Thanks

Dear THR 380-
What a privilege it has been to be your guide through this course on Hip-hop in Popular Culture at The University of Kansas. I have had the pleasure of watching your growth over the past semester. I will be posting video and PowerPoint's (as you submit them) to the blog for you all to share comments and ideas. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know all of you and hope that you will take more courses with me in the future.

I was blown away at the amount of research, work and creativity you put into your final projects and exams. The reward for me is that you not only do well, but that you find something that inspires you to facilitate change.

I love what I do every day. I figured out a way to remix all of the things I love to do and to create opportunities for myself to do them. If you don't see an opportunity out there for yourself, make one. If there is no job or major that fits what you want to do--make one. If kids in the Bronx could make Hip-hop out of nothing, you can make whatever you want happen.

I only hope that taking this course will open up new ways for you to imagine your lives as blueprints for something great. You make a plan, build it, work hard and smart--the rest will come.

Thanks for a wonderful semester- Nicole Hodges Persley

Freestyle Blog: Global Hip-hop

This week is a freestyle blog. You can blog on whatever you like. Think about the global impact of a music genre that started in a low income community in the Bronx. Can you think of any other music genre has had as siginificant an impact on people regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orination, class or disability? Love it, or hate it, Hip-hop has created social change for both the postive and the negative. As KRS-One says: Freedom is where the work is.." Think about it. Free speech- NHP