Since 2012, Hip-Hop Education Center in collaboration with Cornell University’s Hip Hop Collection, The Schomburg Center, and NYU’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program, have hosted two Documenting History in Your Own Backyard Symposiums to bring together institutions that collect and preserve Hip-Hop, collectors, archivists, curators, and scholars for the advancement of archiving and preservation of Hip-Hop culture.

The goal of Documenting History in Your Own Backyard Symposium is to share knowledge, lessons learned, to build community, and foster ideas and future collaborations that will strategically advance the archiving and preservation of Hip-Hop culture.

➤ Safe Space – we create a safe space for dialogue, sharing ideas, asking questions, and documenting / transcribing the process

➤ Research – we conduct an assessment of the field

➤ Publish – we collect essays, testimonials, photographs, and research to publish a book in the near future

➤ Exhibit – we highlight archives and collections through exhibitions