Hip-hop harmony: KRS-One event culminates in prestigious volunteer award for CERCL pioneers

Anthony Pinn, a leading scholar in religion, race and popular culture, interviewed hip-hop legend KRS-One before being surprised with the President’s Call to Service Award. (Photos by Jeff Fitlow) Billed as “One-on-one with the Teacha,” a March 7 event hosted by the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (CERCL) featured an intimate conversation with hip-hop legend KRS-One and quite the surprise for several of its organizers. The dialogue was another installment in CERCL’s Hip Hop Archival Collection’s Oral History Series held by Fondren Library’s Woodson Research Center, which aims to highlight and appreciate hip-hop’s cultural and social impact on local and global communities. Pinn founded CERCL’s Hip Hop Archival Collection after joining Rice in 2003. Founded by Anthony Pinn, a leading scholar in religion, race and popular culture, after he joined Rice in 2003, the Hip Hop Archival Collection preserves hip-hop’s importance for future generations while underscoring its role as a space where community and intellectual leadership is generated and cultivated. “I thought Rice had a larger obligation,” said Pinn, Rice’s Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and professor of religion. “We had the resources to help the hip-hop community preserve its historical and cultural memory and make certain...