WORD: LIFE Panel | The Architects: A Conversation Between Editors

Moderator:
Jelani Cobb
Panelists:
Bakari Kitwana
Kierna Mayo
Scott Poulson-Bryant
Mimi Valdés
Context:
Hip hop magazines were never just music titles, chronicling rappers, DJs, breakers and graf artists. Their pages were also filled with political commentary, fashion, policy, deeply reported pieces on community and also, yes, music coverage, including the hotly debated music reviews section. Conducting this editorial symphony every month was the responsibility of the editor-in-chief, who managed the staff, oversaw finances and steered the outlet's reputation in the streets and within the industry with assistance from the rest of the masthead. Being EIC was a high-wire role that called for regalness and a touch of ruthlessness-often from journalists who were barely 30. This conversation will revisit an era when the hip hop conversation was closer to the community that created it, and editors set the cultural agenda every month.
This panel will feature Bakari Kitwana, a former editor-in-chief at The Source, author of the book, “The Hip Hop Generation” and creator of Rap Sessions. Joining Kitwana is Scott Poulson-Bryant, who famously named Vibe when he was one of the influential publication's founding editors, and is now an assistant professor of Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan. The conversation will also feature Kierna Mayo, a member of The Source’s original Mind Squad, co-founder of Honey Magazine and presently Vice President and Executive Editor of Roc Lit 101/One World. Rounding out the group is Mimi Valdés, a former editor-in-chief of Vibe, Blaze, and Latina, who is now a film producer, whose credits include Dope, Hidden Figures, Roxanne Roxanne and the forthcoming Pharrell Williams documentary in LEGO animation, Piece by Piece. This panel will be moderated by Jelani Cobb, Dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
Sample credits
Paul Arnold, The Greatest Story Never Told: The History of The Source Magazine (Article: HipHopDX, 2005)
Dan Charnas, The Oral History of Vibe Magazine (Article: Billboard, 2018)
Louder Than A Riot; season 2, episode 5: If You See Something, Say Nothing: Kim Osorio vs. The Source. (podcast: NPR, 2023)
Kierna Mayo, The History of Honey Magazine, pt 1 and pt 2 (Podcast: Culturati, 2022)
Bonus tracks
Jon Caramanica/New York Times Popcast, How Did the Source cover the 1992 Los Angeles Uprisings? (Podcast: 2020)
Aliya S. King, The Legend of the Biggie Belt (Article, Level: 2020)
Bakari Kitwana, The Hip-Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African-American Culture (Book: Little Brown, 2008 )
Michael Gonzales, The Source Years--My decade at the hip-hop bible (Essay: Oldster, 2023)