11-19-08

Media Release

Hip-Hop Meets the Middle Ages: The Rap Canterbury Tales

CORVALLIS, Ore. –Baba Brinkman, hip-hop artist and medieval scholar, will perform his rap version of the “Canterbury Tales” at 4:30 pm on Monday, Dec. 1.

The event is free, open to the public and will be held in the Construction and Engineering Hall at LaSells Stewart Center, 875 S.W. 26th St., Corvallis.

Brinkman has performed his award-winning show at music festivals, universities and other venues around the world. He will highlight the parallels between the techniques used in modern hip-hop music and the most famous work from the Middle Ages, Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales. He also will demonstrate how this 600-year-old text anticipates current trends in rap music, including freestyle battle competitions.

Brinkman will discuss Chaucer’s portrayals of the Miller, Wife of Bath, and Pardoner before performing original rap versions of each of those tales. The audience will gain a better understanding of hip-hop culture and its nuances, as well as Chaucer’s text and its medieval contexts. Attendees will leave with a broader appreciation of how storytelling conventions and practices can cross geographical, temporal, and cultural boundaries.

This event is sponsored by the OSU Dept. of English and Center for the Humanities