Metro Center for Urban Education

Hip-Hop Education

Think Tank

As we embark upon the next decade of 2010 to 2020, there is much room for both optimism and despair about various humanitarian issues, especially regarding education. We at the H2ED Center view this precipice as an opportune time to analyze, dialog and harness the skill sets, praxis and philosophy of Hip-Hop to catapult students and teachers to higher levels of success within K-12 and institutions of higher learning.

In 2011, the H2ED Center will launch a series of Think Tank gatherings that will consist of Hip-Hop scholars and pioneers, practitioners, teaching arts, community leaders, administrators, business professionals, policymakers, and experts from the civic, government and business sectors to help us shape and strengthen our mission and policy agenda.

The Think Tank will serve as a repository first of powerful questions and ideas that will be discussed, researched, analyzed, and answered by powerful people who are dedicated to the broader notion of education for liberation.

The Hip-Hop Education Center in collaboration with the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education and Center for Multicultural Education and Programs at New York University Present...

Think Tank Session I: Rolling Deep, Moving Forward: Professionalizing Hip-Hop Education

Date: 11.11.11

Location: NYU Kimmel Center - 60 Washington Square South, 4th floor

9:00am - Registration/breakfast

9:45am - Opening Remarks: Dr. Eddie Fergus (Deputy Director, Metropolitan Center), Martha Diaz (Founder, Hip-Hop Education Center), Dr. Marcella Runell Hall (Interim Director, Center for Multicultural Education and Programs)   

10:00-10:15am - Framing The Conversation/ Issues of the Education Field
Facilitators: Dr. Raymond Codrington (The Aspen Institute) and Kanene Holder (Hip-Hop Education Center)

10:15-11:00am - Session I
Presentations: DEFINING HIP-HOP EDUCATION/PEDAGOGY

  • Demystifying Hip-Hop Culture- Hip-Hop Industry- Hip-Hop Education? Abran Maldonado (P.E.A.C.E. and Hip-Hop Education Center) (10-min)
  • What is Hip-Hop Education VS Hip-Hop Pedagogy? (10-min)
    Dr. Daniel Banks (Hip-Hop Theater Initiative and DNA Works)


11:15am -12:00pm - Session II
Presentation: HIP-HOP HISTORY & LEGACY (Rich Artifacts and Documentation)

  • (Advocacy, Literacy, and Legacy) A.L.L. for Arts - Carlos ”Mare139” Rodriguez, Henry Chalfant and Alan Ket   

12-1pm lunch - Panel Discussion - The Role of Media to Educate Both in the Classroom and the Community  

 Moderator: Zuhirah Khaldun (Marketing Director, National Urban League and Director of Community Relations, H2ED Center)

Panelists: Dr. James Peterson (Director, African Studies - Lehigh University), Dr. Murray Forman (Northeastern University), and Eli Jacob-Fantauzzi (Clenched Fist Productions)

1-2:15pm - Session III - Presentation: THE SCHOOL OF HARDKNOCKS RISES TO THE TOP: The role of Administrators, Social and Cultural workers, artists, and funders in changing the education system  

  • High School of the Recording Arts a.k.a. Hip Hop High - David TC Ellis (Founder of HSRA), Isaac Ewell (Director, Black Alliance for Educational Options), Sam Seidel (Author, Hip Hop Genius: Remixing High School Education) 


2:15- 3:15PM Session IV - Panel - Indigenous Sounds, Floor Moves, and the Fifth Element: HEALING, ENLIGHTENING, AND UPLIFTING COMMUNITIES - Steve Buddha (BluePrintForLife), Joseph G. Schloss (Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music, New York University, and Author of Making Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip-Hop), B-Girl Rokafella (Full Circle Productions), and Imani K. Johnson (Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Performance Studies at NYU)

3:15 -4:15PM Session V
Presentations: SHINING A LIGHT ON WHAT'S WORKING - Connecting In-and-out-of-School Time Learning: Hip-Hop’s After school/Enrichment programs engaging youth and raising the standards

  • Diana Mulligan - Rap Cool Health (10-min)
  • Michael Cirelli and Mikal Amin Lee - Urban Word NYC (10-min)
  • Dr. Christopher Emdin - Urban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation (10-min)
  • Tahir Hemphill - Hip Hop Word Count (10-min)
  • Mazi Mutafa - Word Beats and Life (10-min)
  • Dax-Devlon Ross - Sweat Equity (10-min)


4:20-5:20pm Session VI - Town Hall:  How do we professionalize the field of Hip-Hop Education?

Moderator by Martha Diaz
Panelists: Dr. Dawn-Elissa Fischer (San Francisco State University and Hip-Hop Archives, Harvard University), Dr. Edward Fergus (Metro Center, New York University), Willie Ney (OMAI, University of Wisconsin-Madison), Dr. Marcella Runell Hall (CMEP, New York University), and Londell McMillan (Attorney and Owner, Source Magazine)

5:30-5:45pm Session VII - Wrapping Things Up: Next Steps
Facilitated by Kanene and Raymond

6-7PM - Closing Remarks - Keynote by Dr. Joycelyn Wilson (Founder of HipHop2020 Curriculum Project and Hiphop Archive Fellow, Harvard University). Performance by Chen Lo 

Networking Reception

7:30-9:00PM - Screening of Arctic Hip-Hop with Social Worker and longtime B-boy Stephen Leafloor - Blue Print For Life: Social Work Through Hip-Hop

* Music breaks provided by DJ SpazeCraft One - H2ED Center

**Live Art by James Shield

SPEAKERS

Daniel Banks

Dr. Daniel Banks, Ph.D.: Founding Board, Hip Hop Education Center; Founder, Hip Hop Theatre Initiative; Faculty, M.A. in Applied Theatre, CUNY; Adviser, Gallatin School of Individualized Study, NYU; Co-director, DNAWORKS; Editor, Say Word! Voices from Hip Hop Theater, (University of Michigan Press).

Henry Chalfant

Starting out as a sculptor in New York in the 1970s, Chalfant turned to photography and film to do an in-depth study of hip-hop culture and graffiti art.  One of the foremost authorities on New York subway art,and other aspects of urban youth culture, his photographs record hundreds of ephemeral, original art works that have long since vanished. He has co-authored the definitive account of New York graffiti art, Subway Art (Holt Rinehart Winston, N.Y. 1984) and a sequel on the art form’s world-wide diffusion, Spray Can Art (Thames and Hudson Inc. London, 1987). Chalfant co-produced the PBS documentary, Style Wars, the definitive documentary about Graffiti and Hip Hop culture and directed Flyin’ Cut Sleeves, a documentary on South Bronx gangs, in 1993. He produced and directed Visit Palestine: Ten Days on the West Bank in 2002. His film From Mambo to Hip Hop was featured in the Latino Public Broadcasting series, Voces in 2006-2007, and won an Alma Award for Best Documentary.

Michael Cirelli 

Michael Cirelli is the Executive Director of Urban Word NYC, and the author of the teaching guide, Hip-Hop Poetry & the Classics, and the poetry collection, Lobster with Ol’ Dirty Bastard.

Zuhirah Khaldun Diarra

Zuhirah Khaldun Diarra, Marketing Director, National Urban League and Director of Community Relations, Hip-Hop Education Center was formerly Director of Media and Artist Relations at Island Def Jam Music Group and holds an M.A. in Cultural Analysis and B.A. in Economics.

David E. Ellis

David E. Ellis, the founder and director of the High School for Recording Arts (“Hip Hop High”), was born and raised in St. Paul Minnesota, and is a graduate of the St. Paul Open School. Mr. Ellis established himself in the music business in the mid-eighties as the first rap recording artist to release a record in Minnesota, the “Twin City Rap.” After a couple of independent record releases with regional success, he was recruited by Prince and Warner Brothers to record and produce records at Paisley Park. Eventually, Ellis started his own production company, Studio 4, where a number of young black artists who had dropped out of high school soon became a permanent presence. After a two-year pilot program, the High School for Recording Arts was born. It received a charter from the Minnesota Department of Education and emerging as the only public school of its kind in the United States.  David has recently been honored as an Oxford University Roundtable Fellow.

Christopher Emdin 

Dr. Emdin is a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he also serves as Director of Secondary School Initiatives at the Urban Science Education Center.

Isaac L. Ewell

Isaac L. Ewell is a gifted relationship builder who has established himself as an innovator in the field of “Edutainment,” identifying new ways to influence decision-makers in education and entertainment to develop strategies to improve the lives of urban youth through education.

Dawn-Elissa Fischer

Dr. Dawn-Elissa Fischer (a.k.a. the “D.E.F.” Professor) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at San Francisco State University . She is the executive director of Edutainment4Life, Inc. (an NGO dedicated to life skills and self- help of underserved children and families) and she serves on the advisory board of HOTGIRLS--Helping Our Teen Girls In Real Life Situations, Inc. (an NGO dedicated to health & HIV/AIDS education for black girls directed by Dr. Carla Stokes). She is a cofounder of the National Hip Hop Political Convention, and is a founding staff member of the Hiphop Archive at Harvard University. Dr. Fischer currently serves as the Hiphop Archive’s Associate Director of Research and Development, and she is working with talented community educators, artists and pioneer scholars developing the Hiphop University Project.

Marcella Runell Hall

Dr. Runell Hall is a social justice scholar and author. Currently, Hall is the Interim Director of the Center for Multicultural Education and Programs/Center for Spiritual Life at New York University (NYU). There she also serves as adjunct faculty in the Steinhardt School of Education and the Gallatin School of Individualized Study.

Tahir Hemphill

An award-winning creative director and multimedia artist working in the areas of interdisciplinary thought and research, Hemphill’s creative process explores the space between art and science. Hemphill operates the Brooklyn-based creative enterprise, Staple Crops and manages the media arts education program for Red Clay Arts, a nonprofit incubator for contemporary artists that he co-founded in 2000. His current project, The Hip-Hop Word Count is a searchable rap almanac.

Alan Ket

Alan Ket is active in his community as an author, muralist, curator, photographer, and graffiti advocate. His advocacy of graffiti has landed him in frequent lawsuits with the city of New York. Most recently he was the curator for graffiti and street art related exhibitions at MoCA in Los Angeles. Fondation Cartier in Paris, The Hip Hop Theatre Festival at New York University, to name a few. He is the author of eight art related titles.

Mikal Amin Lee 

As an educator and cultural critic Mikal has facilitated discussions at Fordham University, Marist College, The U.S. Institute of Peace and Centenary College regarding the global Hip Hop community, African diaspora, social justice, and gentrification.

Abran “ARonic” Maldonado

Hip-Hop Artist and Scholar Abran "ARonic" Maldonado is the founder and director of the PEACE program.  He is also the Assistant Director for the Hip-Hop Education Center (H2ED). After nearly a decade in the entertainment industry, Abran decided to enter the academy to further explore Hip-Hop, youth culture and their implications on the advancement of education. Abran was honored by Bill Gates as a Gates Millennium Scholar, an award given to future leaders in the community and is currently pursuing a PhD in Urban Education and working with education reformer Dr. Pedro Noguera.

Mazi Mutafa

Mazi Mutafa, an alumnus of the University of Maryland, is the founder and executive director of Words Beats & Life, Inc. (WBL), a hip-hop non-profit committed to transforming individual lives and whole communities through the training in and presentation of the elements of hip-hop culture.

Diane Mulligan

Diane Mulligan, President of Rap Cool Health™, a division of Mulligan&Co., LLC, a communications firm, first developed the Rap Cool Health™ concept while Vice President of National Communications at National Stroke Association. Mulligan also spent 15 years as a television journalist serving as senior editor for NBC Network News and news director in Denver, Colorado, during the Columbine high school shootings.

Willie Ney

Willie Ney is the Executive Director and Founder of the University of Wisconsin Madison's pioneering Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives which houses the award-winning First Wave Spoken Word and Hop Arts Learning Community, the first program of its kind on a university campus in the nation.

James Braxton Peterson

Dr. James Braxton Peterson is the Director of Africana Studies and Associate Professor of English at Lehigh University. He is also the founder of Hip Hop Scholars, LLC, an association of Hip Hop generational scholars dedicated to researching and developing the cultural and educational potential of Hip Hop, urban, and youth cultures. Peterson has appeared on Fox News, CBS, MSNBC, ABC News, ESPN, and various local television networks as an expert on race, politics, and popular culture.

Carlos “Mare139” Rodriguez

Carlos “Mare139” Rodriguez is a 2010-11 Scholar in Residence at New York University and teaching artist. A sculptor and lecturer who advocates for the pursuits of living fully expressive and productive lives through the arts.

B-Girl Rokafella

Hip-Hop dancer/choreographer Ana "Rokafella" Garcia began street performing with such crews such as The Transformers, The Breeze Team, and the New York City Float Committee.  She has taught workshops at NYU and Howard as well as neighborhood high schools and community centers. The nonprofit company she co founded with her husband, "Full Circle Prod", serves the community with educational performances and multimedia urban-themed performances.

Dax-Devlon Ross

Dax-Devlon Ross is an educator and the author of six books. His work on race, youth culture and criminal justice has been featured on MTV.com, Democracy Now, and Pacific Radio.

Sam Seidel

Sam Seidel is the author of Hip Hop Genius: Remixing High School Education.  He has taught in a variety of settings from first grade to community college and directed an award-winning arts program for young people in and transitioning out of prison. He now works with several national networks of innovative schools, speaks at education events, and writes for The Husslington Post as well as other publications.

Joycelyn A. Wilson

Dr. Joycelyn A. Wilson is an educational anthropologist, professor, journalist, documentary film producer, and Hiphop Archive Fellow at Harvard University. Her most recent appointment was at Morehouse College as a Scholar of Hip-Hop Studies in the African American Studies program. She is the founder of The Lead Network, Inc., a media production and curriculum programming website and directs and founded its flagship program, The HipHop2020 Curriculum Project.

 

 

 

 

 

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