As the opening act of the Culture Jam concert got underway in April, the thump of music by Animate Objects, a jazzy hip-hop group, rolled out of the Mitchell Center and across campus. The show was on.
The concert was the culmination of a week’s worth of Culture Jam activities that included a gospel music festival, a step competition, a comedy show, and a performance by Black Violin, two hip-hop violinists.
Culture Jam, sponsored by the Black Student Union, is an annual campus event that celebrates African- American culture. In addition to exploring current music and traditions, students also looked back at the history of hip-hop through a lip syncing show, during which they dressed up and performed using the personas of some of the genre’s biggest names. To gear up for the Friday night concert (which featured Kardinal Offishall, in addition to Animate Objects), John Goehrke from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame came to campus to lecture on hip-hop as a cultural movement, just so the students had a little background to think about while they did all that dancing.