Q-Tip Named the Kennedy Center’s First-Ever Artistic Director for Hip-Hop Culture

Photo by Samir Hussein via Getty Images

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced its inaugural Hip Hop Culture series today: a slate of programming presented in partnership with Hi-ARTS to honor the genre’s contributions to culture and society. Q-Tip has been appointed the Center’s first-ever Artistic Director for Hip-Hop Culture. “With hip-hop constantly changing and evolving, it is easy to forget the history and legacy that precede it,” he said in a statement. “I want to begin at the beginning of the Culture to help people see its roots, better understand its present, and responsibly create its future.”

The Center’s inaugural Hip-Hop Culture season kicks off in July and will run through June 2017. So far, it’s set to feature an international youth poetry slam, an interactive show inspired by remixing, a b-boy competition, and more. In May 2017, DJ Spooky will perform his Rebirth of a Nation project (a remixed response of sorts to D.W. Griffith’s film Birth of a Nation). Find a listing of the preliminary programming here.

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