Book Talk – Hip-Hop Architecture with Sekou Cooke

*This event is occurring as a live webinar. Registrants will be emailed a link to access the program.*

Join Sekou Cooke and Mabel O. Wilson in conversation as they explore the themes of Cooke’s new book, Hip-Hop Architecture (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2021).

Hear Cooke’s perspectives on race, space, and identity through selected readings, followed by a response and Q&A led by Wilson.

Cooke says: “This book is not for you. It is not for architectural academic elites. It is not for those who have gentrified our neighborhoods, overly intellectualized the profession, and ignored all contemporary Black theory within the discipline. You have made architecture a symbol of exclusion, oppression, and domination rather than expression, aspiration, and inspiration. This book is not for conformists—Black, White, or other.”

As architecture grapples with its own racist legacy, Hip-Hop Architecture outlines a powerful new manifesto, amplifying the voices of the underrepresented and marginalized within the discipline. Exploring the production of spaces, buildings, and urban environments that embody the creative energies in hip-hop, the book outlines a newly expanding design philosophy that sees architecture as a distinct part of hip-hop’s cultural expression, and which uses hip-hop as a lens through which to provoke new architectural ideas.

Examining the present and the future of Hip-Hop Architecture, the book also explores its historical antecedents and its theory, placing it in a wider context both within architecture and within Black and African American movements. The work is illustrated with inspirational case studies of architectural projects and creative practices, and interspersed with interludes and interviews with key architects, designers, and academics in the field. This is a vital and provocative work that will appeal to architects, designers, students, theorists, and anyone interested in a fresh view of architecture, design, race, and culture.

Speakers:
Sekou Cooke, Author, Hip-Hop Architecture; Director, Master of Urban Design Program, UNC Charlotte
Mabel O. Wilson, Professor, Columbia University