News and updates from the Hip-Hop Education Center.

Greetings!

Dear Friends & Colleagues--

First, I want to congratulate President Obama for his re-election! Now the real work begins today, and all of us have a role to play.

My heart and thoughts are also with all of those who have been impacted by Hurricane Sandy. We must prevail and continue to prepare for the worse, as more challenges are headed our way.

For some of you, it may have been awhile since we've been in touch. For the last few years, I've been working with a wonderful community to help professionalize the field of Hip-Hop education. The result is the Hip-Hop Education Center, an education institution and community-building organization that cultivates and supports Hip-Hop scholars, teaching artists, cultural workers, activists, and social entrepreneurs.

I'm proud to share what we've been up to in this, our inaugural newsletter. We celebrated our two-year anniversary on June 1st and have achieved a great deal in a short period:

We partnered with NYU’s Metropolitan Center for Urban Education (Metro Center) at the Steinhardt School for Culture, Education, and Human Development.
Published the first national scan on Hip-Hop education programs.
We partnered with Columbia University’s Institute for Urban and Minority Education (IUME) at Teachers College.
Launched a scholars-in-residence program at NYU and Columbia University.
We hosted an international scholar from Brazil.
Piloted a Fellows program with 7 of the most promising educators and social entrepreneurs.
We hosted four national and international delegations of Hip-Hop artists and scholars, and NGO leaders from 30 countries.
We launched a Hip-Hop Education Think Tank that has included 80 Hip-Hop educators, scholars, artists, and social entrepreneurs from the U.S. and Canada.
We placed 8 teaching artists in Central High School in Newark, NJ and Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn.
We presented at conferences and conducted professional development workshops at a dozen institutions.

What I continue to understand is the need for all of us to work together to affect the change we want to see. There are many opportunities to get involved with HHEC and to support this important work. Also, I would love to hear from you about your projects, so please do get in touch. In the meantime, visit us online, follow us on Twitter, and like our Facebook page.

I look forward to taking things to the next level. I hope you will join us in our journey.

Respectfully,

Martha Diaz

Founder | HHEC
martha.diaz@nyu.edu

Our Community Grows

ADVISORS

The Hip-Hop Education Center (HHEC) has announced three new advisory committee members:

Christopher Emdin, PhD (Columbia University)
Katherine Reagan (Cornell University)
Willie Ney (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

The Advisory Committee consists of:

Daniel Banks, PhD (founding member - DNA Works, LLC)
Edward Fergus, PhD (founding member - New York University)
Ernest Morrell, PhD (Teachers College, Columbua University)
Irma McClaurin, PhD (founding member - McClaurin Solutions)
Marcella Runell Hall, PhD (founding member - New York University)
Pedro Noguera, PhD (founding member - New York University)
Ralph Vacca (founding member - Kognito Interactive)
Rolando Brown (founding member - Grow MVMT)
Zuhirah Khaldun-Diarra (National Urban League)

SCHOLARS-ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE

The HHEC in collaboration with New York University Metropolitan Center for Urban Education (Metro Center) and Teachers College Institute for Minority and Urban Education (IUME), expands the Scholar-Artist-In-Residence and visiting scholar program. The Scholar-Artist-in-Residence program began with the commitment of preeminent Hip-Hop visual artists Carlos Mare139 Rodriguez and Iona Rozeal Brown. Two years later a new cohort joins them in representing the best of the Hip-Hop artist and scholar community. They include:

Sam Seidel, Teaching Artist and Author, Hip-Hop Genius: Remixing High School Education (Teachers College - Columbia University)
Toni Blackman, Founder of the Freestyle Union and U.S. State Department Hip-Hop Ambassador (Teachers College - Columbia University)
Ken Swift, B-Boy and President of the Breaklife (New York University)
Raymond Pirtal II also know as DJ Readawn, NYU alumnus and co-inventor of Turntablist Transcription Methodology (New York University)

The HHEC will also host two international Visiting Scholars: Anna Oravcová, Faculty of Social Science at Charles University in Prague, Czech and Mary Fogarty, Assistant Professor Department of Dance at York University in Toronto, Canada.

About The Hip-Hop Education Center

The Hip-Hop Education Center (HHEC) cultivates and supports Hip-Hop scholars, teaching artists, cultural workers, activists, and social entrepreneurs in the effort to professionalize the field of Hip-Hop Education and inform the larger education sector. It achieves this through qualitative and quantitative research, program evaluation, community outreach and programming, teacher training and placement, policy development, advocacy, archiving, and social enterprising. www.hiphopeducation.org

Think Tank Series

Free Download

In 2011, the HHEC Center launched a series of Think Tank gatherings that gather 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 serves first as a repository 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.

Think Tank Session I: Rolling Deep, Moving Forward: Professionalizing Hip-Hop Education took place on November 11, 2011 in collaboration with the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education and Center for Multicultural Education and Programs at New York University.

We've released a digital recap of our first Think Tank to document the gathering and capture key takeaways. Download your copy today.

Think Tank II: Laying the Foundation: Defining the Field, Establishing Goals, and Creating Standards will take place on Sunday, November 11, 2012 at Teachers College Institute for Urban and Minority Education at Columbia University.

FELLOWS

Inaugural Fellows Felicia Pride, Jen Johnson, Genesis Be, and Chris Kazi Rolle are now Senior Fellows. These fellows have made serious headway with their projects, while working on the development of the HHEC’s main initiatives. Now that the first cohort of Felllows has completed their cycle, we are welcoming new ones. Chenitts Chen Lo Pettigrew, MC, educator and social entrepreneur, and Rokafella and Kwikstep, co-founder of Full Circle Productions are the newest Fellows to join the rank of junior/mid-career leaders, artists and educators being recognized for their promising and innovative ideas and projects.

INTERNATIONAL SCAN: RESEARCHERS NEEDED

On November 11, 2012, during the Think Tank II, the HHEC research team will release an international census on Hip-Hop education programs and courses. The research team is lead by Martha Diaz and is made up of Casey Wong (NYU/Standford University), Raymond Codrington (Aspen Institute), Moises Lopez (Columbia University), and Ryan Glover (Lehigh University). In order to have a global reach, the HHEC will establish research teams around the world to inform, shape, and disseminate the survey to fit the local needs. To get involve email Moises Lopez at moiseslopez@gmx.com.

FREE LECTURE SERIES

The HHEC is currently collaborating with the University of Wisconsin - Madison Office of Multicultural Affairs First Wave Program, NYU Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, and Teachers College Institute for Urban and Minority Education on the Getting Real III: Hip Hop Pedagogy, Performance and Culture in the Classroom and Beyond videoconferencing public lecture series happening every Monday until December 10 from 7:30-9:00 PM EST. For list of speakers, visit http://omai.wisc.edu.

PARTNERSHIPS

THE SCHOMBURG CENTER
The HHEC has entered into a major partnership with The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York, one of the leading institutions of its kind. The HHEC will donate its Hip-Hop Library resources, which include hundreds of didactic materials (including the H2O International Film Festival’s media archive of over 250 films and videos) to The Schomburg to catalogue, preserve, and make accessible to scholars, researchers, students, and the community at-large.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY'S HIP-HOP ARCHIVES & SMITHSONIAN'S NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY

The Hip-Hop Education Center, The Schomburg Center's 4.0 Initiative, Cornell University's Hip-Hop Collection, and The Archives Center at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History joined forces to facilitate the first daylong symposium dedicated to Hip-Hop archiving and preservation. Documenting History in Your Own Backyard, gathered 50 collectors and representatives of institutions with notable Hip-Hop collections.

TRIBECA FILM INSTITUTE

The Hip-Hop Education Center, The Schomburg Center's 4.0 Initiative, and the Tribeca Film Institute's Education Department teamed up to present the Tribeca Youth Screening Series at The Schomburg. Beat Street was screened to a full house. The screening was followed by a panel discussion with Harry Belafonte, DJ Kool Herc, Melle Mel, Lisa Cortes, and Vee Bravo.

NEW GRANT

The Annie E. Casey Foundation has awarded the HHEC a six-month development grant to work on three case studies in the cities of Baltimore, MD, Providence, RI, and San Antonio, TX. The case studies will inform us of different models and practices in regard to the engagement of Hip-Hop culture and youth development in the three different regions of the United States. The HHEC will also work with the Kids Count initiative to provide parents, educators, cultural workers, researchers, and administrators with contact information on Hip-Hop education programs and service providers located throughout the United States. Martha Diaz and Raymond Codrington are the co-principal investigators, along with Principle Investigators Pedro Noguera and Edward Fergus from the Metro Center at NYU.

HIP-HOP 4.0
Dr. Khalil Muhammad, Director of the Schomburg Center has appointed HHEC Founder Martha Diaz, as the first Hip-Hop Scholar-in-Residence at the Schomburg Center. Diaz will work to develop the Schomburg’s Hip-Hop 4.0 Initiative: Creativity, Education, Community, and Legacy initiative that will highlight conscious artists and the positive contributions of hip-hop culture. See current events.