Though Hip Hop is often framed as a male-dominated space, women have been driving the culture forward since its inception – challenging narratives, innovating sound and style, and using their voices to confront sexism, racism, and power. On February 14, 2025, the UCLA Hip Hop Initiative, in partnership with the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, brought this to the forefront, hosting a powerful evening marking 25 years of feminism in Hip Hop and celebrating the enduring influence of Joan Morgan’s groundbreaking book When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost. The event took place at the California African American Museum, bringing together an all-star panel of leading scholars and cultural critics, including Mark Anthony Neal, Treva Lindsey, and Kaila Story, in conversation with historian and journalist Jeff Chang. , for an intergenerational conversation about Hip Hop’s revolutionary women and the feminism they helped shape.
Together, they examined the relevance of Morgan’s work to the politics of gender and sexuality in contemporary hip hop. More than a retrospective, the dialogue considered a post hip hop politics of pleasure, anti-capitalist approaches to Black rest, and other possible paths forward as Black women continue to lead hip hop’s current cultural landscape. Through storytelling and reflection, the evening honored the pioneers who defined what it means to be both fierce and feminist in Hip Hop and celebrated the new generation of women
