Mackenzie Thomas
Staff Writer
To kick of the celebration of Black History Month, the University of Wyoming African American and Diaspora Studies Department will be hosting “Sha-Rock Pioneering Women of Hip-Hop.”
This event will be held in the University of Wyoming Student Union Room 203 Fri. from 12-12:45 p.m.
MC Sha-Rock is best known for being the first female emcee and rapper in hip-hop culture. She started her career as a b-girl and break dancer, but later went on to become the first female emcee in the world of hip-hop. The event will feature MC Sha-Rock where she will lecture over the history of hip-hop and her pioneering role in the field.
“The importance of this event is to highlight the role that black women play in sculpting and fastening the culture of America,” said Fredrick Douglass Dixon, an assistant professor in the African American and Diaspora Studies Department.
Though this event is considered a nontraditional approach to celebrating Black History Month, Sha-Rock’s significance is crucial to the growth of awareness for African American Women.
“The focus this time is on African American women, that’s why we have lots of presentations and the museum on black women as they are a doubly oppressed group,” said Ulrich Adelt, the Director of the African American and Diaspora Studies Department.
Traditionally, Black History Month tends to focus on one or two significant African American leaders, when in fact there are many more who contributed to the success and modern day culture of America. By including Sha-Rock’s lecture, Dixon and Adelt said they hope to provide a new angle on how Black History Month is viewed.
“If you look at the mainstream narrative of Black History Month, we get a consistent heaping of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which is not accurate, and a heavy influence of Rosa Parks, which is also not accurate, and the idea of us wanting to add to the mainstream thought, this is one way that we can represent another angle for Black History Month,” said Dixon. “It’s up to us to set the pace on how one can extend the dominant discourse.”
Both Drixion and Adelt expressed how the university is reaching out in some nontraditional ways, in order to make the lecture as accessible as possible.
“The importance of this is to bring awareness to the role women have played throughout history,” said Dixon. He also said that by introducing this event to the University of Wyoming and the surrounding community, they hope to target a younger audience of students through the connection of hip-hop culture.
Sha-Rock’s event is just one of the many that will be included in the celebration of Black History Month. The different events of Black History month are aimed at the students, staff and faculty of UW and the surrounding community.
Adelt said he intends to make the events for Black History Month, and the information these events provide, very accessible for audience members of all statuses.
