(MORRISTOWN, NJ) -- Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC) presents Hip-Hop Music: Culture and Legacy, a special Black History Month virtual lecture on the history of Hip-Hop music presented by Wes Jackson, Professor and Director of Creative Business Enterprises at Emerson College, on Wednesday, February 24 at 8:00pm. Tickets are $20 ($10 for students).
Hip-Hop Music: Culture and Legacy takes the audience on a journey through Hip-Hop as a genre, business, and cultural movement. Wes Jackson, Professor and Director of Creative Business Enterprises at Emerson College as well as Founder and Executive Director of The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, will discuss and examine how Hip-Hop has grown from a movement in the South Bronx to the billion-dollar business driving the streaming economy, fashion, sports, politics and more. This is the only lecture that takes you from Robert Moses to Kool Herc. From NWA and Public Enemy all the way to Cole, Uzi, and Cardi. Gain an appreciation and deeper understanding of the 4 Elements of the Culture (Graffiti, B-Boy/B-Girl, the DJ and the MC).
Wes Jackson is currently the Director of the Business Creative Enterprises Program and Executive In Residence at Emerson College in Boston, MA. Wes has over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and innovator in the music business. His career began producing concerts for Nas, The Roots, The Dave Matthews Band, The Fugees, and A Tribe Called Quest. He then went on to start his own promotions company, Seven Heads Entertainment, and helped launch the careers of Yasiin Bey (Mos Def), Talib Kweli, El-P (Run The Jewels), Common, and others.
Under Wes’s leadership, Seven Heads then expanded into a boutique independent record label and management company. Music from the Seven Heads Roster was included in HBO's "The Wire”, the film "Brown Sugar" and scored the theme to "The Boondocks".
In 2005 Wes founded the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival with the mission to create a world class event to honor Hip-Hop music and culture. The Festival has hosted a range of amazing talent including Jay-Z, Kanye West, De La Soul, and Kendrick Lamar among others.
Wes has spoken at numerous colleges and universities on the history and power of Hip-Hop Culture as well as his life as an entrepreneur. He has taught at the City University of New York and consulted for Jazz At Lincoln Center, MTV, Grammy Camp, and VH1.
Wes earned his B.A. in English from the University of Virginia and his M.A. in Media Studies from The New School. Outside of his work as an educator and business leader, Wes is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. and proud father of three beautiful kids with his wife and business partner, Ebonie. Wes serves on the Board of the Brooklyn Public Library and is the co-founder and Chairman of the Board of the Brooklyn Crescents Lacrosse Club.
For a full list of Black History Month events at MPAC, click here.
Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, presents a wide range of programs that entertain, enrich, and educate the diverse population of the region and enhance the economic vitality of Northern New Jersey. The 2020-2021 season is made possible, in part, by a grant the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as support received from the F.M. Kirby Foundation and numerous corporations, foundations and individuals. Mayo Performing Arts Center was named 2016 Outstanding Historic Theatre by the League of Historic American Theatres, and is ranked in the top 50 mid-sized performing arts centers by Pollstar Magazine.
