Lessner shared with hosts Spano and Afro G that Hip Hop allows definitions of ‘intellectual’ and ‘writer’ to be revised and expanded and include diverse voices and experiences that are often unfairly not included in these categories. Lessner commented on a set list of hip hop songs he had provided that were played and what teaching goals he had for these when used in class which included highlighting invention writing techniques of rappers, as well as their critical analyses of race and class.  

Lessner pointed out that the theoretical construct of the “organic intellectual” drives how he teaches and the hip hop artists he studies with students which include Tupac Shakur, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, and Pharoahe Monch (among others).  Lessner further gave details about a current book project he is working on which draws on interviews he conducted with four African-American undergraduate male writers and how these young men helped him develop an organic intellectual writing pedagogy that invites and learns from African-American males’ writing and intellectual practices.

His presentation “It Was Written”: Using Organic Intellectuals of Hip Hop to Open Spaces for First-Year African American Male Students In First-Year Writing” focused on organic intellectuals of Hip Hop (Nas, Shakur, West) in how their critiques of U.S. racism and classism, resistance to dominant U.S. language practice, and communication to specific audiences can be effectively used in first-year writing classrooms to open up pedagogical spaces for African American males.  Lessner shared with conference participants specific Hip Hop lyrical content, excerpts from interviews of Hip Hop artists, and data gathered from interviews conducted with a case study of four African American undergraduate male writers he taught on their experiences with writing.  He further provided specific writing activities and assignments he created that invite first-year African American male students to reflect on their rich, innovative individual language and writing practices.