Last Thursday, Houston, Rice U professor Anthony Pinn and rapper Bernard “Bun B” Freeman launched a new book of collaborative writings on churches and hip-hop, authored by the CERCL Writing Collective. They also announced a new free massive open online edX course, “Religion and Hip-Hop Culture” (RELI157x). Both the book and MOOC grew out of the duo’s popular classroom course they have been teaching ar Rice since 2011.
Titled “Breaking Bread, Breaking Beats: Churches and Hip-Hop — A Basic Guide to Key Issues,” the book is a project where 10 people write as one voice to illuminate the ways that hip-hop and the black church agree, disagree and inform each other on key topics.
“Our classroom course at Rice went so well that people off campus were contacting us and asking us about the course and how they could take it,” said Pinn. “Working with Bun in the classroom, it became clear that there were ways of learning and teaching that we hadn’t tapped. The MOOC gave us a way to be even more creative and innovative in terms of how we link the rest of world with the cultural richness and diversity of Houston to get information across.”
Bun B and Anthony Pinn’s Religion and Hip-Hop Culture course begins March 24. More information here.
