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The Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library and the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation are proud to present the Tupac Amaru Shakur Collection Conference: "Hip Hop, Education and Expanding the Archival Imagination."

The Archives Research Center of AUC Woodruff Library houses the Tupac Amaru Shakur Collection, a rich resource for understanding the life and work of one of hip-hop's brightest stars. The Collection was deposited in the Archives in 2009, through a partnership with the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation and Afeni Shakur-Davis, mother of Tupac Shakur, to make his papers available to scholars.

The Collection includes Shakur's handwritten manuscripts, including song lyrics, track listings, video and album treatments, short stories and poetry. Other materials include manuscripts written by the members of the Outlawz, media and publciitys materials, correspondence and legal documents. 

The Tupac Amaru Shakur Conference was designed to combine AUC Woodruff Library's mission to facilitate scholarly research and the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation's mission to encourage hip hop curriculum.

Featured Speakers

Friday, September 28, 2012 – Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, Professor of Black Popular Culture in the Department of African and African-American Studies at Duke University.  Dr. Neal has written and lectured extensively on black popular culture, black masculinity, sexism and homophobia in Black communities, and the history of popular music.  Dr. Neal's publications include four books, What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture (1998), Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic (2002), Songs in the Keys of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation (2003) and New Black Man: Rethinking Black Masculinity (2005).  Dr. Neal is also the co-editor (with Murray Forman) of That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader, 2^nd Edition (2012).  Dr. Neal’s next book Looking for Leroy: (Il) Legible Black Masculinities will be published in 2012 by New York University Press.

Friday, September 28, 2012 – Kevin Powell, nationally-acclaimed political activist and award-winning writer, is a native of Jersey City, New Jersey and a proud and long-time resident of Brooklyn, New York.  Mr. Powell has worked on a range of concerns, including voter registration, Hurricane Katrina relief, education, the environment, eradicating poverty, and supply and resource support for post-earthquake Haiti.  Mr. Powell has authored or edited 11 books, including his newest title, Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, and The Ghost of Dr. King: Blogs and Essays (www.lulu.com), a collection that examines American leadership, politics, and social issues like gender violence, immigration, and equality for all Americans.  Mr. Powell’s writings have appeared in numerous publications including The Washington Post, Newsweek, Essence, Ebony, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and Vibe, where he was a senior writer for several years documenting, most famously, the life and times of the late Tupac Shakur. Mr. Powell’s next book will be The Education of Kevin Powell: a boy’s journey into manhood (Fall 2013), an autobiography of his childhood and young adult life. 

Saturday, September 29, 2012 – Dr. Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar, Vice Provost for Diversity, Professor of History, University of Connecticut.  Dr. Ogbar is a nationally recognized scholar whose research interests include the 20th century United States with a focus in African American history. Specific areas of interest include Black Nationalism and radical social protest, as well as the intersections of politics and Black popular culture.  Dr. Ogbar's publications include numerous articles on Pan-Africanism, African American Catholics, civil rights struggles, Black Nationalism and hip-hop. Dr. Ogbar's books include Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity (2005), Hip-Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap (2007), The Harlem Renaissance Revisited (2010), and his edited book, The Civil Rights Movement (2003). 

Conference Website & Preliminary Schedule