terra non firma

Jeff Chang & Staceyann Chin
Jeff Chang has been a hip-hop journalist for over a decade writing for publications including The Village Voice, Vibe, The Nation, and The Washington Post, among others. His most recent book, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation explores issues of race, culture, politics, and music. In 1993, he co-founded and ran the influential hip-hop indie label, SoleSides (now Quannum Projects) helping launch the careers of DJ Shadow, Blackalicious, Lyrics Born, and Lateef the Truth Speaker. Chang is currently editing an anthology entitled Next Elements: The Future Aesthetics of Hip-Hop, due in 2006.

Slam poet Staceyann Chin was one of the original performers in Russell Simmons’s Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, which won a Tony Award in 2004. She was also featured on several seasons of the Peabody Award winning HBO series, Def Poetry Jam. Her poems can be found in numerous anthologies and in her chapbooks Wildcat Woman, Stories Surrounding My Coming, and Catalogue the Insanity. As part of The Culture Project at the 45 Bleeker Theater, Staceyann has written and performed the one-woman shows Hands Afire, Unspeakable Things, and Border/Clash Unspeakable Things.