Each summer, UW-Madison’s Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) teams up with the UW-Madison School of Education to offer educators and community leaders a series of digital programs to learn the best practices in hip hop and spoken word pedagogy. The Institute brings together the leading educators, professors, and activists utilizing the media of spoken word ad hip hop as relevant, dynamic and necessary educational tools to engage students across multi-disciplinary curricula.
The co-curators for the Institute are internationally renowned educators and First Wave Alumni, Dr. Camea Davis and First Wave Program Director Sofia Snow.
Hip Hop in the Heartland draws from educational theories such as socio-cultural theory, culturally relevant pedagogy, critical race theory, and hip hop and social justice pedagogies, to help educators and community leaders connect hip hop as both an art form and an instructional tool to improve the academic success of students who remain marginalized in our schools. Participants learn proven, hands-on techniques to develop lesson plans and strengthen their course study, as well as create a platform from which they understand the scope of hip hop history, culture and politics.
The Digital format of this series is comprised of the following:
Dates: Saturdays, Jan 30, March 20, May 22
Time: 10:00 AM – 2:30 PM CT10:00am – 10:05am Opening Performance
10:05am – 10:25am Keynote Speaker
10:30am – 11:45am Session 1
11:45am – 12:00pm Lunch Break
12:00pm – 1:30pm Session 2
1:45pm – 2:30pm Reflection on Praxis and ClosingTo register for Hip Hop in the Heartland, click the link below. Each event is $25 or $65 for all three sessions.
Hip Hop in the Heartland is specifically designed for:
Classroom teachers, administrators, guidance counselors, school personnel, community educators, college educators, community leaders, education students, hip hop and spoken word educators and practitioners, and anyone committed to social justice and urban education.
Participants will receive a certificate indicating 4 instructional hours per session. Please check with your district for additional information regarding professional development requirements.
Hip Hop in the Heartland is presented by the UW-Madison Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives, UW-Madison School of Education, and Professional Learning and Community Education (PLACE).
Hip-Hop in the Heartland 2021
HHH May Sessions
HHH March Speakers
HHH January Speakers
Want to get updates on Hip Hop in the Heartland? Sign up below:
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2017 Guest Speakers/Lecturers
2016 Guest Speakers/Lecturers
Michael Cirelli: an accomplished poet and the Executive Director of Urban word NYC, a grassroots non-profit organization that provides free writing and performance opportunities to NYC teens. The organization has really expanded since 2004, when Michael first joined it. It now works in over 100 schools and serves 15,000 youth a year. Cirelli is an writer, educator and arts administrator. He is the author of four acclaimed collections of poetry, two award-winning curricula, and his work and writings have been featured on a range of both local and national media news outlets, including HBO, CNN, and elsewhere. Michael is the co-founder of Street Smart Press, and teaches courses on critical literacy and hip-hop education at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education. As the Executive Director of Urban Word NYC, Michael manages the organization’s financial development and strategic growth.
Toni Blackman: an international champion of hip-hop culture, known for the irresistible, contagious energy of her performances and for her alluring female presence. An award-winning artist, her steadfast work and commitment to hip-hop led the U.S. Department of State to select her to work as the first ever hip-hop artist to work as an American Cultural Specialist. She has already served in Senegal, Ghana, Botswana, and Swaziland where her residencies include performance, workshops, and lectures on hip hop music and culture. Her first book, Inner-Course was released in 2003 (Villard/Random House). Highly respected as the founder and director of Freestyle Union, a cipher workshop that uses free styling as a tool to encourage social responsibility, Blackman’s work has held great influence in the world of hip hop activism.
This former Echoing Green Fellow has also been a fellow with the Open Society Institute. Toni most recent efforts involved the Freestyle Union initiative I Rhyme Like A Girl which is run in partnership with the New School University’s Institute for Urban Education. Toni has done an extensive amount of work with the Girl Scouts of America and was instrumental in launching “The Girls Hip Hop Project” at the Center for Cultural Exchange in Portland, Maine (a program that provides workshops for teen girls from the Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and many other places). Her latest efforts are as a teaching artist at Brooklyn Communication Arts & Media High School (BCAM) where she teaches “The Art of Emceeing”.
Blackman is a member of the Spoken Word Committee of the New York Chapter of the Recording Academy (a.k.a. The Grammy’s). Also, AOL BlackVoices named Toni as one of the top ten African-American Next Generation Leaders to watch. Toni is a Creative Consultant for Sesame Workshop’s “The New Electric Company” and is recording new music for her debut album.
Eagle Nebula: Born and raised in Inglewood, California, Eagle claims the planet as her stomping grounds. Currently residing in Brooklyn, NY, she has performed throughout France, Ghana, West Africa, and the United States. Those who have experienced her energy live, or on recording can attest to fact that she is pure Cosmic Power! Described on Okayplayer.com as “spaced out and down to earth,” Eagle Nebula is a force of nature headed for the heart of Hip-Hop. In the fall of 2008, she released her critically acclaimed debut album “Cosmic Headphones” on the Epistrophik Peach Sound/Groove Attack label. She has shared the stage with Pharoah Monch, Dead Prez, Brand Nubian,Smiff and Wesson, Styles P, Black Thought, Bahamadia, Ursula Rucker, Pete Rock, J-Live and many more.
Bettina L. Love: is an award-winning author and Associate Professor of Educational Theory & Practice at the University of Georgia. Her research focuses on the ways in which urban youth negotiate Hip Hop music and culture to form social, cultural, and political identities to create new and sustaining ways of thinking about urban education and social justice. She also concentrates on transforming urban classrooms through the use of non-traditional educational curricula and classroom structures. Recently, Dr. Love was named the Nasir Jones Fellow at the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Center at Harvard University. She will begin her fellowship at Harvard in the Spring of 2016, where she will develop a multimedia Hip Hop civics curriculum for middle to high school students. She is one of the field’s most esteemed educational researchers in the area of Hip Hop education for elementary aged students. She is the founder of Real Talk: Hip Hop Education for Social Justice, an after school initiative aimed at teaching elementary students the history and elements of Hip Hop for social justice aligned with core subjects through project-based learning.
Finally, she is the author of Hip Hop’s Li’l Sistas Speak: Negotiating Hip Hop Identities and Politics in the New South. Her work has appeared in numerous books and journals, including the English Journal, Urban Education, The Urban Review, and Journal of LGBT Youth. She is currently editing a special issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies focused on the identities, gender performances, and pedagogical practices of Black and Brown lesbian educators.
Donald Sawyer: is a faculty member in the Department of Sociology at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conneticut, where he teaches courses on sociology, race, the sociology of education, and sociology of hip-hop culture. His research includes urban education, visual sociology, youth culture, hip-hop culture, qualitative methods, and youth critical media literacy.
Born and raised in New York City, he grew up in Harlem in the Abraham Lincoln Housing Projects. “Growing up in the projects had its ups and downs, but if I had a chance to start all over, I wouldn’t change a thing! If it wasn’t for the support of my Harlem community, I would not be where I am today.” A first generation college student, Sawyer asks the following question of himself and others: “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?”
As an educator, he strives to create an atmosphere that engages, excites, and inspires students where knowledge is co-produced through facilitation and finding ways for students to become motivated about understanding the complexities of the social world. Sawyer’s Crossroads Collective was developed using hip-hop culture to (re)engage Black and Latino males with school.
Martha Diaz: is a community organizer, educator, media producer, archivist and social entrepreneur. She has been dedicated to advancing social justice, cultivating leaders and artists, and mentoring youth for over 15 years. She was a production assistant for the late Ted Demme, the TV and film producer/director behind Yo! MTV Raps (1988), Life (1999), Blow (2001) and A Decade Under the Influence (2003). In 1999, Diaz produced and directed, H2O [Hip-Hop Odyssey], a short documentary on the evolution and global impact of Hip-Hop culture. In 2002, Diaz formed the H2O International Film Festival and subsequently developed the Hip-Hop Association [H2A]. For seven years, Diaz served as president and executive director of the H2A; she is currently its chair. Diaz launched H2ONewsreel, the first Hip-Hop media distribution label dedicated to the education field, in collaboration with Third World Newsreel. Diaz co-created and edited the Hip-Hop Education Guidebook Series with Marcella Runell Hall. In 2008, she launched the Womanhood Learning Projectas an intervention strategy to empower women in Hip-Hop, and she is the editor of the forthcoming book, Fresh, Bold and So Def: Women In Hip-Hop Changing The Game, with Dr. Irma McClaurin and Dr. Rachel Raimist. As a resident of NJPAC’s Alternate Routes Residency Program, Diaz developed the Ladies First Fund, the first micro-grant for women social entrepreneurs. As a 2008 NYU Gallatin Graduate student and a Catherine B. Reynolds Fellow, she founded the Hip-Hop Education Center for Research, Evaluation and Training, in partnership with Dr. Pedro Noguera of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Behavior.
Brian Mooney: is an educator, scholar, and poet from New Jersey. He explores the intersections of hip-hop, spoken word, literacy, and urban education. Brian holds a bachelor’s degree in English Education from New York University and is currently studying in a graduate program at Teachers College, Columbia University.
His research examines the identities of young writers who participate in high school poetry slams and considers the effects of hip-hop culture on teaching and learning. In 2013 and 2014, Brian was invited to present his work at the Preemptive Education Conference in New York City. He is the founder of Word Up, a high school poetry slam that champions the voices of youth poets and MCs in Hudson County. The event has featured guest poets and teaching artists from across the country, including Andrea Gibson, Sarah Kay, Jon Sands, Angel Nafis, Shira Erlichman, Ken Arkind, and Rudy Francisco.
2015 Guest Speakers/Lecturers
Michael Cirelli serves as the Institute Director and is also the Executive Director of Urban Word NYC, a grassroots nonprofit organization that provides free, safe, uncensored and ongoing writing and performance opportunities for teens. Cirelli also curates the annual Preemptive Education conference at New York University.
Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz: Assistant Professor of English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research interests include racial literacy development in urban teacher education, culturally responsive pedagogies in English and Literacy classrooms, and the social and academic success of Black and Latino high school males.
Dr. Bettina L. Love: Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Theory & Practice at the University of Georgia.
Intikana: Award-winning perfomer, musician, educator, filmmaker and writer.
Gregory Corbin Jr.: Award-winning international poet, motivational speaker, activist, teacher, humanitarian, philanthropist, and Founder/Executive Director of the award winning Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement (PYPM).
Jacinda Bullie: Activist, Artist, and Co-Founder/Director of Chicago’s Kuumba Lynx (KL) which utilizes Hip Hop Arts/Education as tools for social change and youth liberation.
Jaquanda Villegas: Activist, Artist, and Co-Founder/Director of Chicago’s Kuumba Lynx (KL) which utilizes Hip Hop Arts/Education as tools for social change and youth liberation.
Alan Lawrence Sitomer: California Teacher of the Year award winner, keynote speaker, and founding member of Street Smart Press. Sitomer has also authored 17 books.
Lauren Kelly: Graduate Instructor and Doctoral Candidate in English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Kelly has been teaching high school English full-time for 9 years in New York, focusing on curriculum development and teaching for social justice.
Josh Healey: Award-winning writer, artistic educator, and creative activist.
2014 Guest Speakers/Lecturers
Michael Cirelli serves as the Institute Director and is also the Executive Director of Urban Word NYC, a grassroots nonprofit organization that provides free, safe, uncensored and ongoing writing and performance opportunities for teens. Cirelli also curates the annual Preemptive Education conference at New York University.
Gloria Ladson-Billings: Kellner Family Professor of Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at UW-Madison, and Hip Hop in the Heartland faculty of record.
Toni Blackman: Rapper, actress, writer, and U.S. State Department Musical Ambassador.
Christopher Walker: UW-Madison assistant professor of Dance and First Wave Hip-Hop Theater Ensemble artistic director.
Baba Israel: Emcee, poet, educator theater artist, and beatboxer who has toured across the USA, Europe, Asia, New Zealand and Australia. He is the Artistic Director/CEO of Contact Theatre Manchester, UK and the co-founder of Playback NYC, an improvisational ensemble who work in under represented communities.
Piper Anderson: Performance Artist, Writer, Healer, and Arts Educator. She is the Arts Coordinator at El Puente Arts & Culture Center where she also teaches drama and creative writing. She is master teaching artist with American Place Theatre and performs residencies in schools throughout New York City using drama to develop literacy skills amongst young people. Anderson facilitates professional development trainings for educators and youth workers across the country in partnership with organizations such as Big Brother/Big Sister, Brooklyn College, and continues to be invited to colleges, universities, and conferences across the country.
Dr. Bettina L. Love: Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Theory & Practice at the University of Georgia.
David Stovall: Ph.D., Associate Professor of Educational Policy Studies and African-American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Crystal Belle: Educator, freelance writer, and poet.
2013 Guest Speakers/Lecturers
Michael Cirelli serves as the Institute Director and is also the Executive Director of Urban Word NYC, a grassroots nonprofit organization that provides free, safe, uncensored and ongoing writing and performance opportunities for teens. Cirelli also curates the annual Preemptive Education conference at New York University.
Dr. Christopher Emdin: Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology at Teachers College, Columbia University, Director of Science Education at the Center for Health Equity and Urban Science Education, Caperton Fellow and Hip-Hop Archive Fellow at the WEB DuBois Institute at Harvard University.
Baba Israel: Emcee, poet, educator theater artist, and beatboxer who has toured across the USA, Europe, Asia, New Zealand and Australia. Former Artistic Director/CEO of Contact Theatre Manchester, UK and the co-founder of Playback NYC, an improvisational ensemble working in under represented communities.
Sue Weinstein: Associate professor of English at Louisiana State University.
Anna West: 15-year veteran spoken-word youth program organizer and educator.
Maisha T. Winn: Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at University of Madison-Wisconsin.
Gloria Ladson-Billings: Kellner Family Professor of Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at UW-Madison, and Hip Hop in the Heartland faculty of record.
David E. Kirkland: Associate professor of writing, rhetoric and American cultures, English, and African and African-American Studies at Michigan State University and New York University.
Kiriakos “YAKO 440” Prodis: Hip-Hop artist, musician, producer, graffiti writer and designer.
Mark Gonzales: Poet, educator, and international thought leader in using storytelling as a global health strategy. He is currently creating a model to unite youth artists inside juvenile halls with those within high schools through multi-media poetry to engage students in ending cycles of violence and emptying prisons.
Jamila Lyiscott: Doctoral student at Teachers College, Columbia University and a Graduate Research Assistant at the Institute for Urban and Minority Education.
2012 Guest Speakers/Lecturers
Michael Cirelli serves as the Institute Director and is also the Executive Director of Urban Word NYC, a grassroots nonprofit organization that provides free, safe, uncensored and ongoing writing and performance opportunities for teens. Cirelli also curates the annual Preemptive Education conference at New York University.
Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz: Assistant Professor at Teacheers College, Columbia University where she is founder and faculty sponsor of the Racial Literacy Roundtables Series to facilitate informal conversations around issues of race and diversity.
Taylor Mali: Author, lecturer, and poet.
Adam Falkner is a poet, performer, high school English teacher and the founder and executive director of the Dialogue Arts Project, a nonprofit organization incorpo-rating creative writing, the performing arts, and inter-group dialogue into teaching and training processes.
Mahogany L. Browne: Author, producer, performer, Nuyorican Poets Café curator and host.
Quraysh Ali Lansana: Poet, teaching artist, and curriculum developer.
Sam Seidel: Education writer, and consultant.
Dawn-Elissa Fischer: (aka Dr. DEF) Assistant professor in the Department of Africana Studies at San Francisco State University, where she teaches courses on black popular culture, information technology and visual ethnography.
Christopher Edmin: Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology at Teachers College, Columbia University, Director of Science Education at the Center for Health Equity and Urban Science Education, Caperton Fellow and Hip-Hop Archive Fellow at the WEB DuBois Institute at Harvard University.
2011 Guest Speakers/Lecturers
Michael Cirelli serves as the Institute Director and is also the Executive Director of Urban Word NYC, a grassroots nonprofit organization that provides free, safe, uncensored and ongoing writing and performance opportunities for teens. Cirelli also curates the annual Preemptive Education conference at New York University.
Christina Marín: Assistant Professor of Performing Arts at Emerson College in Boston, MA. She teaches classes in Drama as Education; Theatre, Performance & Community; and Human Rights in Theatre. She is an international practitioner of Theatre of the Oppressed and a professional theatre director who focuses on plays addressing human rights violations, especially along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Jessica Care Moore: Internationally renowned poet, publisher, activist, rock star, playwright, actress, educator, thespian, filmmaker, performance artist, producer, five-time Showtime at the Apollo winner, and CEO of Moore Black Press.
Lemon Anderson: Poet, Spoken Word artist, and actor.
Quraysh Ali Lansana: Poet, teaching artist, and curriculum developer.
Intikana: Award-winning perfomer, musician, educator, filmmaker and writer.
Marcella Runell Hall: Author, educator, and Dean of Students at Mt. Holyoke College.
Toni Blackman: Rapper, actress, writer, and State Department ambassador.
2010 Guest Speakers/Lecturers
Michael Cirelli serves as the Institute Director and is also the Executive Director of Urban Word NYC, a grassroots nonprofit organization that provides free, safe, uncensored and ongoing writing and performance opportunities for teens. Cirelli also curates the annual Preemptive Education conference at New York University.
David Kirkland: Transdisciplinary scholar of English and urban education, who explores the intersections among urban youth culture, language and literacy, urban teacher preparation, and digital media. He is currently completing his fourth book, A Search Past Silence, to be published through Teacher College Press Language and Literacy Series.
Farbeon: Artist, educator, poet, emcee, singer, photographer and agent of change that epitomizes the Hip Hop Renaissance.
Rachel McKibbens: Poet, activist, playwright, essayist and New York Foundation for the Arts poetry fellow and author of the critically acclaimed volume of poetry, Pink Elephant (Cypher Books, 2009).
Mark Gonzales: Poet, educator, and international thought leader in using storytelling as a global health strategy. He is currently creating a model to unite youth artists inside juvenile halls with those within high schools through multi-media poetry to engage students in ending cycles of violence and emptying prisons.
Christina Marín: Assistant Professor of Performing Arts at Emerson College in Boston, MA. She teaches classes in Drama as Education; Theatre, Performance & Community; and Human Rights in Theatre. She is an international practitioner of Theatre of the Oppressed and a professional theatre director who focuses on plays addressing human rights violations, especially along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Regie Cabico: Poetry and Spoken Word artist.
Jeff Duncan Andrade: Associate Professor of Raza Studies and Education Administration and Interdisciplinary Studies.
Rabbi D: Human Beatboxer.
Konrad Abramowicz: Composer.
Shaun Redwood: Poet and Spoken Word artist.
Andre Charles: Pioneer Graffti artist.
Patrick Camangian: Associate Professor of Teacher Education- Urban Education and Social Justice.
2009 Guest Speakers/Lecturers
Michael Cirelli serves as the Institute Director and is also the Executive Director of Urban Word NYC, a grassroots nonprofit organization that provides free, safe, uncensored and ongoing writing and performance opportunities for teens. Cirelli also curates the annual Preemptive Education conference at New York University.
Katrina Brook Flores: Associate Director, community organizer, co-founder of the MultiCultural Student Coalition, founder of the Youth Engaged through Language Project, founder of Women of the Scarred Earth Performance & Popular Education Project, and OMAI Program Director and Arts in Education Specialist.
Baba Israel: Emcee, poet, educator theater artist, and beatboxer who has toured across the USA, Europe, Asia, New Zealand and Australia. He is the Artistic Director/CEO of Contact Theatre Manchester, UK and the co-founder of Playback NYC, an improvisational ensemble who work in under represented communities.
David E. Kirkland: Transdisciplinary scholar of English and urban education, who explores the intersections among urban youth culture, language and literacy, urban teacher preparation, and digital media. He is currently completing his fourth book, A Search Past Silence, to be published through Teacher College Press Language and Literacy Series.
Willie Perdomo: Poet, children’s book author, current Artist-in-Residence, Workspace, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. He is co-founder/publisher of Cypher Books.
Bob Holman: Poet and Spoken Word Artist.
Piper Anderson: Performance Artist, Writer, Healer, and Arts Educator. She is the Arts Coordinator at El Puente Arts & Culture Center where she also teaches drama and creative writing. She is master teaching artist with American Place Theatre and performs residencies in schools throughout New York City using drama to develop literacy skills amongst young people.
Marcella Runell Hall: Author, educator, and Dean of Students at Mt. Holyoke College.
Mark Gonzales: Poet, educator, and international thought leader in using storytelling as a global health strategy. He is currently creating a model to unite youth artists inside juvenile halls with those within high schools through multi-media poetry to engage students in ending cycles of violence and emptying prisons.
Lavie Raven: Social studies and language arts instructor at Kenwood Academy (a Chicago public high school), the Minister of Education for the University of Hip-Hop.
K-Swift: American DJ, MC, radio personality and entreprenuer.
Celena Glenn: Poet and Spoken Word artist.
2008 Guest Speakers/Lecturers
Michael Cirelli serves as the Institute Director and is also the Executive Director of Urban Word NYC, a grassroots nonprofit organization that provides free, safe, uncensored and ongoing writing and performance opportunities for teens. Cirelli also curates the annual Preemptive Education conference at New York University.
Dr. Daniel Banks: Ph.D., is a theatre director, choreographer, educator, and dialogue facilitator.
Dr. David Kirkland: Transdisciplinary scholar of English and urban education, who explores the intersections among urban youth culture, language and literacy, urban teacher preparation, and digital media. He is currently completing his fourth book, A Search Past Silence, to be published through Teacher College Press Language and Literacy Series.
Piper Anderson: Performance Artist, Writer, Healer, and Arts Educator. She is the Arts Coordinator at El Puente Arts & Culture Center where she also teaches drama and creative writing. She is master teaching artist with American Place Theatre and performs residencies in schools throughout New York City using drama to develop literacy skills amongst young people.
Mark Gonzales: Poet, educator, and international thought leader in using storytelling as a global health strategy. He is currently creating a model to unite youth artists inside juvenile halls with those within high schools through multi-media poetry to engage students in ending cycles of violence and emptying prisons.
Chris “Kazi” Rolle: is founder and Co-CEO of One+One Records, a hip hop performer, and a motivational speaker on men’s issues in the African American community.
Queen GodIs: International Poet, MC, Artistic Director and Performance Art Therapist whose work serves a host of communities seeking transformation through art.
Josh Healey: Award-winning writer, performer, and creative activist.
Dasha Kelly: Nationally-respected writer, artist and social entrepreneur.
Amiri Baraka: is a well known African-American writer of fiction, drama, poetry, and music. With books such as Tales of the Out and the Gone, he has received the PEN Open Book Award and is also respected as one of the most widely published African American authors of his generation. Apart from writing, Barake is considered as a revolutionary political activist and has given lectures on various political and cultural issues extensively throughout Europe, Africa, USA, and the Caribbean.
2007 Guest Speakers/Lecturers
Michael Cirelli serves as the Institute Director and is also the Executive Director of Urban Word NYC, a grassroots nonprofit organization that provides free, safe, uncensored and ongoing writing and performance opportunities for teens. Cirelli also curates the annual Preemptive Education conference at New York University.
Martha Diaz: Community organizer, media producer, archivist, curator, social entrepreneur, and adjunct professor at New York University’s Gallatin School. She also founded the Hip-Hop Education Center for research, evaluation, and training.
Professor David Stoval, PhD: Associate Professor of African American Studies and Educational Policy Studies.
Honorable George Martinez: American educator, activist, artist and hip-hop political pioneer. He is an adjunct professor of political science at Pace University and a cultural/ hip-hop ambassador for the U.S. Department of State.
Ghetto Priest: Singer-Songwriter and recording artist.
Dr. Jeffrey Michael Duncan-Andrade: A Pedagogy of Indignation for Love, Purpose, and Hope Associate Professor of Raza Studies and Education Administration and Interdisciplinary Studies.
Roberto Rivera: Award winning artist, educator, and change agent who specializes in applying best practices in engaging youth using practical and relevant methods. He is also the President and Lead Change Agent of The Good Life Organization.
DJ Reborn: DJ, Musical Director, Sound Collage Artist, Arts Educator.
Christa Bell: Writer and Performance Artist.
Baba Isreal: (NYC) Emcee, poet, educator theater artist, and beatboxer who has toured across the USA, Europe, Asia, New Zealand and Australia. He is the Artistic Director/CEO of Contact Theatre Manchester, UK and the co-founder of Playback NYC, an improvisational ensemble who work in under represented communities.
Marcella Runell: Author, educator, and Dean of Students at Mt. Holyoke College.
K-Swift: American DJ, MC, radio personality and entreprenuer.
Queen GodIs: International Poet, MC, Artistic Director and Performance Art Therapist whose work serves a host of communities seeking transformation through art.
DJ Kool Herc: Originator of breakbeat DJing, essentially the essence of hip-hop.