Jessica N Pabón-Colón | SUNY: New Paltz (original) (raw)

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Publications by Jessica N Pabón-Colón

Research paper thumbnail of Writin’, Breakin’, Beatboxin’: Strategically Performing “Women” in Hip-Hop

Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society , 2017

Do spaces where women are the empowered majority stimulate sociocultural shifts in hip-hop cultur... more Do spaces where women are the empowered majority stimulate sociocultural shifts in hip-hop culture? In this essay, I examine three hip-hop events ranging in size, genre, and frequency that were US-based but drew an international crowd: B-Girl Be: A Celebration of Women in Hip Hop, the Women of the 5th Element Beatboxing Festival, and the Few and Far graffiti crew at Art Basel Miami. I focus on hip-hop’s subcultural practices not to reaffirm a too-simple divide between “underground” and “commercial” but to analyze the dynamics of gender performance in less mediatized, less commercial forms. These event spaces are voluntary, mostly grassroots, sometimes sponsored, but never populated by megastars tied to the “bling” of international hip-hop business. At these events, participants strategically utilize the masterword “woman” in a Spivakian sense, to activate the transformative and pedagogical potential in asserting a collective presence. They mobilize under the word “woman” as a minoritarian method for visibility and empowerment consciously and critically; their performances are based not only on how they identify but also on how they experience their subjectivity in hip-hop. They rely on the pedagogical promise of performance to make their differences visible—to do the work of complicating what it means to perform “woman” in hip-hop. By demonstrating the effects of this strategic performance for women in hip-hop, I call upon readers to acknowledge the continued necessity of such spaces.

Research paper thumbnail of "Daring to Be “Mujeres Libres, Lindas, Locas";  An Interview with the Ladies Destroying Crew of Nicaragua and Costa Rica"

La verdad : an international dialogue on hip hop Latinidades , 2016

Research paper thumbnail of Ways of Being Seen: Gender and the Writing on the Wall

Routledge Handbook of Graffiti and Street Art, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of “No Somos ‘Mariposas’, Somos ‘MariPUSSY’: An Interview with Graffiti Art Activist MISS163  aka Sharon Lee De La Cruz"

In Identity & Anonymity: An Artful Anthology, Eds. Jonathan Talbot, Leslie Fandrich, and Stephen ... more In Identity & Anonymity: An Artful Anthology, Eds. Jonathan Talbot, Leslie Fandrich, and Stephen Specht, Mizzentop Publishing, 2016.

Research paper thumbnail of Interview with AbbyTC5: a pioneering ‘HomeGirl’ in Hip-Hop herstory

Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, 2014

Jessica N. Pabón interviews graffiti artist Abby Andrews, a.k.a. AbbyTC5, about her canvas painti... more Jessica N. Pabón interviews graffiti artist Abby Andrews, a.k.a. AbbyTC5, about her canvas painting Queens, the image on the front cover of the special issue.

Research paper thumbnail of Critical intimacies: hip hop as queer feminist pedagogy

Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Be About It: Graffiteras Performing Feminist Community

TDR/The Drama Review, 2013

Book Reviews by Jessica N Pabón-Colón

Research paper thumbnail of Troubling Vision: Performance, Visuality, and Blackness, by Nicole R. Fleetwood

Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, 2012

Research paper thumbnail of Playz from the Boom Box Galaxy: Theatre from the Hip Hop Generation. Edited by Kim Euell with Robert Alexander. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2009; 402 pp. $19.95 paper. Say Word! Voices from Hip Hop Theater: An Anthology. Edited by Daniel Banks. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,...

TDR/The Drama Review, 2013

TED Talk by Jessica N Pabón-Colón

Research paper thumbnail of Thriving in the Space Between

Jessica Pabón talks about the transformative power of female graffiti artists.

Papers by Jessica N Pabón-Colón

Research paper thumbnail of Writin’, Breakin’, Beatboxin’: Strategically Performing “Women” in Hip-Hop

Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 2017

Do spaces where women are the empowered majority stimulate sociocultural shifts in hip-hop cultur... more Do spaces where women are the empowered majority stimulate sociocultural shifts in hip-hop culture? In this essay, I examine three hip-hop events ranging in size, genre, and frequency that were US-based but drew an international crowd: B-Girl Be: A Celebration of Women in Hip Hop, the Women of the 5th Element Beatboxing Festival, and the Few and Far graffiti crew at Art Basel Miami. I focus on hip-hop’s subcultural practices not to reaffirm a too-simple divide between “underground” and “commercial” but to analyze the dynamics of gender performance in less mediatized, less commercial forms. These event spaces are voluntary, mostly grassroots, sometimes sponsored, but never populated by megastars tied to the “bling” of international hip-hop business. At these events, participants strategically utilize the masterword “woman” in a Spivakian sense, to activate the transformative and pedagogical potential in asserting a collective presence. They mobilize under the word “woman” as a minoritarian method for visibility and empowerment consciously and critically; their performances are based not only on how they identify but also on how they experience their subjectivity in hip-hop. They rely on the pedagogical promise of performance to make their differences visible—to do the work of complicating what it means to perform “woman” in hip-hop. By demonstrating the effects of this strategic performance for women in hip-hop, I call upon readers to acknowledge the continued necessity of such spaces.

Research paper thumbnail of Critical intimacies: hip hop as queer feminist pedagogy

Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Digital Diasporic Tactics for a Decolonized Future: Tweeting in the Wake of #HurricaneMaria

Theatre History Studies, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Yo soy Boricua Feminista, Pa’que Tu Lo Sepas!

Research paper thumbnail of Ricanness: Enduring Time in Anticolonial Performance by Sandra Ruiz (review)

Research paper thumbnail of Writin’, Breakin’, Beatboxin’: Strategically Performing “Women” in Hip-Hop

Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society , 2017

Do spaces where women are the empowered majority stimulate sociocultural shifts in hip-hop cultur... more Do spaces where women are the empowered majority stimulate sociocultural shifts in hip-hop culture? In this essay, I examine three hip-hop events ranging in size, genre, and frequency that were US-based but drew an international crowd: B-Girl Be: A Celebration of Women in Hip Hop, the Women of the 5th Element Beatboxing Festival, and the Few and Far graffiti crew at Art Basel Miami. I focus on hip-hop’s subcultural practices not to reaffirm a too-simple divide between “underground” and “commercial” but to analyze the dynamics of gender performance in less mediatized, less commercial forms. These event spaces are voluntary, mostly grassroots, sometimes sponsored, but never populated by megastars tied to the “bling” of international hip-hop business. At these events, participants strategically utilize the masterword “woman” in a Spivakian sense, to activate the transformative and pedagogical potential in asserting a collective presence. They mobilize under the word “woman” as a minoritarian method for visibility and empowerment consciously and critically; their performances are based not only on how they identify but also on how they experience their subjectivity in hip-hop. They rely on the pedagogical promise of performance to make their differences visible—to do the work of complicating what it means to perform “woman” in hip-hop. By demonstrating the effects of this strategic performance for women in hip-hop, I call upon readers to acknowledge the continued necessity of such spaces.

Research paper thumbnail of "Daring to Be “Mujeres Libres, Lindas, Locas";  An Interview with the Ladies Destroying Crew of Nicaragua and Costa Rica"

La verdad : an international dialogue on hip hop Latinidades , 2016

Research paper thumbnail of Ways of Being Seen: Gender and the Writing on the Wall

Routledge Handbook of Graffiti and Street Art, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of “No Somos ‘Mariposas’, Somos ‘MariPUSSY’: An Interview with Graffiti Art Activist MISS163  aka Sharon Lee De La Cruz"

In Identity & Anonymity: An Artful Anthology, Eds. Jonathan Talbot, Leslie Fandrich, and Stephen ... more In Identity & Anonymity: An Artful Anthology, Eds. Jonathan Talbot, Leslie Fandrich, and Stephen Specht, Mizzentop Publishing, 2016.

Research paper thumbnail of Interview with AbbyTC5: a pioneering ‘HomeGirl’ in Hip-Hop herstory

Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, 2014

Jessica N. Pabón interviews graffiti artist Abby Andrews, a.k.a. AbbyTC5, about her canvas painti... more Jessica N. Pabón interviews graffiti artist Abby Andrews, a.k.a. AbbyTC5, about her canvas painting Queens, the image on the front cover of the special issue.

Research paper thumbnail of Critical intimacies: hip hop as queer feminist pedagogy

Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Be About It: Graffiteras Performing Feminist Community

TDR/The Drama Review, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Troubling Vision: Performance, Visuality, and Blackness, by Nicole R. Fleetwood

Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, 2012

Research paper thumbnail of Playz from the Boom Box Galaxy: Theatre from the Hip Hop Generation. Edited by Kim Euell with Robert Alexander. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2009; 402 pp. $19.95 paper. Say Word! Voices from Hip Hop Theater: An Anthology. Edited by Daniel Banks. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,...

TDR/The Drama Review, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Thriving in the Space Between

Jessica Pabón talks about the transformative power of female graffiti artists.

Research paper thumbnail of Writin’, Breakin’, Beatboxin’: Strategically Performing “Women” in Hip-Hop

Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 2017

Do spaces where women are the empowered majority stimulate sociocultural shifts in hip-hop cultur... more Do spaces where women are the empowered majority stimulate sociocultural shifts in hip-hop culture? In this essay, I examine three hip-hop events ranging in size, genre, and frequency that were US-based but drew an international crowd: B-Girl Be: A Celebration of Women in Hip Hop, the Women of the 5th Element Beatboxing Festival, and the Few and Far graffiti crew at Art Basel Miami. I focus on hip-hop’s subcultural practices not to reaffirm a too-simple divide between “underground” and “commercial” but to analyze the dynamics of gender performance in less mediatized, less commercial forms. These event spaces are voluntary, mostly grassroots, sometimes sponsored, but never populated by megastars tied to the “bling” of international hip-hop business. At these events, participants strategically utilize the masterword “woman” in a Spivakian sense, to activate the transformative and pedagogical potential in asserting a collective presence. They mobilize under the word “woman” as a minoritarian method for visibility and empowerment consciously and critically; their performances are based not only on how they identify but also on how they experience their subjectivity in hip-hop. They rely on the pedagogical promise of performance to make their differences visible—to do the work of complicating what it means to perform “woman” in hip-hop. By demonstrating the effects of this strategic performance for women in hip-hop, I call upon readers to acknowledge the continued necessity of such spaces.

Research paper thumbnail of Critical intimacies: hip hop as queer feminist pedagogy

Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Digital Diasporic Tactics for a Decolonized Future: Tweeting in the Wake of #HurricaneMaria

Theatre History Studies, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Yo soy Boricua Feminista, Pa’que Tu Lo Sepas!

Research paper thumbnail of Ricanness: Enduring Time in Anticolonial Performance by Sandra Ruiz (review)