Musings and Amusements

Thinking, and thinking again, about hip-hop
When Johns Hopkins political science assistant professor Lester Spence began writing Stare in the Darkness: Rap, Hip-Hop, and Black Politics, he couldn't have known that an African American would become president while the book was being reviewed by the publisher. "When I was first writing, I was asking questions like, Does exposure to hip-hop change people's attitudes? But when Obama was elected, the question shifted." He explores a new, post-election question — How has hip-hop made Obama's candidacy possible? — in this issue's "All This from Hip-Hop." Spence, who shot some of the photographs for the article, has written for The Washington Post and Salon.com and regularly appears on NPR's Barbershop.

 
Games alumni play
Geoff Brown, A&S '91, felt a certain affinity for his subjects when reporting "Gamer Theory," about a trio of Johns Hopkins fencer-turned-video game magnates. "When I was in the sixth grade, I actually fenced," he says, "and I liked the same video games they did. We had very similar adolescent experiences." Brown is currently playing Fallout 3, "a post-apocalyptic gambol set around D.C. I went to high school in Arlington, so I get to revisit places from my youth — after they've been nuked." Brown, formerly managing editor of Baltimore magazine, also has a guidebook, Moon Baltimore (Avalon Travel), due out in June. — CP

 
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