Books

Blowing Up: Rap Dreams in LA (under contract with the University of Chicago Press)

I am currently finishing a book, Blowing Up: Rap Dreams in LA, which is under contract at the University of Chicago Press.  At the broadest level, this is an ethnography about the challenges of growing up in the hood.  Drawing on long-term ethnographic research, I follow the careers of young black men from South Central Los Angeles who have dreams of "blowing up," a shorthand for fame and fortune in the music industry.  Together, their stories show how rapping--and Hip Hop culture more generally--transform the social worlds of urban poor black youths.  

Ricochet: The Social Aftermath of Gun Violence

I am also working on a second book that is tentatively titled, Ricochet: The Social Aftermath of Gun Violence.  This is an ethnographic study of gunshot victims and the larger web of institutions that shape personal, familial, and community health after shootings occur.  I conducted this research as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania.