Journalist to Speak on History of Hip-Hop Generation

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop, the definitive history of the hip-hop generation, will speak about hip-hop as a voice for marginalized populations as a part of the Difficult Dialogues series funded by a Ford Foundation grant. He will offer an informal question and answer session at 3:30 p.m. and a lecture with questions afterward at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 5, in the auditorium of Willard J. Walker Hall. Both events are free and open to the public.

The Ford Foundation, the Office of the Provost and the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences are sponsoring his visit.

With a background in race relations, Chang believes the hip-hop movement can be used as an educational tool. In Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop, he offers an alternative history of the last 30 years - a coming of age story of the hip-hop generation. The New Yorker described it as “one of the most urgent and passionate histories of popular music ever written.”

Chang began working as a journalist in 1991 for two magazines inspired by hip-hop, URB and The Bomb. He has written for the Village Voice, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the Los Angeles Weekly, Vibe, Spin, The Nation, Mother Jones and the Washington Post. He was a founding editor of ColorLines magazine and co-founder of the influential hip-hop independent label SoleSides.

After being politicized by the anti-apartheid and anti-racist movements at the University of California—Berkeley, he worked as a community, labor and student organizer, and as a lobbyist for the students of the California State University system. He received a master’s degree in Asian American studies from University of California-Los Angeles and published scholarly articles on culture and race relations in Hawaii and Los Angeles. He was an organizer of the National Hip-Hop Political Convention and serves as a board member for several organizations working for social change in youth and community organizing, media justice, culture and the arts.