The latest issue of The Common Reader features an article byAMCS/AFAS Lecturer Zachary Manditch-Prottas.

In "Notorious BIG Tells Us It Is All Right to Be about Nothing," Zach discusses the complex relationship between intent and impact in art, particularly in the case of the Notorious BIG and its connection to The Last Poets' work. Zach dives into the historical context of The Last Poets' activism, the emergence of hip-hop, and BIG's role in shaping the genre's trajectory. 

 

Zachary Manditch-Prottas is a full-time lecturer in African and African American Studies and American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. He earned his doctorate in African American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. His research and teaching work at the nexus of African American literature, Black cultural studies, and theories of gender and sexuality. His work has been featured in current and forthcoming publications in African Americanist criticism including African American Review, Callaloo, The Black Scholar, MELUS, James Baldwin in Context, The Journal of Popular Culture, The Oxford Handbook of American Street Literature, and Words Beats and Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.