From Practitioner to Publisher: Preserving Hip Hop’s Cultural Foundation Through Authentic Literature
by Paul Vincent Ruma, El-Houari Si Abdelkader
As breaking gains global visibility via the Olympics, questions arise over how its history, values, and knowledge systems are interpreted, preserved, and shared. This presentation reflects on how practitioner-led publishing shows practitioners reclaiming agency, rooting scholarship in lived practice while producing culturally grounded, methodologically rigorous Hip Hop research. Drawing on three decades of practice, pedagogy, and event work, we present Scholars of Style, our publishing imprint, as one-way practitioners negotiate institutional narratives and commercialization. Our bilingual books These Are the Breaks! and Don’t Stop the Rock! translate mentorship, cipher exchange, and embodied learning into print, demonstrating how community literature informs academic discourse and affirms the legitimacy, complexity, and evolution of Hip Hop knowledge.
The Hip-Hop Dance Knowledge Base
An innovative digital platform for organizing history and information about hip-hop dances
15:35 – 35 min.
by Selim Raboudi
À l’époque, la culture hip-hop se partageait via de rares cassettes vidéo qui s’usaient à force d’être visionnées. Aujourd’hui, c’est l’internet qui en constitue les archives : des vétérans comme Skeeter Rabbit avec LockerLegends.net ou Buddha Stretch avec le site de Elite Force Crew documentent ses origines, tandis que YouTube et les réseaux sociaux — comme hiphoptimetravel sur Instagram — diffusent et préservent la culture, bien que les informations y restent fragmentées. Cette présentation introduit la Hip Hop Dance Knowledge Base, une plateforme collaborative et basée d’abord sur réseau, conçue pour indexer l’histoire des danses hip-hop — passées et actuelles — en reliant battles, musiques, et événements. Lancée sous le nom de Book of Styles Library pour les funkstyles, la conférence présente les perspectives d’élargissement du projet ainsi que les défis liés à la curation, aux droits d’auteur et à la légitimité.
The heritage b-boying
16:10 – 35 min.
by Neil Tendart
Overview of the Symposium
17:30 – 60 min.
by Alice Atérianus-Owanga, Linda Hayford, Mahalia Lassibille
Performed Paper
It’s like the ‘80s
18:30
by Hélène Taddei Lawson, Alex Benth, James Delleck, Jean-Claude Gilbert, Dominique Lesdema, Dominique Lisette, Charly Moandal
“It’s like the ‘80s” brings together pioneers from the Parisian clubbing scene, key figures who animated the craziest dance parties in the capital. The performance passes on lived experiences that defy the passage of time as sixty-year-olds take the stage showcasing an energy and passion that haven’t aged a bit. It transforms the room into a nightclub where breathtaking solos spread across the dancefloor to the iconic sounds of the 1980s. Here, dancers and spectators celebrate, in shared movement, this revival that turned le Palace, le Bataclan, le Rex, and others, into a playground. It’s an audacious affair, near the public, where the beat makes hearts pound and bodies vibrate. Between the “fear of invisibility” and the “right to opacity,” this performance demonstrates the power of sharing creative imagination and knowledge as well as the contributions of difference when getting others to dance.
- Préprogramme — Colloque international 2025 pdf 885.3 kB