Two years after his groundbreaking history Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, American Book Award-winning journalist Jeff Chang turns the pages over to some of the most compelling voices of the hip-hop arts movement. One of the most important global arts movements of the past two decades, hip-hop has moved beyond rap music to transform theater, dance, performance, poetry, literature, fashion, design, photography, painting, and film. Total Chaos presents hip-hop arts through the voices of its pioneers, innovators, and mavericks.
With an introductory survey essay by Chang, the anthology includes:
• Greg Tate, Mark Anthony Neal, Brian “B+” Cross, and Vijay Prashad on hip-hop aesthetics in the wake of multiculturalism.
• Actor and playwright Danny Hoch’s hip-hop arts manifesto.
• Joan Morgan and Mark Anthony Neal on gender relations in hip-hop.
• Danyel Smith and Adam Mansbach on hip-hop literature.
• B-boy-turned- visual-artist DOZE on the uses and limits of a “hip-hop” identity.
• PEN Award-winning writer Raquel Cepeda on”the flash of the spirit” in hip-hop arts.
• POPMASTER FABEL’s history of hip-hop dance, and choreographer Rennie Harris on the emergence of global dance theatre.
• Bill Adler on hip-hop photography, with photos by Glen E. Friedman, Janette Beckman, and Joe Conzo.
• Poetry and prose from Amde Hamilton of the Watts Prophets, Staceyann Chin, Suheir Hammad, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and Kevin Coval.
The book’s release will be accompanied by the Total Chaos Hip-Hop Forum Series, an unprecedented set of panel talks on hip-hop arts across the country. Featuring contributors from the book and special guests, the Total Chaos Hip-Hop Forum Series will touch down this winter and spring in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Madison, Minneapolis, Durham, and many more cities. Check for updates and announcements on totalchaoshiphop.com and cantstopwontstop.com.
TOTAL CHAOS: TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part 1 - ROOTS: PERSPECTIVES ON HISTORY
1. Harry Allen - Dreams Of A Final Theory
2. Anthony “Amde” Hamilton of the Watts Prophets - Nommo
3. Marc Bamuthi Joseph - (Yet Another) Letter To A Young Poet
4. Jorge POPMASTER FABEL Pabon - Physical Graffiti: A History Of Hip-Hop Dance
5. Joe Schloss - The Art of Battling: An Interview With Alien Ness
6. Greg Tate, Vijay Prashad, Mark Anthony Neal, Brian Cross - Got Next: A Roundtable on Identity and Aesthetics after Multiculturalism Roundtable
Part 2 - FLIPPING THE SCRIPT: BEYOND THE FOUR ELEMENTS
7. The Pure Movement and the Crooked Line: An Interview with Rennie Harris
8. Eisa Davis - Found In Translation: The Emergence of Hip-Hop Theatre
9. Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Kamilah Forbes, Traci Bartlow, and Javier Reyes - From The Dope Spot To Broadway: A Roundtable on Hip-Hop Theatre, Dance, and Performance
10. Adam Mansbach - On Lit Hop
11. Bill Adler - Who Shot Ya: A History of Hip-Hop Photography
12. Cey Adams, Brent Rollins, and Sacha Jenkins - Words And Images: A Roundtable on Graphic Design
13. Lydia Yee, with Nadine Robinson, Sanford Biggers, Luis Gispert, and Jackie Salloum - Between the Studio and the Street: A Roundtable on Hip-Hop Visual Arts
14. Paul D. Miller - The City In Public Vs. Private: Through a Scanner Darkly
Part 3 - THE REAL: IDENTITY IN FLUX
15. Oliver Wang - It Was Written: The Aesthetics of Hip-Hop Journalism
16. Kevin Coval - “L-vis Is A Pioneer” or Legacy, the VH1 Special
17. Dave Tompkins - Burn Rubber on Plastic Bubbles: The Art of Dave Funkenklein
18. Danyel Smith - Black Talk and Hot Sex: Why Street Lit is Literature
19. Juba Kalamka and Tim’m West - It’s All One: A Conversation
20. Joel Tan - Homothugdragsterism
21. Robert Karimi - How I Found My Inner DJ
22. Joan Morgan and Mark Anthony Neal - A Brand New Feminism: A Conversation
Part 4 - WORLDWIDE: HIP-HOP ARTS BEYOND BORDERS
23. Suheir Hammad - Brooklyn
24. Staceyann Chin - Falling For Bob Marley
25. Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi - Inventos Hip-Hop: An Interview
26. Shaheen Ariefdien and Nazli Abrahams - Cape Flats Alchemy
27. Raquel Cepeda - Afro-Blue: Incanting Yoruba Gods in Hip-Hop’s Isms
28. Cristina Veran with Darryl DLT Thompson, Litefoot, Grant Leigh Saunders, Mohammed Yunus Rafiq, and JAAS - Native Tongues: A Roundtable on Hip-Hop’s Global Indigenous Movement
Part 5 - NEXT ELEMENTS: HIP-HOP ARTS AND FUTURE AESTHETICS
29. Walidah Imarisha - Untitled Poem
30. Roberta Uno - Theatres Crossing The Divide: A Baby Boomer’s Defense of Hip-Hop Aesthetics
31. Eric Arnold, with Rachel Raimist, Kevin Epps, and Michael Wanguhu - Put Your Camera Where My Eyes Can See: A Hip-Hop Film Roundtable
32. Codes And The B-Boy’s Stigmata: An Interview with Jeffrey DOZE Green
33. Revolution: An Interview with Brett Cook-Dizney
34. Rha Goddess - Scarcity & Exploitation: The Myth & Reality of the Struggling Hip-Hop Artist
35. Danny Hoch - Towards A Hip-Hop Aesthetic: A Manifesto for the Hip-Hop Arts Movement
“Total Chaos is Jeff Chang at his best: fierce and unwavering in his commitment to document the hip-hop explosion. In beginning to define a hip-hop aesthetic, this gathering of artists, pioneers, and thinkers illuminates the special truth that hip-hop speaks to youth around the globe.”
—Bakari Kitwana, author of The Hip-Hop Generation
ABOUT THE EDITOR: JEFF CHANG
Jeff Chang is the author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation (winner of the American Book Award, the Asian American Literary Award, the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award and the Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research). He was a co-founder of the legendary SoleSides indie hip-hop label, now Quannum Projects, and helped launch the careers of DJ Shadow, Blackalicious, Lyrics Born and Lateef the Truth Speaker. He is a founding editor of ColorLines Magazine, and has written extensively about race, culture, politics, music, and the arts.
“Jeff Chang is hip-hop America’s Howard Zinn.”
—Salon.com
PREVIEW OF UPCOMING TOTAL CHAOS HIP-HOP FORUM SERIES
* February 26, 2007: University of Wisconsin at Madison
Special panel & workshop with theatre artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph and choreographer Rennie Harris.
* April 17, 2007: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco)
“Is There Freedom After Hip-Hop?: A Discussion on Hip-Hop Aesthetics”
Guests to be announced.
* May 8, 2007: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco)
“Is There Liberation After Hip-Hop?: A Discussion on Hip-Hop Politics”
Guests to be announced.
Look for upcoming events at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, and many more!
For a complete list of Jeff Chang’s appearances go to: www.totalchaoshiphop.com/tc/events.cfm
For tour dates, a Q+A, bio, and other information, please visit cantstopwontstop.com or check www.totalchaoshiphop.com.