- Is there a role for pop culture in political struggles?
- How do emerging movements build on previous ones?
- What are some contemporary examples where art and grassroots activism are merging?
- How do we get activists who are skeptical about artists playing a serious role in politics to more fully engage art?
- How does social media enhance or distract from political engagement?
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- What are the political issues that matter to young voters?
- Have both the election of Barack Obama and the rise of the Tea Party, diminished hip-hop’s influence as an organizing tool among youth?
- How do the Occupy protests overlap with existing youth mobilization efforts?
- How will the Obama Administration’s response to youth issues, affect youth participation in the 2012 Presidential Election?
- Are Democrats and Republicans willing to go far enough to win the youth vote?
- What can student activists do to mobilize the hip-hop vote?
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- Has Black authenticity as defined through a 1960s lens run its course?
- How do popular narratives of Blackness from Birth of a Nation to Precious impact public policy around policing, incarceration, housing and employment?
- How do the various backgrounds and experiences of Black immigrants fit into this discussion?
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- In what key ways can hip-hop innovation play a role in global economic recovery?
- How is hip-hop beginning to inform public policy issues like Green Jobs, Climate Change, Arts, and Criminal Justice?
- Who are the youth leaders and organizations at the forefront of these movements?
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- What can young Americans do to make our democracy more inclusive?
- How does race in America extends beyond Black and White?
- What role does faith play in the lives of youth today?
- How are policing and criminal justice issues impacting this generation?
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- Has America entered a post-racial era?
- If so, what are the challenges of race in such a time?
- What are the cultural and political roots of the n-word, and is it still relevant?
- Who can and should use the n-word, and when is it appropriate?
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- Voter registration and voter education—what’s at stake for youth?
- What are the political issues that matter to the hip-hop generation?
- Why the hip-hop vote counts and to whom?
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- How is hip-hop contributing to the misogyny and homophobia in our national culture?
- How do degrading images of women affect women, girls, men and boys?
- What are hip-hop artists and activists presenting as alternatives to the dominant representations?
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- Is hip-hop today's minstrel show?
- Is the appropriation of hip-hop perpetuating racial stereotypes?
- How are Americans who identify with hip-hop viewing race differently?
- Can race escape its role as a means to divide and conquer in American politics and instead be used in this generation as a means of social change?
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