How Hip Hop Became a Revolution in American Visual Art and Culture

Summer 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip hop—the music, art, and style that transformed culture and politics worldwide. In this conversation among legendary artist and Public Enemy co-founder Chuck D, Keith Haring Foundation Executive Director Gil Vazquez, Lisane Basquiat, sister of the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and producer, curator and President of Channel Zero Productions Lorrie Boula will discuss hip hop’s global impact, including its influence on visual art and culture of 1980s New York and beyond. The conversation will take place in Zipper Hall at The Colburn School on Grand Avenue, located between two timely exhibitions: Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure at The Grand LA and Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody, and an installation of 12 of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s works, both at The Broad. Haring and Basquiat were heavily influenced by hip hop, shifting the genre’s politics and street art aesthetics into the fine art and commercial art scene.

Springboarding from themes covered in the second episode of their hit four-part PBS series Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World,” Chuck D and Boula, along with Basquiat and Vasquez, will explore the 1980s and hip hop as social commentary during the fraught Reagan years through the work of musical artists such as Public Enemy, KRS-One, Ice-T, and NWA as well as visual artists Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat among many others.