"Two Turntables and a Microphone" is a new exhibition at the Bronx Museum that celebrates 50 years of hip-hop.

The exhibition features paintings, sculptures, videos, photos and more from artist and Bronx native Dianne Smith, who grew up in the Bronx in the 1970s as hip-hop was developing.

"It was about the block parties. It was about the jams in the park," Smith said.

Smith went to high school with future hip-hop stars Slick Rick and Dana Dane at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts.

"This exhibition is sort of an homage to that time, an homage to what it meant to be a kid in the Bronx in the 1970s. And it does take a journey to the present, but it really started in those beginning days," Smith said.

An interactive wall at the exhibition allows visitors to write about what hip-hop means to them. There are also vintage television sets, boom boxes and even an old Walkman.

Exhibition curator Peter Wright, known professionally as Souleo, hopes the exhibition elicits feelings of joy, empowerment and community to all who visit.

"There's a lot of conversation about the negative aspects of hip-hop, and those conversations are important, but let's remember that hip-hop has so many positive elements and we need to amplify those. It's really a tool for community building and creative expression, so we want to celebrate that," Wright said. 

For the museum on the Grand Concourse where admission is always free, the exhibition is a no-brainer. It is located a short distance from where hip-hop was born.

As legend has it, hip-hop all started at a back-to-school party at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, where DJ Kool Herc set the standard for future use of two turntables, highlighting a record's "break."

"To connect with [Smith] and [Wright] on this project has just been an amazing journey," said Eileen Jeng Lynch, the director of curatorial programs at the Bronx Museum.

It is Smith's first exhibition at the Bronx Museum — a homecoming for her since she grew up nearby. 

"I want people — particularly Bronx residents — to come to this exhibition and feel a sense of pride, feel like they have been seen, feel like their story has been told in a very holistic way, and that they matter — that we matter," Smith said. "All types of people come from the Bronx."

The exhibition runs through Aug. 20, and admission is free. There will be a series of programs at the museum coinciding with the exhibition.