Conjured from Fragments: KMD's Mr. Hood and the Transformative Poetics of the Golden Age Rap Album

Between 1988 and 1991, the rap album took flight. Under the dual impetus of innovations in sampling, and of the album form itself, an explosion of youthful creativity ensured the rap album, mined for more self-consciously artistic potential, emerged as a multi-layered artform that revealed a similarly multi-layered Black genius. For innovators like the Bomb Squad (Public Enemy, Ice Cube, Son of Bazerk), Prince Paul (De La Soul) and others, the rap album was now often “more” than just a rap album. It could at once take on the characteristics of a radio show, a simulated game show, a talking comic book, a picaresque novel, an Afrofuturist vaudeville, or a visit to the movies—and, through any of these, invoke a multitude of stories and critiques from marginalized young Black perspectives.Drawing on a variety of ideas from Black American cultural studies, particularly those focused on creative transformation as a form of transcendence, this article analyzes the multi-layered creativity of one of this period's most unsung, yet ultimately important albums: KMD's showpiece of sampling transformation and satiric narrative wit, Mr. Hood. Best known as the album that initiated the career of the MC/producer later known as MF DOOM (arguably the most revered figure in underground rap post-1999), it also initiated his surreal approach to sampling non-musical material from sources in popular culture and envisagement of rap as a kind of modern-day folklore. Attempting to find a new way of working across the layers of the rap album—the magical interplay of mood, beat, references, verbal samples, storytelling, etc.—the article argues that such sample-based flights of the imagination represent a continuation of the Afro-magical tradition Theophus Smith calls Conjuring Culture.

Innovation of Intangible Cultural Heritage Arts and Crafts Design

In order to discuss the innovation of intangible cultural heritage arts and crafts design, it is essential to first understand the current situation of intangible heritage arts and crafts, and then proceed from two directions, which include visual form and functional value. The role and influence of digitization and industrialization on the modern transformation of intangible cultural heritage arts and crafts design need to be clarified. In terms of ideas for innovative designs, interactive scene design and cultural brand building can be emphasized. These research results provide ideas and methods for realizing the creative transformation and innovative inheritance of intangible cultural heritage arts and crafts.

The Promise of the Pandemic and the (Becoming) Totus Christus

The COVID-19 pandemic both causes a profound suffering and holds a promise of new growth. This article argues that the key condition for the possibility of growth is a discerning and creative transformation of evil into good through the diffusion of divine friendship, which takes place in accord with constantly shifting probabilities of the emergent world order. Decisively inaugurated in the Christ event, the redemptive shift in this order is concretely realized in history as the dialectical unification of all things in Christ, the cruciform becoming of the totus Christus.

From groundlessness—to freedom: The theme of ‘awakening’ in the thought of Lev Shestov

The philosopher Lev Shestov aimed to establish a new free way of thinking, which manifested itself as a struggle against the delusion that we have a rational grasp of the necessary truths on matters that are of the greatest importance to us, such as the questions of life and death. Philosophy, as the Russian philosopher understood it, is not pure thinking, but ‘some kind of inner doing, inner regeneration, or second birth’ (Shestov in Lektsii po Istorii Grecheskoi Filosofii [Lectures on the history of Greek philosophy], YMCA-PRESS, Moscow, 2001, p. 53). Having adopted the notion of the ‘regeneration of one’s convictions’ from Dostoevsky’s vocabulary in his earlier works, Shestov developed the idea of ‘awakening’ further in his mature thought, in which the motif of ‘awakening’ comprised one of the main ideas of his philosophy: the fight for the individual’s right to freedom and to creative transformation at a time when she is in despair or on the brink of death. In this article, I analyse Shestov’s idea of ‘awakening’ as one of the key tropes and developmental characteristics of his philosophical vision. In particular, I argue that, having stemmed from Shestov’s earlier interpretations of Dostoevsky, Shakespeare and Plotinus, in his later writings, the notion of ‘awakening’—the possibility of a fundamental, inner transformation of one’s worldview (probuzhdenie, pererozhdenie)—marked the beginning of a new salvific mode in his writing.

The "Pont Du Lion", Saint-Genis Pouilly, France: a Creative Transformation to Redefine the City Entrance

<p>This paper presents the creative transformation of an existing stone bridge to enable a safe car traffic together with pedestrians and disabled circulation, and redefine the entrance of the city of Saint - Genis Pouilly along the “rue de Genêve” near the CERN in France.</p>

Grading Rage in the Pastoral Care Classroom

Assessment and grading can elicit rage on the part of both learners and teachers. Can rage lead to creative transformation of classroom cultures to support students in achieving learning goals? Can rage sharpen pedagogical commitments? The author reviews a critical incident of unexpected grading rage that emerged in her once a week three-hour masters level introductory pastoral care classroom, what she did about it in the moment, and how three strategies she employed could be helpful for teaching and learning religion and theology more broadly. When grading rage emerges in the pastoral care classroom and beyond, teaching and learning misunderstanding stories, facilitated by neutral questions in charged contexts, can make room for creative transformation when supported by third voices.

Creative Transformation, the Bible, and China

This essay serves to introduce the structure and master themes of this Handbook, which showcases critical-descriptive evidence and the creative impact of the Bible in China and to the world. After a brief stocktaking of the Chinese Bible, the essay sets the agenda by explaining four synchronizing and transformative moves of the Chinese Bible: its translation into China’s languages and dialects; its expression in Chinese literary and religious contexts; its interpretation methods; and its reception in the institutions and arts of China. The essay ends with reflections on three critical issues of the significant role of the Bible over thirteen centuries of Chinese history and Chinese cultures. It also seeks to examine the thesis that, while the Bible is an ancient text, it is not a relic of the past, and the culturally enlivened Chinese Bible has been a living text for China.

The impact of accounting disturbances on organizational micro-practices in the schools' sector in England

PurposeThis paper considers the nature and effect of accounting disturbances on organizational micro-practices in three secondary schools in England. A close application of a developed model of Habermasian colonization provides a framing for both the ways in which accounting is implicated in organizational change and the effect of accounting disturbances on organizational micro-practices.Design/methodology/approachQualitative field studies at three secondary schools were used to gather empirical detail in the form of interview data and documentary evidence. A total of 24 semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers and bursars.FindingsAccounting disturbances that were constitutive-transactional in nature had the greatest influence on organizational micro-practices. Behavioural responses to accounting disturbances can be organizationally ambiguous, subtle and subject to change over time.Research limitations/implicationsMore field studies are needed, and there is scope to develop a longitudinal perspective to better understand the impact of accounting disturbances over time.Originality/valueBy framing the processes of accounting change using a developed model of Habermasian colonization, contributions are provided by illuminating aspects of both the processes of accounting colonization and the impact of accounting on organizational micro-practices. The findings also add to prior appreciations of reciprocal colonization, creative transformation of accounting disturbances and how accounting can be enabling.