Conference, March 13-15

African Hip-Hop artists demand that we raise and explore urgent questions that affect African youth.
And, indeed, it is in order to pursue those questions and explore lasting solutions that we are organizing a conference titled African Youth Development through Art and Technology: “The Role of African Hip –Hop”, at Harvard University on March 13-15, 2008.

This conference will explore the influence of Hip-Hop in Africa and will bring to light the pressing issues that are echoed in the lyrics and images displayed by youth from the townships of South Africa to the suburbs of Paris. The presence of Hip-Hop in Africa and the wider Diaspora allows us to see Hip-Hop’s ever expanding reach not only as an art form but as a cultural force that shapes youth culture and affects social change globally.