CAD33A8E. Visiting students for Georgia State University study abroad programs pay tuition and fees at the GSU in-state rate. The program deadline is March 15, 2014.

 

Click here to download the program brochure or the flyer.

 

If you are interested in getting more information about or applying to the Jamaica Study Abroad & Maroon Immersion Program, June 11 - 25, 2014, you may contact Dr. Harcourt Fuller at hfuller@gsu.edu.
    

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