Big Thangs Poppin’: Maurice Garland to chop it up with Cornel West

• Basic Civitas Books
• Dr. Cornel West (guess his ’fro was too big for the book cover)

This might not make your weekend to-do list — unless you’re fortified with a stack of frequent flier miles — but shout-outs are in order for hip-hop journalist/blogger (and CL contributor) Maurice Garland, who will speak on a panel Sat., March 26 at Princeton (yeah, that Princeton) with none other than Dr. Cornel West — you know, only the most preeminent afro-rocking public scholar of our time.

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In a press release issued earlier this week, Garland joked about the need to bone up on his vocab before joining the prolific pontificator West at the symposium, titled Hip Hop 2.0: The Price of a New Era:

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I will be speaking on the “Selling Dreams” panel pretty much talking about how folks be lying about their finances on records, how high lifestyle claims effect the art in this economy and why the mainstream is so reluctant to embrace alternative subject matter and realism. That shouldn’t be too hard to talk about, the thing I’m kinda worried about is keeping up with the guy I’m going to be sitting next to, Dr. Cornel West. Yeah shawty...I’m on a panel with Cornel West. Don’t get me wrong, I think I have a pretty expansive vocabulary, but I might need to bring a dictionary on stage with me if I’m going to be up there with him! Jokes of course.