Hip hop theatre is a genre that emerged in the 1990s and blends hip hop aesthetics and sociopolitical content. Dive in with this conversation between Clyde Valentin and Will Power on hip hop culture, or Kamilah Forbes’ essay on the Hip-Hop Theatre Festival, which has the mission of “present[ing] live, professionally executed theater written by, and about the Hip-Hop generation.”
The Latest
Essay
Shakespeare Against the Canon in Our Verse in Time to Come
by Melissa Lin Sturges, Karen Ann Daniels, Malik Work, John Ray Proctor III
22 August 2023
Podcast
Writing Detroit: Dominique Morisseau’s Practice of the Possible
by Jordan Ealey, Leticia Ridley, Dominique Morisseau
Karen Ann Daniels, Malik Work, and John “Ray” Proctor sit down with Melissa Lin Sturges to discuss their work on Our Verse in Time to Come, a Folger Theatre production that used Shakespeare as a jumping off point to become a testament to “the other bards”—the ones still living and the ones still to come.
Jordan Ealey and Leticia Ridley interview award-winning and acclaimed playwright Dominique Morisseau about her recent Broadway productions of Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations and Skeleton Crew; the future of Detroit theatre and performance; and reckoning with American history. Ealey and Ridley discuss Morisseau’s practice of reparative creativity and the ability for theatre to serve as a rehearsal for true change.
Kamilah Forbes, artistic director of the Apollo Theater, speaks with Wes Jackson and P. Carl about the American theatre being a very slow-moving ship, genre-crossing for artists and organizations, systemic racism in the field, and more.
A Hip Hop remix of Alice in Wonderland that explores the concepts of structural violence, anti-blackness, memory, and self-discovery.
Friday 8 May 2020
Takoma, Washington, USA
The University of Puget Sound’s Projects in Dramaturgy: “Politics & Praxis of Rememory” class presented the virtual reading of Aaliyah in Underland by Wind Dell Woods on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 8 May 2020 at 12 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC-7) / 2 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC-5) / 3 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC-4) / 20:00 BST (London, UTC+1) / 21:00 CEST (Berlin, UTC+2).
Kim Peter Kovac looks at the way the theatre for young audiences field has changed over the last few years, where it’s at today, and what his hopes are for the future.
Jeff Chang on Detroit-based Complex Movements’ Beware of the Dandelions, a narrative, concert, visual installation, architectural piece, and convening space to distribute revolutionary ideas and activate creative ecosystems and economies of change.
The VORTEX in Austin, Texas presented Hip-Hop Theatre Explosion livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 6 November at 8 p.m. CST (Austin) / 6 p.m. PST (San Francisco) / 9 p.m. EST (Washington, DC). In Twitter, use #howlround and follow @HowlRoundTV.
The VORTEX in Austin, Texas presented Hands Up Hoodies Down—the return of this critically-acclaimed hip hop theatre and dance piece for our times—livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday 19 September at 8 p.m. CDT (Austin) / 6 p.m. PDT (San Francisco) / 9 p.m. EDT (New York).
A Call for Solidarity—a real-time networked performance linking Hawaii, Alaska, and New York City—livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Wednesday 15 April at 8 p.m. EDT (New York) / 7 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 5 p.m. PDT (Los Angeles) / 4 p.m. AKDT (Alaska) / 2 p.m. HAST (Hawaii).
Though set in 1988, the play’s insistence on the power of words, creativity, and voice as a means of self-assertion, growth, and transformation is of timeless importance and is especially relevant now.
Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts presents The Power of Hip Hop Culture: A Conversation with Clyde Valentin and Will Power livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Sunday 16 March at 8 a.m. PDT/ 10 a.m. CDT/ 11 a.m. EDT/ 15:00 GMT. In Twitter, use #howlround.
The VORTEX in Austin, Texas presented The Holiday Hip-Hop Theatre Explosionlivestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday 21 December 2013 at 6 p.m. CDT (San Francisco)/ 8 p.m. CST (Austin)/ 9 p.m. EST (New York). Use Twitter hashtag #howlround & direct comments @VORTEXonManor.
Slam poet Donnie Welch presented a workshop performance of Leaving Dynamite livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday 10 August 2013 at 5 p.m. PDT (San Francisco) / 7 p.m. CDT (New Orleans) / 8 p.m. EDT (New York). Expected run time: 45 minutes.
The mission is to bring stories by and about the hiphop generation. Now Hip-hop Theatre Festival is finished with the nomadic lifestyle and have a space to call our own.
