Keep It Movin': A Conversation With Pop Master Fabel About Hip-Hop Culture
"Keep it Movin':" Pop Master Fabel and Anthony Ratcliff in conversation about the past, present and future of Hip-Hop culture.
Jorge “Pop Master Fabel” Pabon was born and raised in Spanish Harlem, NYC, where he developed his dance and choreography career at Hip Hop jams and clubs throughout the city. He has performed internationally since 1982, and is Senior Vice President of Rock Steady Crew and co-founder of GhettOriginal Productions, Inc. With GhettOriginal, he made the first two Hip Hop musicals ever, So! What Happens Now? and Jam on the Groove. With the Rhythm Technicians and Rock Steady, he received a Bessie Award for choreography in 1991, and appears in the Hip-Hop cult classic film Beat Street. He is a Hip Hop historian and activist, an adjunct professor in movement at the Experimental Theater Wing in the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, and artistic director and principle dancer in Rennie Harris’s theatrical production Legends of Hip Hop.
Anthony Ratcliff is finishing his PhD in the W.E.B. DuBois Department of Afro-American Studies at UMass, with a dissertation titled “Liberation at the End of the Pen: Writing Pan-African Politics of Cultural Struggle.” He teaches Hip Hop literature at Stonehill College in Easton, MA and is currently a Fellow of the Northeast Consortium for Faculty Diversity. A firm believer in KRS-One’s adage “rap is something you do, Hip Hop is something you live,” Anthony has been a participant observer of the culture since the early 1980s, as a b-boy and DJ in California. He currently co-hosts TRGGRadio, a progressive Hip Hop program on Valley Free Radio 103.3 in Northampton, every Friday from 8-10 pm.
This event is presented by CISA, the Five College Center for Crossroads in the Study of the Americas.
Refreshments will be provided.