Stevie “Dr. View” Johnson and The Space Program
University of Michigan Press, 2026
Curriculum of the Mind is a groundbreaking hip-hop album that transforms the boundaries of scholarship, sound, and storytelling. A deeply personal and political intervention into the structures of higher education, the project speaks directly to the soul of education, identity, and cultural resilience. Part collective memoir, part mixtape, and part political manifesto, Curriculum of the Mind invites readers and listeners alike into a world where turntables become textbooks, beats carry the weight of history, and samples act as archives of Black life.
Produced by Stevie “Dr. View” Johnson, this album features the work of Black students, parents, creatives, and prospective college-goers who rarely see themselves reflected in academia. At the same time, it challenges educators, librarians, and institutions to rethink what learning looks and sounds like in the 21st century. The album draws from and contributes to interdisciplinary fields including Black studies, critical race theory, performance studies, and hip-hop pedagogy. Through powerful mashups and lyrical reflections, Dr. View and The Space Program explore themes of educational trauma, invisibility, intergenerational resilience, and the radical potential of sound as a vehicle for theorizing lived experience. Paired with a written preface, the project challenges the primacy of text-based knowledge, asserting that sound, emotion, and memory are equally valid forms of intellectual inquiry—and that scholarship can, and should, be a collective effort. As a model for the future of performance-based scholarship, Curriculum of the Mind proves that hip-hop is not only music—it’s a method, a memory, and a movement.
Godon Mumma, Edited by Michelle Fillion
University of Illinois Press, 2015
Musicologist Michelle Fillion curates a collection of Mumma's writings, presenting revised versions of his classic pieces as well as many unpublished works from every stage of his storied career. Here, through words and astonishing photos, is Mumma's chronicle of seminal events in the musical world of the twentieth century: his cofounding the Cooperative Studio for Electronic Music; his role in organizing the historic ONCE Festivals of Contemporary Music; performances with the Sonic Arts Union; and working alongside John Cage and David Tudor as a composer-musician with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. In addition, Mumma describes his collaborations with composers, performers, dancers, and visual artists ranging from Robert Ashley and Pauline Oliveros to Marcel Duchamp and Robert Rauschenberg.
Candid and insightful, Cybersonic Arts is the eye-opening account of a broad artistic community by an active participant and observer.
Lee Bidgood
University of Illinois Press, 2017