Review
Mahmoud El-Kati's deep love of Black people is again manifest in his deep inquiry into the Black language -- especially the global movement in language called Hip Hop. Don't miss this book! --Cornel West, Princeton University
The word/root hip aptly--& affectionately leads off Mahmoud El-Kati s Hiptionary, a brief but brilliant gift-of-a-talking-tome that opens yet another important window on the dazzling, if sometimes painful, voyage of African-Diasporic family-ship, court-ship, love-ship, scholar-ship, warrior-ship, rhythm-&-bluesician-ship & jazzician-ship. In this hipsofical work of sermonic & bop-hop proportions, El-Kati is, like Henry Dumas, a funkadelic verb gymnast. --Eugene B. Redmond , Poet Laureate, East St. Louis, Illinois - Founding Editor of Drumvoices Revue
What's in a name? Everything. In this insightful meditation on the meanings, interpretations and misinterpretations of black language, speech and verbal style, Mahmoud El-Kati sheds crucial backstory on the complex beauty that new world people of African descent have brought to the English language and, now with new technologies, to the entire modern world. From slang to invented phrases to personal identity reinvention through re-naming, El-Kati shows the deep and powerful currents in black speech and culture. Even more, he eloquently reminds us just how widespread yet contested, contorted and unrealized these contributions remain. --Tricia Rose, Brown University - Author of The Hip Hop Wars
What's in a name? Everything. In this insightful meditation on the meanings, interpretations and misinterpretations of black language, speech and verbal style, Mahmoud El-Kati sheds crucial backstory on the complex beauty that new world people of African descent have brought to the English language and, now with new technologies, to the entire modern world. From slang to invented phrases to personal identity reinvention through re-naming, El-Kati shows the deep and powerful currents in black speech and culture. Even more, he eloquently reminds us just how widespread yet contested, contorted and unrealized these contributions remain. --Tricia Rose, Brown University - Author of The Hip Hop Wars
The word/root hip aptly--& affectionately leads off Mahmoud El-Kati s Hiptionary, a brief but brilliant gift-of-a-talking-tome that opens yet another important window on the dazzling, if sometimes painful, voyage of African-Diasporic family-ship, court-ship, love-ship, scholar-ship, warrior-ship, rhythm-&-bluesician-ship & jazzician-ship. In this hipsofical work of sermonic & bop-hop proportions, El-Kati is, like Henry Dumas, a funkadelic verb gymnast. --Eugene B. Redmond , Poet Laureate, East St. Louis, Illinois - Founding Editor of Drumvoices Revue
About the Author
Please visit Mahmoud El Kati's personal website to learn more about him & obtain his books. Mahmoud El-Kati; is a lecturer, writer, and commentator on the African American experience. He specializes in African American history and advocates institution building within cultural communities. He is an advocate of building ones humanity through the understanding of their culture, history and community. He currently lives in the Rondo neighborhood, St. Paul s historic Black community.
El-Kati is a retired professor of history from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Macalester College has established the Mahmoud El-Kati Distinguished Lectureship in American Studies in recognition of his scholarly and community work. This endowment is used to bring distinguished scholars to Macalester for an extended engagement that includes public presentations, classroom appearances and conversations with students, faculty and the local community.
El-Kati as a writer has written articles, essays, and reviews that deal with a variety of issues including the myth of race, Ebonics, gangs and Black youth, education, African Americans, sports, and other issues. They have appeared in several newspapers and publications including the New York Times, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Insight News, The MN Spokesman-Recorder, and The Nigerian Times. As a published author he has written such books as Politically Considered: 50th Commemoration of the Supreme Court Decision of 1954 and now Hiptionary: A Survey of African American Speech Patterns with Critical Commentary and A Digest of Key Words and Phrases.
He is a frequent commentator through a variety of mass media outlets locally and nationally. He is a regular columnist for Insight News, a Twin Cities newspaper. He is a consistent commentator for the local radio stations KFAI and KMOJ.
El-Kati teaches courses on the history of Blacks in the United States, American Social Movements, Sports and the African-American Community, the Social History of Jazz and African-American Folklore. He also teaches the African-American Experience class at North High School in Minneapolis. In addition, El-Kati teaches classes across the community and conducts workshops for educators in the Midwest region.
He is a cofounder of the annual Pan-African Conference at Minnesota State University, which over the last 27 years has featured discussions on African thought throughout the Diaspora. He is a former board member of KMOJ radio, a community-run station, and nationally
El-Kati is a founding member of the following institutions and organizations: The African and African-American Studies Department at the University of Minnesota; the Community Investment Fund and the Pan African Community Endowment (both are grant-making conduits to grassroots community projects); Stairstep Foundation, a philanthropic and economic development institution for community empowerment; New Century I Cooperative Lending Fund, designed to create financial assets to make loans accessible to members of the community; and CommUniversity, a self-help education program that brings academic lectures to community life.
El-Kati is actively involved in community organizations such as MARCH (Men Are Responsible for Cultivating Hope), an result of the Million Man Marc and the Minneapolis-based Stairstep Foundation. He is a recipient of the National Association of Black Storytellers Zora Neale Hurston Award, given to people whose scholarly historical writings preserve the culture and tradition of Africans and African Americans in America. He also received the Sankofa Award from the Stairstep Foundation for his longtime and unwavering commitment to and work with the Twin Cities African American community.
