”I Speak Hip Hop”: An Informative Interview about Generation Hip Hop and the Universal Hip Hop Museum

”I Speak Hip Hop” is an interview of members of Generation Hip Hop and the Universal Hip Hop Museum. This primary source highlights two Hip Hop organizations with chapters around the world. Tasha Iglesias and Travis Harris posits that Hip Hop scholars have not fully uncovered Hip Hop\u27s history around the world. As such, in addition to being a primary source, I Speak Hip Hop reveals the need for more scholarly attention on the dynamic expansion of Hip Hop cultures

It’s “Hip Hop,” Not “hip-hop”

“It’s ‘Hip Hop,’ Not ‘hip-hop’” explains how two Hip Hop scholars, Tasha Iglesias and Travis Harris, collaborated to get the official academic spelling of Hip Hop changed from “hip-hop” to “Hip Hop.” While they were graduate students, they grew frustrated with reading numerous academic texts that did not represent Hip Hop in the same way the culture did outside of academia. Iglesias and Harris are Hip Hop and involved with the culture outside of the classroom. The clash between these two worlds led them to petition the American Psychological Association and eventually speak with Merriam Webster dictionary to change the spelling. In September 2019, APA put out a statement regarding hyphens and proper nouns thereby allowing “hip-hop” to be spelled “Hip Hop.” This article includes two primary sources, the official statement Harris and Iglesias co-authored and the email exchanges with APA and Merriam Webster

"Each One, Teach One": The Impact of a Hip Hop Learning Community on the Cultural Wealth of Foster Youth in Higher Education

The purpose of this study was to determine if a culturally relevant and responsive intervention (i.e., the Hip Hop Learning Community) could develop a foster youth’s cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005). The Hip Hop Learning Community intervention was developed using a Hip Hop Empowerment Model, combining Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth Model and Hip Hop Pedagogy (Petchauer, 2009, Södermana & Sernhedeb, 2016, Sulé, 2016). Drawing on interview data, document analysis and observations of the Hip Hop Learning participants, this study found that foster youth experience anxiety and a sense of confusion when they first apply to college, and as they prepare for their transition after graduating from college. Foster youth reported a lack of familial support while navigating higher education and relied on peers or individual staff members from student support services for assistance. Due to the demands of work and balancing school obligations, attending mandatory meetings held by student support services staff was reported by foster youth as causing further anxiety. Findings also show that foster youth are not knowledgeable in how their major will lead to their desired career, or how to access graduate school after completing their undergraduate degree. Additionally, foster youth in this study prefer individualized support when accessing and navigating higher education. The use of action research comprehensively captured the experiences of foster youth as they accessed higher education and their existing anxiety over their transition post-graduation. The Hip Hop based intervention in this study, including individual assistance from the researcher, created a sense of belonging and safe environment for foster youth to critique their social capital, and improve their resistant and navigational capitals. The use of Hip Hop as a support mechanism allowed the researcher to mentor foster youth using an anti-deficit and individualized approach and was shown to be a promising intervention for foster youth in higher education. Findings suggest, colleges must view foster youth through an anti-deficit lens and consider their individual cultural wealth and potential prior to providing support. It is also recommended that this practice of individualized support be practiced in their pre-college experience by educational advocates in order to better foster youth accessing and navigating higher educatio