"The Creation of Hip Hop Culture is Black and Brown Ingenuity."
Prof. Andre
Biography
Professor Andre Stefan Johnson is currently an Assistant Professor of English and the 2016 Teacher of the Year for the Department of English, Modern Languages, and Mass Communication at Albany State University & He is founder and organizer of Circling The Elements National Hip Hop conference held at ASU and former Co-Host of The Hip Hop Cypher Talk Show on ASU channel 19.
Professor Andre is a former instructor for the African American Studies Program at Florida State University. While at FSU he won an Outstanding teaching Award in 2006 and taught a wide variety of courses including The African American Experience, The Black Short Story, Introduction to African American Literature, Writing about Spike Lee Films, Writing About Tupac and Black Male Frustration, and Writing About Hip-Hop.
Professor Andre’s general Area of study is African American literature with an emphasis in African American drama and film studies. His minor areas are Film Studies, Film Criticism, Hip-Hop Critical Theory, and African American Rhetoric. His research focuses on the works of Oscar Micheaux, Spike Lee, Amiri Baraka, August Wilson, George C. Wolfe, James Baldwin, and Suzan Lori-Parks. His research also explores and examines Hip-Hop aesthetics and how Hip-Hop reflects, embodies, complicates, and deviates from the modes of Racial Uplift.
While at ASU, Professor Andre has taught African American Drama Studies, Hip Hop Critical Theory, Black Spoken Word Performance: “The Revolution is Real (Yo),” and African American Film Studies: Dis-Embodying Modes of Racial Uplift. He is currently preparing to teach Hip Hop Critical Theory:“Holler if You Hear Us: Tupac Amaru Shakur as Activist, Souljah, Poet, & ‘Thug’” in Fall 2016.
Five Uncommonly known facts About PA
1. He loves to Skip.
2. He watches Curious George at least twice a week (he has a Curious George Lunch box).
3. He loves watching and riding Trains.
4. He loves Anything made of glass.
5. He can not wait to play Hungry Hungry Hippos with his mentees.
The 2016 Keynote Speaker for CTE is Founder & Director Prof. Andre
Saturday, April 9, 2016 Billy C. Black Auditorium150
9:00 a.m.-10:15 a.m.
This will be Prof. Andre’s first time officially giving a talk at the CTE conference. Going into the third year of the conference, he plans on reintegrating the mission and goal of the conference as CTE continues to grow. His talk is a fusion of Spoken Word merged with the research of undergraduate students. By approaching his presentation this way, Prof. Andre is emulating a core goal and principle of CTE – to create a space whereby students can begin to see the utility of Hip Hop as a critical apparatus that allows one to study and engage any of the subject matters that one explores in any college classroom.
When he started thinking of this presentation Prof. Andre came up with the title “Loving Hip Hop is Complicated: Explaining the (Re) Evolution of The She’s My (Our) Dopeness Movement.” This title embodies another core principle of the conference's focus-- by exploring the complicated love that many have for Hip Hop, as well as, engages the complex theme of “The State(s) of Hip Hop & Rap.” Prof. Andre argues that there is a difference between what we know as Hip Hop & Rap. He points out that Rap is just one form of Hip Hop expression – more precisely one of its founding elements. Yet, he also contends what most are calling Hip Hop today is Rap.
While many may see Rap as the nemesis of Hip Hop, Prof. Andre wants to push the idea that there is room for both no matter how complicated it is. He says the key is balance; thus CTE’s goal is to create a space that circles all of the elements of Hip Hop to restore the balance that is needed for Hip Hop culture to continue to evolve and live in the true realm of its/”Her” Dopeness.
Once Prof. Andre decided that he wanted to work with students instead of simply speaking solo, he changed the title of his talk to
“I still love SHE: Hip Hop –SHE’S Our DOPENESS.” This talk also embodies the complexity of his personal growth with Hip Hop as well as a critical exploration of the evolution and sometimes what other have coined as the devolution of Hip Hop – or in short the premature utterances that “Hip Hop is Dead.”
Prof. Andre fundamentally believes Hip Hop is a "Golden" invention from a generation of youth looking for identity, peace, and restoration. A "Golden" gift that has been passed on and changed in the last 30 something years to reflect societal problems, values, and ethos.
Thusly so, He is excited to be working with a group of students and cannot wait for April to arrive. He hopes that everyone comes out and enjoys what the 2016 CTE has to offer.
