The Importance and Challenges of Archiving & Preserving Hip-Hop History

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DOORS: 17:00

LECTURE: 17:30-19:00

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‍Lecture Overview:
This lecture will explore the critical role of archiving and preserving Hip-Hop history, highlighting both its importance and the challenges it faces. Martha Diaz, a pioneer in Hip-Hop education and archival practices, will offer insights into safeguarding Hip-Hop’s cultural legacy for future generations. The session will delve into various facets of archiving, cultural preservation, and community engagement, providing participants with a deeper understanding of how these efforts contribute to a more inclusive and complete historical narrative.

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Key Learning Objectives:

• Global Knowledge and Cultural Production:
  Explore how global knowledge and cultural production practices shape our understanding of Hip-Hop’s diaspora and its transnational spaces. The lecture will honor Hip-Hop as a global cultural phenomenon, reflecting on its 50-year history while sharing best practices in documenting its contributions to art, music, dance, entrepreneurship, and scholarship.
• Archiving and Preserving Hip-Hop’s History:
  Gain valuable insights into preserving Hip-Hop history within libraries, museums, and archives. The focus will be on addressing the growing needs of both digital and physical archives, ensuring that non-mainstream and underdocumented elements of Hip-Hop culture are captured and made accessible for future generations.
• Community Engagement:
  Discover how community engagement can be fostered through archival arts and education projects, ensuring that archives are accessible to diverse audiences. Participants will learn strategies for involving communities in preserving their own cultural narratives.
• Interdisciplinary Dialogue:
  Join an interdisciplinary conversation among artists, archivists, curators, educators, and scholars about the processes, challenges, and achievements of documenting and preserving Hip-Hop history. The lecture will also highlight regional Hip-Hop collecting initiatives, showcasing both their successes and ongoing challenges.

About Martha Diaz

Colombian-American futurist Martha Diaz (MD) is an award-winning social entrepreneur, media producer, educator, archivist, and curator, committed to advancing social justice and equity through the transformative power of Hip-Hop culture, media, technology, and storytelling. In 2010, MD founded the Hip-Hop Education Center, where she serves as Executive Director, Chief Curator, and Archivist. Over the past 30 years, she has worked across the Hip-Hop entertainment industry, public arts, education, and academia, building bridges between public and private cultural and educational institutions.

A globally recognized thought leader in education, community organizing, and mentoring, MD brings extensive experience in organizational development, interpersonal relations, networking, and event production. Through exhibitions and publications, including research reports, books, and curricula, she has documented and preserved Hip-Hop history to safeguard its cultural value and legacy. In 2002, MD founded the acclaimed Hip-Hop Odyssey (H2O) International Film Festival, the first of its kind. She was invited to curate the first Hip-Hop film series presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and has served as a guest curator at the Museum of the Moving Image and The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. MD has produced and consulted on numerous media projects, including Where My Ladies At? by Leba Haber Rubinoff (2007), Black August: A Hip-Hop Concert by dream hampton (2010), Nas: Time Is Illmatic by One9 (2014), and Dear Mama by Allen Hughes (2023).

A graduate of New York University’s Gallatin School for Individualized Study and Tisch School of the Arts’ Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program, MD has worked on archival projects with Parkwood Entertainment (Beyoncé Knowles-Carter), the Tupac Shakur Estate, Ralph McDaniels’ Video Music Box Collection, The Paley Center for Media, and A&E’s Hip-Hop Treasures TV series, among others. She has taught at NYU and Virginia State University (VSU) and was a visiting scholar at Virginia Union University. MD has held numerous fellowships, including Senior Fellow at the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation – National Museum of American History, A’Lelia Bundles Community Scholar at Columbia University, Nasir Jones Fellow at Harvard University, Inaugural Fellow at the Center for Creative & Entertainment Arts at VSU, and MacArthur Civic Media Senior Fellow at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. She currently serves as an advisor, associate archivist, and curator at The Hip Hop Museum, and is a senior producer for The Alliance for Media Arts + Culture.

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Presented by:
Martha Diaz, Founder and Executive Director, The Hip-Hop Education Center, Malmö University/Medea and Iver