From Rap Music to Street Lit: Make Hip Hop Happen in Your

Library

Presented bySharon Rawlins

Youth Services Consultant, NJ State Librarysrawlins@njstatelib.org

Defining 21st C. Street Literature

Contemporary Street Literature can be defined as a literary genre "where the stories, be they fiction or non-fiction, are consistently

set in urban, inner-city enclaves. Street Literature of yesteryear and today, by and large, depicts tales about the daily lives of

people living in lower income city neighborhoods. This characteristic spans

historical timelines, varying cultural identifications, linguistic associations, and

various format designations." -

The Readers' Advisory Guide to Street Literature, by Vanessa Morris, 2011, p.

2.

Vanessa Irvin Morris

http://www.streetliterature.com/

Street Literature....Poundin' the Pavement to Bring You the Word on Street Lit

Megan Honig

• http://www.meganhonig.com/libraries

• Presented Supporting Teen Street Lit Readers webinar for LibraryLinkNJ

Hip-Hop Defined:Hip-hop is a form of popular music that's comprised mainly of emceeing and deejaying. The other two components that complete the four elements of hip-hop are graffiti and breakdancing. As hip-hop evolves into big business, the four elements (emceeing, deejaying, graffiti, and breakdancing) are constantly being merged with others like clothing trends, slang, and general mindset.

Rap Vs. Hip-Hop:

Rap is a form of music that stemmed from hip-hop culture. Hip hop is a lifestyle with its own lingo, dress code, etc. In the words of KRS-One, "hip-hop is something you live, rap is something you do."

http://rap.about.com/bio/Henry-Adaso-18388.htm

The Coldest Winter Ever

Sister Souljah

Top 10 Street Lit Authors(By The Urban Book Source, Dec. 2007)

Teri Woods (True to the Game)- produced and published Mr. Shannon Holmes & Kwame Teague; independent publisher, who still outshines her competition & major publishers. She revitalized the genre

Vickie Stringer (Let That Be The Reason) - Founder/Owner of Triple Crown Publications (TCP) - represents many authors; also literary agent

Sister Souljah (The Coldest Winter Ever) - classic, responsible for single handily rejuvenating genre.

Shannon Holmes (B-More Careful) His 2nd book, Badgirlz, was published under Atria imprint of S&S, making him one of the first authors to get deal with a major publisher.

K'Wan (Gangsta, Hood Rat) - Has own publishing company Black Dawn Books

Wahida Clark (Thug series, Thugs and the Women Who Love Them, etc.) - Queen of Thug Love Fiction; spent time in prison; literary agent

Nikki Turner (A Hustler's Wife)- Has own imprint "Nikki Turner Presents" at Random House; first author signed to G-Unit Books movement, book publishing venture created by 50 Cent

Mark Anthony (Diary of a Young Girl) - one of the first authors to write self-published urban lit; manages QBoro Books, that manages over 30 authors

Treasure E. Blue (Harlem Girl Lost; A Street Girl Named Desire) - "Uncle of Urban Lit;" started off as an independent publisher

Kwame Teague (Dutch I & II) - author of best-selling titles

The Top 10 Authors of Street Lit are based on market research by The Urban Book Source and the preferences of its

visitors and judged against the following criteria:

The author must have made a substantial and consistent contributions to the

industry.The author should have:

A broad range of recognition across the genre

A particularly strong following of readers

An outstanding novel that has proven itself as an industry classic

Popular Street Lit Authors/Adult & YA

If it didn't make you nervous, you wouldn't be

open to the possibilities

Urban Fiction/Street Lit/Hip Hop Fiction Resources for Librarians

• http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Urban_Fiction/Street_Lit/Hip_Hop_Fiction_Resources_for_Librarians

SOCIAL MEDIA

PhatFiction - Librarian Wikispace for Street Lit Wiki -- This wiki is an outcome of the ALA 2010 panel on Street Literature. The wiki features discussion, Q&A, and resources about street lit from librarians, librarian educators, and YA authors.

What's Hot in Street Literature Slideshare -- Powerpoint lecture by Chicago Librarian, K.C. Boyd, via slideshare.net

What Is Street Lit? Podcast -- Podcast chat via BlogTalkRadio (July 2010) featuring author K'wan Foye, street lit bloggers and street lit readers.

REVIEW/DISCUSSION WEBSITES

Street Fiction: Urban Fiction Book Reviews streetfiction.org

Raw Sistaz Blog and reviews

QBR: The Black Book Review QBR

Urban Book Reviews Urban Reviews

The Urban Book Source Voice of Urban Literature

Streetwise Urban Fiction Library Journal July 15 2006

Library Journal publishes a monthly column reviewing recent Urban Fiction/Street Lit books

called The Word on Street Lit.

Street Lit Book Awards• Started in 2011 by Vanessa Morris,

former "The Word on Street Lit” columnist for LJ

• Recognizes the best urban fiction & nonfiction

The award serves as an annual guide to what is the most popular and best street lit to assist librarians and other educators in

developing their collections and conducting readers’ advisory in this genre.

Adult NonfictionCommon

with Adam Bradley

One Day It’ll All Make SenseAtria: S. & S.

The 2012 winners include:

Adult FictionK’wan.  Eviction Notice:

A Hood Rat Novel. St. Martin's Griffin

The 2012 winners include:

Teen/Young AdultNi-Ni Simone  Upgrade U.

KTeen/Dafina: Kensington

The 2012 winners include:

Special CategoryEmerging Classic  G. Neri. Yummy:

The Last Days of a Southside

Shorty. Lee & Low Bks.

The 2012 winners include:

Hip Hop/Street Lit Programming

• Live music by Hip Hop/Rap Performers

• Hip Hop/Rap Rave for Teens

• Programs by professionals in hip hop music or publishing business

• Hip Hop Battle Rap - contest in performance and freestyle rapping (like National one across US this summer) http://nationalhiphopcompetition.com/national-hip-hop-competition-tour-dates

• Poetry Slams

• Book Clubs

• Hip Hop/Rap Creative Writing Program

Gangsta Rap

Benjamin Zephaniah

50 CENT

Hip Hop Name Generators

• http://www.prosanityworld.com/games/hipHopName.html

• http://www.ideazoo.com/things/hiphop.cfm

• Just answer a few questions and they create a hip hop name for you, one that sounds catchy as if it was a real name. Some are very funny too.

Hip-Hop Word Count™The Hip-Hop Word Count is a searchable ethnographic database built from the lyrics of over 40,000 Hip-Hop songs from 1979 to present day.

The Hip-Hop Word Count describes the technical details of most of your favorite hip-hop songs. This data can then be used to not only figure out interesting stats about the songs themselves, but also describe the culture behind the music.

How can analyzing lyrics teach us about our culture?

The Hip-Hop Word Count locks in a time and geographic location for every metaphor, simile, cultural reference, phrase, rhyme style, meme and socio-political idea used in the corpus of Hip-Hop.

The Hip-Hop Word Count then converts this data into explorable visualisations which help us to comprehend this vast set of cultural data.

This data can be used to chart the migration of ideas and builds a geography of language.

The readability scores are on a scale from 0 (illiterate) to 20 (post-graduate degree). The following songs are featured:

Rakim: Microphone Fiend50 Cent: I Get MoneyLupe Fiasco: SuperstarKanye West: Big BrotherLil Wayne: I’m MePharrell: Everybody NoseJay-Z: Dead Presidents 2Tupac Shakur: TrappedBarack Obama: A Serious Energy PolicyJohn Mc Cain: On Energy SecurityNotorious B.I.G.: WarningDa Brat: Funkdafied

http://www.missdomino

.blogspot.com/• K.C. Boyd's blog. She is a Library Media

Specialist at the Wendell Philips Academy High School in Chicago, IL.

• Blog post The Perfect Pair: Hip Hop and Street Literature

Harlem Book Fair

• http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/04/a_new_page_harlem_book_fair_to.html

• Friday and Saturday, April 27 & 28, 2012, Paul Robeson Center - Newark

• Saturday, April 28, features special exhibits on hip hop literature

CHUCK D

Photo credit to Walter Leaphart 2005

The End

Thank You!