Don’t miss out on Wednesday, May 8,  from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. when California State University, Northridge’s Center for the Interdisciplinary Pursuit of Hip-Hop Elevation & Research Symposium will feature live hip-hop performances, DJ’s, dancers, graffiti installations, food trucks, and more.

The second annual CIPHER Symposium will celebrate over 50 years of hip-hop, as well as its global impact. Guests include hip-hop icons Big Daddy Kane and Crazy Legs, who will be participating in keynote address interviews.  The symposium host is Sirius XM Shade 45 personality and CSUN CIPHER Professor Skyy Hook, who teaches in the Department of Anthropology.

Yan Searcy, Dean of College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, said the event reflects the college’s “ongoing efforts to engage students and the community.”

“It also signals that the university is a place for cultivating meaningful critiques and exchange regarding social movements,” he said, adding that the symposium was created with the intention of helping people understand how hip-hop has bolstered community building and growth, not only at a local level, but nationally and internationally.

Questions and discussions raised during the event, he said, will encourage attendees to examine these ideas from political, social and artistic vantage points.

The event is free and open to the public and will take place at the university’s Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya), located at 18111 Nordhoff St. Sign-language interpretation will be provided. For more information, email csbsevents@csun.edu.