First-Year Seminar: The Poetic Roots of Hip-Hop: Hidden Histories of African American Rhyme

What are the roots of hip-hop's masterful rhymes and tongue-tripping flow? This seminar explores hip-hop's poetic prehistory, looking to the rhyming and oral poetics that have long defined African American experience. In so doing, we'll uncover hidden histories of everyday eloquence and explore spoken/sung poetry's role in marking cultural identity. Honors version available.