Book reading to focus on gender, sexuality and music Sept. 20

September 11, 2007

A book reading and panel discussion on black women’s hip-hop and dance hall culture will be held at 7 p.m. Sept. 20 in Ustler Hall.

In recent controversies involving issues of gender and sexuality within hip-hop and dance hall music, little has been said by and about the female writers, producers, and performers’ own representation and views on their gender and sexuality. This event will focus on these aspects within current cultural controversies in hip-hop and dance hall music.

LaMonda Horton-Stallings of the University of Florida department of English will briefly discuss her recently published book, “Mutha’is Half a Word: Intersections of Folklore, Vernacular, Myth, and Queerness in Black Female Culture.”

Horton-Stallings’ book explores the representation of sexual desire in the comedy of LaWanda Page and Adele Givens, the music of Meshell Ndegeocello and Lil’Kim, and the literature of Gayl Jones, Ann Allen Shockley, and Cheryl Clarke.

Immediately following the book event, the panel, “Why’d You Have to Make a Record ‘Bout Me: Radical and Profane Narratives of Gender & Sexuality in Female Hip-hop and Dancehall Culture,” will explore black women rappers, dance hall queens, and deejays and their views about gender and sexuality within hip-hop culture.

Before and after the panel discussion, Horton-Stallings’ book will be available for purchase.