geo geller

November 12, 2015

hip hop ed martha letter invite to awards

Filed under: — GeoGeller @ 11:31 pm

Extra Credit Awards
took place on November 11th at New York University

produced by Martha Diaz in partnership with Carlos Mare Rodriguez

MK Asante
emcee for the evening is best-selling author, award-winning filmmaker, rapper, and professor

Martha Diaz has been on a mission for over a decade to cultivate and professionalize the field of hip-hop-based education. In 2010, She launched the Hip-Hop Education Center for Research, Evaluation, and Training in collaboration with New York University’s Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools (Metro Center).

She has published numerous field reports and case studies including, the first national scan, where she discovered over 300 hip-hop-based education programs in the United States. For the past year, in partnership with Carlos Mare Rodriguez, she has been developing a prototype for an online Hip-Hop Communiversity that will serve as a central hub for the hip-hop education movement. Extra Credit is the Hip-Hop Education Center’s first fundraiser and award ceremony to bring awareness to some of the pioneers and contributors of the hip-hop and education field.

We are honoring organizations and initiatives that focus primarily on music education/production to recognize exemplary models within the hip-hop and education field. Our goal is to highlight on one of the elements (djing, b-boying, writing/graf, each year. Here is a list of this year’s honorees:

Afrika Bambaataa – Zulu Nation – Global
Maureen Yancey aka Ma Dukes – J Dilla Foundation – National
Tomas Alvarez and Rob Jackson – Beats, Rhymes and Life – Oakland, CA
Dr. Olajide Williams, Artie Green, Easy AD and Doug E Fresh – Hip-Hop Public Health – Columbia University
Christopher Emdin and The GZA – Science Genius B.A.T.T.L.E.S. – Columbia University NY
David TC Ellis – High School for Recording Arts aka Hip Hop High – Minneapolis, Minnesota
Toki Wright – Hip-Hop Studies Program – McNally Smith College of Music – Saint Paul, MN
Donnie Smith and Che Smith aka Rhymefest – Donda’s House – Chicago, IL
DJ Stephen Levitin aka Apple Juice Kid, Pierce Freelon, and Dr. Mark Katz – Beat Making Lab – University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill / Global

Why hip-hop education is needed?

Students are not engaged in school.
Approximately, 1.1 million American high school students drop out every year. That’s a student every 26 seconds – or 7,000 a day. This education crisis poses direct negative consequences to poverty, crime, and economic conditions to our society.

The poverty rate for families headed by dropouts is more than twice that of families headed by high school graduates.

A high school dropout will earn $200,000 less than a high school graduate over his lifetime. And almost a million dollars less than a college graduate.

How are we going to make a difference?

PETITION – On November 11th, we are launching a We The People – White House Petition to request that the Obama Administration acknowledge hip-hop culture as a valuable culture that should be studied and practiced in all K-12 public schools. We will have 30 days to get 100,000 signatures in order for the Obama Administration to respond to our request.

PARTNERSHIPS – In order to bring national attention to our mission, we have joined forces the Metro Center, Wikiburg, and the Disruptor Foundation to develop a social media campaign and involve some of the social change leaders in and outside of the hip-hop community. Over the next six months we will be creating an advocacy and support network.

POLICY – We are working with political representatives on a local and national level to create a legislative bill to mandate that hip-hop culture is integrated in the parks and programs of the National Park Service and the Department of Education Common Core State Standards.
HIP-HOP COMMUNIVERSITY – We are launching an online platform for the burgeoning Hp-Hop Education movement. The Communiversity is the first teaching, learning, and archival management system— whereby the community and university come together to develop an alternative educational space that utilizes hip-hop culture as an interdisciplinary teaching tool.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best,
Martha

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