RAW Academy: Hip Hop, Aesthetics and Politics

From October 27th to 31st, Jenny was invited as a faculty member to the Session 3 of the Raw Academy, directed by the Journal Rappé, a satirical televised news show created by Senegalese rappers Xuman and Keyti. The RAW Academy is an experiential residential study programme for the research and study of artistic and curatorial practice and thought. The programme takes place over 8 weeks in Dakar, at the Centre for Art, Knowledge and Society, the RAW Material Company. It is dedicated to a lively reflection on artistic research, curatorial practice and critical writing.

Each academy session is built around a relevant conceptual framework elaborated by the Lead Faculty with contributions of invited fellow professionals. The conceptual framework is a compelling basis for the analysis and production of the fellows’ as well as the faculty’s work and areas of inquiry. This Session 3 was entitled ‘The Five Elements: Hip Hop, Aesthetics and Politics’ and dedicated to thinking about this urban culture/movement’s methodologies and trajectories, in Africa and further afield, that position themselves between aesthetics and politics, and which, thought their constructivist tendencies, props lessons for those looking to create new worlds, be in in the studio, in the street or on the stage.

Jenny delivered a series of seminars on (Popular culture, urban music in relation to society and cultural policy) to the Academy Fellows, young creative minds and practitioners coming from France, U.K., Senegal and Israel; and concluded with a public presentation on ‘Political Culture and Cultural Policy in Galsen Hip Hop’, attended by over 50 people.

More information on the RAW Academy can be found here: http://www.rawmaterialcompany.org/_about-RAW-academy

More information on the RAW Material Company can be found here: http://www.rawmaterialcompany.org/_home?lang=en

More information on the Journal Rappé can be found here: https://www.cjr.org/innovations/senegal-rap-journalism.php ; http://www.rawmaterialcompany.org/_1554