My African-American studies professor was found at a barbershop by the dean.
Two things leave me gobsmacked about this whole thing.
1) they are perfectly fine with a white woman coordinating every other exhibit at the same museum, but for some reason the fucking music exhibit is so intensely personal to the black experience that it should be off limits. Like this white chick is fine to do infinite exhibits about slavery or Malcolm X or whatever, but can't do an exhibit about music, the one thing she is probably the most likely to be able to appreciate on its own terms.
2) they seem to think the most important qualification to do a hip hop exhibit is liking hip-hop... But it isn't. I could probably get you a pretty good list of the most important moments, people, albums, and songs in the last 40 years of hip hop in a couple of hours. I could probably find most of the details in a single book.
Whats difficult is knowing how to take that history and turn it into something compelling, figure out which pieces are worth showcasing, contact the right people to interview, know what to ask them, figure out how to get people to donate historical items to the museum, cross check all the stuff for historical accuracy, and condense it into a couple of rooms that are compelling and interesting to a wide range of people.
Some random dude from the barber shop might know a lot of songs from a lot of albums and know every beef and rumour that ever made it into the source, but what does he know about museum exhibits?
