“Doing the Knowledge: Preserving Hip-Hop Culture Beyond 'the Archive'” with Professor Mark V. Campbell
With hip-hop cultural memorabilia currently being auctioned globally by international auction houses, exhibited by museums and archived by 'ivy League' universities, there are clear signs of an archival turn in this once rebellious youth counterculture. In this talk I focus on the emergence of hip-hop archives in the United States and the exhibition of its artifacts in multiple cities globally. I explore the role of hip-hop archives in imagining possibilities for ethical acts of preservation, acts that breakfrom the colonial histories of archives. I argue that the role of artists, local cultures and hip-hop practitioner’s own preservation strategies, are central to the development of decolonial archival methods and the ethical preservation of hip-hop culture.