Larisa Kingston Mann Interview
Larisa Kingston Mann is Assistant Professor of Media Studies & Production at Temple University and is also known as DJ Ripley, performing as part of the Subversion_PHL. Larisa's new book is Rude Citizenship: Jamaican Popular Music, Copyright, and the Reverberations of Colonial Power. As Larisa puts it, "finding the right publisher took a minute—you might call it an interdisciplinary book, which faces the same kind of challenges as does a multi-genre or genre-less artist when trying to find a label!".
How did you get to where you are today, professionally?
I’m the daughter of a poet/composer/musician/professor and an activist/organizer/professor so I suppose that set me up pretty well for my current professional life as a scholar/DJ/activist/organizer, but it seemed pretty circuitous as I was going through it!
Musically, I was in hardcore bands in high school in suburban Massachusetts, early in college got into the rave scene (gravitating to jungle pretty quickly) while also doing a bit of radio. After college I started DJing and organizing events with various collectives in the Boston area, then decided I wanted to go on to grad school and did a master’s at the London School of Economics. (I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the prospect of living in London in 1999 wasn’t also appealing as a DJ and music lover!)