A handful of artists who’ve participated in shaping the city’s cultural history and legacy came together to set the record straight on Wednesday evening.
The occasion was a panel discussion called “Ladies Night: Women Who Shaped Hip-Hop in New York City,” produced by The Greene Space in collaboration with WNYC and Gothamist.
The conversation, which marked the 50th anniversary of hip-hop’s birth in the Bronx, illuminated the work of women artists in multiple avenues of the expansive culture.
Journalist and author Clover Hope was joined by fast-rising Bronx rapper Connie Diiamond as well as Michele Byrd-McPhee and Ana Garcia (a.k.a. Rokafella), two longtime participants in the hip-hop dance scene, for an in-depth discussion that explored the roles women have played in creating, expanding and preserving the artform and culture.
Hope, the discussion’s moderator and the author of the 2021 book “The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop,” said the main goal of the panel was to provide a spotlight for women, who are often overlooked in discussions about hip-hop.
“This panel was just all about taking up space,” Hope told Gothamist. “The reason that these women aren’t talked about is that they aren’t put on the forefront, and the conversations aren’t there. Once you create a space to have those conversations, it creates the awareness that then leads to women being more recognized.”
Hope said that women from different generations and disciplines were purposely gathered on stage, so that audiences in the venue and online could appreciate different viewpoints on the culture’s evolution.
“The artist that’s kind of on the come up a little, but they just have a different perspective than like someone who’s kind of more on the underground, so it’s all about weaving a lot of that together,” Hope said. “It’s almost like you can see the evolution of hip-hop through them, and that was just exciting.”
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