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Poets in Protest: Footsteps to Hip HopMaster ClassIn-Person

Wednesday, Mar 19, 2025

9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Location to be announced

This seminar examines the tradition of poetic protest in the African Diaspora. From the Harlem Renaissance and Négritude to the Black Liberation Movement of the ’60s, and through strains of today’s hip hop/rap explosion, poets, lyricists, and rap/hip hop artists have sought to reclaim and reshape images of themselves and their communal experiences. Through comparative and critical analyses of historical works, songs, and poetry, we will come to a deeper understanding of the common (and disparate) thematic and aesthetic approaches of these movements as they continue to alter the discourse on race and liberation.

ENGLISH, POETRY, MUSIC, HISTORY

Michael D. Dinwiddie

Michael D. Dinwiddie is an award-winning playwright and composer whose works have been produced in New York, regional, and educational theatre. A professor of dramatic writing at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, he was awarded the NYU Distinguished Teaching Medal. His courses include “Poets in Protest: Footsteps to Hip Hop”; “Motown Matrix: Issues of Gender and Identity in ‘The Sound of Young America’”; “Migration and American Culture”; “Dramatizing History”; “James Reese Europe and American Music”; “Sissle, Blake and the Minstrel Tradition,” and “Cultural Memory and Resistance.” Michael’s archival research led to the naming of the African Grove Theatre on NYU’s campus, to commemorate the 1821 playhouse that was the first Black-owned theatre in the United States. Michael is president of the August Wilson Society and serves on the boards of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre, The Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation, NewFest LGBTQ+ Film and Media, and the Black Theatre Network. In 2024, he was presented the AUDELCO Pioneer Award for his contributions to Black theatre.