Today, it’s all about hip-hop.
Notable figures such as Michael Eric Dyson and Mya will be joining the likes of Angie Ange, Melyssa Ford and Gina Ravera, to name a few. They are journeying to the Mecca, some for the first time, to participate in the 4th annual Hip-Hop and Higher Education Symposium.
This four-hour event kicks off today in the Blackburn Ballroom at 1:30 p.m. with keynote speaker Maria Davis. According to the symposium chair Joshua Wright, “She probably has the most to say out of all of them.”
“My whole thing is love yourself,” said Davis, a model, spokesperson, author, promoter and AIDS survivor. Davis is known for her M.A.D. Wednesdays, a hip-hop showcase in New York as well as her novels, Souls of My Sisters and its sequel Souls Revealed. But most of all, she is living out her life’s purpose.
In the hospital one day in 1995, Davis was diagnosed with HIV, changing her life from what she planned it to be. Looking back, she told The Hilltop, “That was what I was being prepared for. Not for the music industry, but to encourage others.”
She’s doing just that by speaking to groups around the country about loving themselves, no matter what. “You wanna love Lil’ Wayne and put them up on a pedestal,” Davis said, “put yourself on a pedestal.”
Opening the hip-hop symposium today, Davis said she wants people to “take away how important it is to be active in your own movement…we look for people to be our saviors and we have to save ourselves.”
She has a 19-year-old daughter who attends Morgan State University and a 26-year-old son. Davis, 49, resides in Harlem, N.Y.
Davis looks up to Harriet Tubman, Phylis Wheatley and Rosa Parks because “they were women who not only were powerful for themselves, but they were powerful for others.”
These concepts, among others, will be a part of her speech today, followed by a presentation by the Southern AIDS Living Quilt, an organization that travels the country to share their stories about having HIV/AIDS. At 2:30 p.m., Michael Eric Dyson will be speaking about the hip-hop movement and sexuality, followed by a town hall discussion with notable members of the hip-hop community.
The theme for this year’s symposium is “HIV/AIDS, Women and the Hip-Hop Generation.”
The theme last year was on HIV/AIDS in the black youth, but this year, “we wanted to make women the focus because they are suffering the most, not just here but in Africa as well,” Wright said.
R&B artist Mya, actress Gina Ravera, radio personality and Howard alumna Angie Ange, television personality Melyssa Ford, Taylor Thomas of The Steve Harvey Morning Show and two Howard professors, Dr. Debyii Thomas and Dr. Lynette Mundey will all panelists at the event.
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