CNM Hosts Oct. 6 Artist's Reception

There's still time to see the photography exhibit at the Center for New Media by Hip Hop historian Ernie Paniccioli. His work will be on display through the end of October and an artist's reception will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 6.

August 2023 marked the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip hop, an influential music genre that continues to impact everything from popular culture to politics. Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo Valley Community College partnered to recognize the historic milestone by bringing Paniccioli's work to campus.

Known in the industry as Brother Ernie, Paniccioli has had a front row seat to hip hop history. He began photographing graffiti art in New York City in 1973 and captured the evolution of the genre over the next five decades, gaining unprecedented access to artists from Grandmaster Flash and Public Enemy to Queen Latifah and Jay Z.

The CNM will host an artist's reception on Oct. 6 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. in the Arcus Gallery.

Paniccioli, one of hip hop's most prolific and prominent photographers, was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1947 to parents of Cree Native American and Italian descent. He spent his teenage years immersing himself in the arts and music scenes of Greenwich Village and began experimenting with photography on his 35-millimeter camera after being honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in 1971.

His work has been the subject of a number of gallery shows, including the first and only hip hop exhibit at the Grammy Museum Experience, and has also been featured in his bestselling books, "Hip Hop at the End of the World" and "Who Shot Ya?: Three Decades of Hip Hop Photography." Paniccioli's photo archive, which offers digital versions of nearly 20,000 photographs from the 1980s, '90s and early 2000s, is housed in Cornell University Library's Hip Hop Collection.