One of the only events of its kind - the third year of our beloved Bodega Education Initiative (BEI) is a day long symposium dedicated to critical discussion and intellectual analysis of Hip-Hop music, culture and business. BEI will highlight this year's theme - "FORTIFIED" We will spend the day at the beautiful main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library celebrating Hip-Hop's ability to endure the ups and downs of corporate mergers, label meltdown, recessions and damning critics. Panels and topics will include: - The end of 98.7 Kiss and the legacy of New York radio locally and globally - "It Was Written" - a discussion with acclaimed writer and filmmaker Nelson George and Johnny Temple, Publisher of Akashic Books - "Me and My Momma Hopped in that U-Haul Van"- the renewed importance of touring in the post-record label age. - "Division of Labor and the Super Artist" - a discussion about the tremendous expectations put upon today's Hip-Hop artist who is expected to write, produce, tour and oversee a multiplatform human brand. More panels and panelists TBA This event will conclude the first half of our 2012 calendar which covered a wide range of topics, such as Heavy D: From The Overweight Lover to Notorious B.I.G. and "Brooklyn Culture: Uncle Ralph McDaniels, Video Music Box and MoCADA."