Aya Waller-Bey to perform at event for International Women's Day
A Gates Cambridge Scholar will be performing a piece about feminism in Hip-Hop at an event International Women's Day event in Cambridge on Wednesday.
Aya Waller-Bey's performance, entitled Pass the Mic: Feminism in Hip-Hop, will recount the history of Hip-Hop, inserting Black women and the irreconcilable tension they face to support music and a culture that is viewed as both sexist and misogynist. She will express the ways women Hip-Hop artists work to assert their place in a male-dominated industry. The presentation will conclude with an answer to the question: Can a woman truly enjoy and support Hip-Hop AND identify as a (Black) feminist?
The Celebration 2016 event is organised by Creativities and Intercultural Arts Network and takes place at Homerton College on 10th March from 19:30 to 21:00. Performers, who include the poet Hollie McNish, will use space, light, sound, objects and intercultural dialogue to share insights gained from arts-based research on themes of social justice and equality.
Aya [2015] has been studying how Hip-Hop culture can be used in the classroom to increase underrepresented communities' access to universities. She says Hip-Hop is rich with potential for engaging and educating students. Her MPhil in Education aims to evaluate how Hip-Hop informs the understanding of gender relations and sexual consent in adolescents.#
*Picture credit of Missy Elliot: Wikipedia.
