Pass Me the Mic, Naomi Madu

A back-to-school birthday party changed the course of American music. Naomi Madu’s installation is a monument to the birth of hip hop in 1973 and what went down in the rec room—and in history—at 1520 Sedgwick Ave in the Bronx, where DJ Kool Herc played his first “breakbeat” turntable experiments at his sister’s birthday party. Nearly 50 years later, Madu’s street sign, microphone, and QR code–activated audio “restore agency to underrepresented communities to tell their own stories.” The combination of symbols and audio explore the intersections of hip-hop, Black liberation movements, Black storytelling, and issues of gentrification.