African-American culture

Oxford students protest Harlem Shake sacking

Agence France-PresseMarch 20, 2013 07:46

Oxford University students have lodged a protest about the "hugely unjust" sacking of a librarian who failed to stop about 30 students performing the Harlem Shake in a college library. They claim that Calypso Nash, a graduate student of St Hilda's College, had nothing to do with the filming of the Internet dance craze last month but just happened to be there at the time. "We feel the librarian has been treated unfairly, thus we call for her reinstatement," student leader Ellen Gibson told AFP.

Break-out time for India's SlumGods

Agence France-PresseFebruary 10, 2013 00:45

The youngsters from India's best-known slum spin, twist and flip their bodies to the hip hop beat -- but don't call them breakdancers. And definitely not slumdogs. These are the SlumGods, who want to show there is more to life in a Mumbai shantytown than poverty, squalor and trying to escape -- even if the hit film "Slumdog Millionaire" suggested otherwise. "When we heard the name we didn't like it. Why slumdogs?" asked 20-year-old Akash Dhangar, known as B-boy Akku, who co-founded the crew of "breakers", graffiti artists, DJs and rappers.