Wish to Live

«Wish to Live is an insightful, intergenerational account capturing the contemporary politics and poetics of hip-hop feminism. The diversity of voices featured is matched by the multiple writing forms that take the reader from ‘extralocal’ autoethnographies to exacting popular cultural criticism. Each contributor grapples with the complexities of social identity in a ‘post’ world and takes up hip-hop as part art, activism, pedagogy, and lived reality. Editors Ruth Nicole Brown and Chamara Jewel Kwakye recommend the chapters be performed or read aloud. Its intent is to inform, incite, and transform. The stories will move you. Wish to Live breathes life into hip-hop feminism. It is because of their flesh-filled and affirming approach to describing the hip-hop genderation that this Reader will be an invaluable resource for the burgeoning field.» (Aisha Durham, Co-editor and Author of Home Girls Make Some Noise!: Hip Hop Feminism Anthology) «If I had only one wish to give, it would be that anyone who has any kind of interactions in the lives of young women of color be required to read Wish to Live: The Hip-Hop Feminism Pedagogy Reader. This creative and innovative exploration into hip-hop, feminism, and education is poised to take hip-hop feminist thought and activism – indeed the field of hip-hop studies – to the next level. The contributors in this volume prove that when and where young women of color enter the hip-hop cipher the entire game gets real and lives change! This book is a must-read – not just for hip-hop heads and educators – for anyone who claims to care about the lives of young women and girls.» (Gwendolyn D. Pough, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Women's and Gender Studies, Syracuse University)