As previously mentioned a few months back, XLR8R previewed the 2007 Rap Sessions Tour–a city-by-city panel discussion grappling with misogyny in the cultural realm of hip-hop. Founded and mediated by Bakari Kitwana, author and former editor of The Source magazine, the tour will hit university after university, filling kids and communities with the spirit of critical dialog–a concept rarely embraced on a national platform.

Further propelling the cause, the urban clothing line Sedgwick and Cedar (backed by hip-hop icons Afrika Bambatta, Busy B, DJ Kool Herc) has joined forces with the tour, giving it serious momentum. 

Other panelists include Marc Anthony Neal (Duke University), acclaimed director Byron Hurt (Beyond Beats and Rhymes), and seminal hip-hop journalist Joan Morgan (When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: My Life as a Hip-Hop Feminist), amongst other multi-faceted hip-hop thinkers.

Despite its thought-provoking title, Kitwana, Sedgwick and Cedar, and the panelists aren’t necessarily pointing fingers at the artists. Kitwana best describes the goal of the tour as “a national discussion that asks young people, the hip-hop industry, and policy-makers to assume responsibility for their complicity in making hip-hop synonymous with misogyny.”

Tour Dates
03/20 Spelman College
03/28 Buffalo State University
03/29 Spelman College
03/31 University of Rochester
04/03 University of California, Berkeley
04/04 San Jose State University
04/12 Vanderbilt University
04/18 Case Western University
04/28 University of Chicago
05/02 University of California, L.A.