WORD: LIFE Closing and Thank You

Word: Life is a multigenerational mixtape, conjuring the spirit of hip hop journalism at its best: with deep roots but unmistakably present and proximate, maybe even a little arrogant.
Over the many #HipHop50 celebrations we kept asking each other: “When is somebody going to talk about the role of hip hop journalism in the culture?” Eventually, we decided to do it ourselves.
As we began conceptualizing this event, we heard that so many of the #hiphop50 celebrations felt overly focused on the past. We wanted to do something that would celebrate some big moments in hip hop journalism history without sanitizing the story; that would tackle difficult questions we’re still grappling with. That would resonate across generations, with the writers, the podcasters, the RUclipsrs, the social media mavens.
It started with a preview event on February 15 at the Ford Foundation and then continued at the Schomburg on the 20th and Columbia Journalism School on the 21st.
We worked with a multigenerational group of advisors (big thanks to Syreeta Gates, Shamira Ibrahim, Bakari Kitwana and Danyel Smith) who shared ideas and names of people to talk to, read and listen to. dream hampton sent us four hours of B-Roll from her never completed 1993 documentary on The Source magazine,and watched the whole thing and selected a segment to share at the conference. We spoke with many hip hop journalists past and present, took a deep dive on social media, watched many commentators, listened to podcasts and read widely to understand which issues felt most relevant to writers right now.
Thank you to all involved in making this seminal project come to life.