Duke University Press Log

Jesse Weaver Shipley Talks Hiplife at South by Southwest

Jesse Weaver Shipley, filmmaker, anthropology professor, and author of Living the Hiplife: Celebrity and Entrepreneurship in Ghanaian Popular Music, was at South by Southwest last week to talk about digital media and music in Africa. He appeared on a panel with several African DJs and then did a popular booksigning event.  To hear some of the artists Shipley discusses in his book, check out this podcast created by DJ Rab and DJ Black, both Ghanaian musicians. They're pictured below along with some of Weaver's other African music contacts. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left to right: Jesse Weaver Shipley, Nigerian media executive Michael Ugwu of iROKOtv, Nigerian musician  Ice Prince Zamani.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jesse Weaver Shipley ready to sign his book

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left to right: DJ Black of Joy FM in Accra, Ghana, Jesse Weaver Shipley, DJ Rab Bakari of Universal Music Group.

Authors at the Virginia Festival of the Book

We're excited that two of our authors will be participating in the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville this weekend. 

On Friday, March 22 at 10 am, geologist Orrin Pilkey will speak about "The Rising Oceans: Where to Go from Here". Batiks by artist Mary Edna Fraser that appeared in their book Global Climate Change will be on display. 

Also on Friday, March 22, at 6 pm, Natalie Hopkinson, author of Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City, will appear on the panel "Shake, Rattle, and Roll: Popular Music in America."

 

If you're near Charlottesville this weekend, be sure to check out these great talks and many others at the Festival.

 

Best Books of the Year

It's the most wonderful time of the year . . . the time for best books lists! We're excited that several of our books have appeared in prominent year-end roundups. 

The Village Voice named Jonathan Sterne's MP3: The Meaning of a Format one of its best of 2012. Reviewer Nick Murray writes "As it turned out, the most rewarding music book of 2012 wasn't about an artist, a genre, or (thank the lord) the glory days of punk. Instead, it told the story of MP3, the digital audio standard that author and communications professor Jonathan Sterne traces from early-20th-century telephone research up through contemporary debates over piracy and file-sharing. Along the way, we're taken on fascinating detours through the invention of perceptual coding, the construction (and critique) of the ideal hearing subject, international corporate debates, and an extended discussion over whether or not music should be considered a "thing." All file formats should be so lucky."

Over at Spin Magazine, they chose Natalie Hopkinson's Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City as one of their best music books of 2012. Hopkinson's book is a social history of black D.C., told through go-go, the party music that emerged in inner-city Washington in the 1970s, generating a distinct local culture and underground economy.

And Annette Kolodny's In Search of First Contact: The Vikings of Vinland, the Peoples of the Dawnland, and the Anglo-American Anxiety of Discovery was chosen as one of Indian Country Today's best books of the year. They write, "Annette Kolodny did an exceptional job of untangling the myths, politics and conventional history surrounding the 'discovery'of Turtle Island to reveal the narratives of first European contact." 

 

Is K-Pop the Next Big Thing?

With the near ubiquity of Korean rapper Psy's video and song "Gangnam Style," most Americans have now had some exposure to the phenomenon of K-Pop, or Korean pop culture. Although K-Pop has been popular and influential in Asia for decades, many Korean artists have had trouble breaking into the US market. In this article in Spin, Kyung Hyun Kim, author of Virtual Hallyu: Korean Cinema of the Global Era, comments on PSY's ability to break into the U.S. market without sacrificing his Koreanness. "The tendency and thinking so far seems to have been that you have to erase Korean identity somehow to achieve success in the U.S. or overseas," he told Spin. "But I think that's been proven wrong with PSY's success. He's engaged in satirical humor — that I didn't know would translate, but apparently it does — and a kind of grotesque body humor, as well, that I always found outrageously funny when I saw him on [Korean] television over the years. I actually didn't even know he was a musician and a producer and a composer himself because he was just a funny face."

Kim is also the editor, with Youngmin Choe, of the forthcoming book The Korean Popular Culture Reader, which we are publishing in October 2013. The comprehensive and richly illustrated book of original essays will go well beyond current K-Pop phenoms like PSY to cover music, film, television, travel, and food. Contributors include Boduerae Kwon, Michelle Cho, Katarzyna J. Cwiertka, Sohl Lee, and Rachel Miyung Joo. The essays are fun and accessible and the book is suitable for courses as well as for fans of K-Pop. Check out an excerpt from the introduction on our Tumblr. We hope you'll keep an eye out for the book next year. 

Asian pop culture fans will also want to check out Rachel Miyung Joo's recent book Transnational Sport: Gender, Media, and Global Korea; and two books coming out this spring: Christine R. Yano's Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty's Trek across the Pacific and Ian Condry's The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Japan's Media Success Story. 

 

Natalie Hopkinson Events this Fall in DC, MA, and MD

This fall if you’re in Washington D.C., Massachusetts, or Maryland, catch Natalie Hopkinson talking about her new book Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City. She’ll be reading from and signing copies of her insider’s view of the social history of black Washington through its go-go music and culture. As

David Simon, creator of the television series The Wire and Treme, has said, "Natalie Hopkinson's Go- Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City demonstrates the essential connections between culture and community in an American city. For generations now, go-go music in Washington D.C. has not only given the authentic, nonfederal parts of that city its musical milestones, but it has—in the voice of so many great lead talkers—marked the civic and political time. From Chuck Brown forward, go-go has proven resilient and real. They say you can't understand this music unless you are there in the club, in the moment, but this book comes close."

Monday, September 17, 2012

6:30 p.m. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library 901 G St. N.W., Washington, DC

Friday, September 21, 2012

4:30 p.m. Panel Discussion: The Power of Music from a Historical, Cultural & Spiritual Perspective with Natalie Hopkinson, Ledisi, MC Lyte, and Dr. Obery Hendricks, moderated by Brother Ah. Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Author Pavilion, Walter E. Washington Convention Center Exhibit Hall E, Booth 521 801 Mt Vernon Pl NW, Washington, DC

Friday, September 28, 2012

3:00 p.m. Harvard Book Store 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA

Saturday, October 13, 2012

2 p.m. Prince George's Memorial Library System, Spauldings Branch 5811 Old Silver Hill Rd., District Heights, MD

Save the date- On Saturday, January 26, 2013 DC's Anacostia Community Museum will host Natalie Hopkinson for an author event.

A listing of all DUP author events is also available on our Google calendar.

Natalie Hopkinson Events in New Orleans and DC

This summer if you’re in New Orleans or Washington D.C. catch Natalie Hopkinson talking about her new book Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City. She’ll be reading from and signing copies of her insider’s view of the social history of black Washington through its go-go music and culture.

As George Pelecanos has said, "Natalie Hopkinson knows the music, the heartbeat, and the people of Washington well, but Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City is much more than a book about D.C.'s indigenous sound. It is a vital, lively, and ultimately inspiring look at the evolution of an American city.”
 

New Orleans, LA

Tuesday, June 19, 2012
6:30 p.m.
Maple Street Books, Healing Center Location, 2372 St. Claude Avenue, New Orleans

Friday, June 22
6-9 p.m.
Cafe Istanbul, 2372 St. Claude Ave, New Orleans

Washington, DC
Monday, July 16th, 2012
6:30 p.m.
Busboys and Poets, 14th & V, 2021 14th St, NW, Washington, D.C.

Monday, July 30, 2012
7:00 pm
Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, D.C.

Check back this fall for additional Go-Go Live events including Cambridge, Massachusetts and more in Washington D.C. A listing of all DUP author events is also available on our Google calendar.

 

Chuck Brown, "Godfather of Go-Go," Dies

Washington, D.C. is mourning the death of Chuck Brown. The legendary guitarist and singer has come to stand for the city's homegrown musical genre go-go, a funky, percussive music characterized by call-and-response and known for its exciting live shows. In her new book Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City (out next month), Natalie Hopkinson uses the story of go-go music to tell the story of black D.C. from the charred ruins of the 1968 race riots to the gentrification of the 1990s and 2000s. Hopkinson shared an appreciation of Brown's legacy on The Root, writing, "Together with his D.C. fans, Chuck Brown lit the creative spark for the go-go industry -- what remains to this day a multimillion-dollar, almost entirely black-owned business, filled with musicians, promoters, graphic designers, security, bands, managers, recording studios, bootleggers, Web developers, fashion designers and radio personalities." She's also featured in this NPR remembrance. "He was royalty in this city," she says. "It's kind of inconceivable that he's gone because he was such an embodiment of the music that just went and went and went."

Award Winning Titles

Congratulations to our recent award-winning authors!

Paul K. Eiss has won the Mexican History Book Prize from the Conference on Latin American History for his book In the Name of El Pueblo: Place, Community, and the Politics of History in Yucatán. 

 

Julie Chu's Cosmologies of Credit: Transnational Mobility and the Politics of Destination in China was a co-winner of the American Ethnological Society's Sharon Stephens Prize. The prize is awarded to a junior scholar for their first book. It goes to a work that speaks to contemporary social issues with relevance beyond the discipline and beyond the academy. Alexander Edmonds's book Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex, and Plastic Surgery in Brazil was granted an Honorable Mention for the award.

 

Federico Finchelstein was honored with the Best Book Prize by the New England Council of Latin American Studies for his book Transatlantic Fascism: Ideology, Violence, and the Sacred in Argentina and Italy, 1919-1945. 

 

 

African Rhythms: The Autobiography of Randy Weston by Randy Weston and arranged by Willard Jenkins won the Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Excellence in the category of Best Research in Recorded Jazz Music. 

 

Three Podcasts for Your Weekend Listening Pleasure

Heading out for a bike ride, a car trip, or just cleaning your house this weekend? We offer you three great podcasts with our authors to accompany whatever you might be doing.

First, check out EddyFest 2011, a three part interview with famed music writer Chuck Eddy on RockCritics.com. Eight rock critics interview Eddy about his new book Rock And Roll Always Forgets: A Quarter Century of Music Criticism.

Then, turn your attention to film with this interview with Robert J. Corber on New Books in Pop Culture. Corber is the author of Homosexuality in Cold War America and In the Name of National Security. In his latest book, Cold War Femme, Corber reads Hollywood films of the 1950s and 1960s demonstrate how Cold War homophobia focused on the femme as the lesbian who posed the greatest threat to the nation.

Finally, look at where law and music intersect: in the realm of copyright. In a podcast interview for New Books in Law, Kembrew McLeod and Peter DiCola, co-authors of Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling, talk the about legal and the cultural implications of digital sampling in the music industry and how hiphop has changed as copyright law enforcement has become stricter.

After you listen, we hope you'll decide you want to learn more by reading the books!

Creative License Explores Law and Culture of Music Sampling

The new book Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling is just out and the authors, Kembrew McLeod and Peter DiCola are getting around. McLeod appeared on the radio show Sound Opinions a few weeks ago, to talk about sampling with hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot. This week the Future of Music Coalition is featuring an interview with both authors on their website. And McLeod is interviewed by Joe Fassler at TheAtlantic.com today. Peter DiCola is doing events in Washington, DC and Philadelphia this weekend and the two authors will appear together at Iowa City's Prairie Lights bookstore on April 26. Finally, be sure to check out the very cool mixtape that sonic cut-and-paste artist Steinski created to accompany the book. It's features hundreds of songs and samples mashed together with soundbytes from the book. Download it for free here!