Course descriptions
Topics in Performance Studies: Hip Hop Theatre Routes and Branches: Traces the development of Hip Hop Theatre and its relationship to the cultural production of Hip Hop culture. Begins with African Orature, moves through the Beat poets, Last Poets, Gil Scott Heron, choreopoems, and the Black Arts movement up to the emergence of Hip Hop culture in the early 1970s, ultimately focusing on the current innovators of the form.
Devised Theatre Practicum: Hip Hop and Spoken Word Theatre: Focuses on the interplay between the foundational aesthetics of Hip Hop culture and the process of creating theatre from a physical and improvisational methodology. Guest artists train students in the individual performance “elements” of Hip Hop (e.g., DJ’ing, MC’ing, B-boying/girling, Aerosol Art, and Beatboxing).
Theatrical Genres: Ritual Theatre: A seminar in research methodology, focusing on world traditions of ritual theatre. Was offered in preparation for the Spring 2005 Drama Mainstage production, Re/Rites, a “ritual” performance by and for the NYU community, drawing on Hip Hop and spoken word aesthetics, politics, and values.
Hip Hop Theatre and Community Action: Similar to the Devised Theatre Practicum, the emphasis in this course is on learning to engage Hip Hop Pedagogy and Hip Hop Theatre in community and classroom settings. Students work on facilitation skills with multiple community groups and leading dialogue around the socio-political issues inherent in Hip Hop culture.
Sampling Hip Hop – Popular Culture as a Pedagogical Tool (co-facilitated with Prof. Kyra Gaunt, Music Dept): A week-long workshop with and for university professors and educators from around the country focusing on strategies for incorporating Hip Hop materials into college curricula from various disciplines. A focus on the values and methodologies embodied in Hip Hop culture in order to think about alternative pedagogical models and contexts.