Photos by the Reece Museum staff.
Click on the player below to listen to Josh Outsey performing at the event as you peruse the photos. He is an Appalachian rapper who is working with other musicians on projects that blend Hip Hop and Old-Time music sounds. Josh's family lives in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, and he desires to create art that feels like a more accurate representation of his cultural identity in an area where this blend of music thrives.
Click on each photo for more information.
Kevin Glasper, aka Glasper, teaches dance as an urban art form through the five elements of Hip Hop: emceeing, deejaying, breaking, graffiti and beatboxing. His teaching philosophy focuses on personal narratives that establish a shared cultural identity through Hip Hop, deconstructing negative connotations for each Hip Hop element and reframing them as art.
Kasper referenced the work of KRS-One, who is recognized as an influential and philosophical Hip Hop artist from the Bronx. He founded the Temple of Hip Hop to be a ministry, archive, school and society, because “if you want any kind of longevity, if you want any kind of legacy, you need to know what ancestral line you are from.” Glapser’s work within the community teaches “dance as musicality to enhance self-expression and to bring folks together through the process of building.”
Sofia Suarez, aka Aya, 2022