Hip Hop Can Save America

My guess is that if you’re listening to this show, you’ve heard of a lil ol musical called Hamilton. The unlikely mix of hip-hop and live theater caught many mainstreamers off guard with its multi-cultural, multi-genre approach to the stage. But what not enough people know, is that Hamilton is not a one-off. Hip-hop and live theater have a history that far proceeds and expands way past Lin Manuel...

On this episode, Manny Faces speaks to artist, educator and entrepreneur Gil Perkins, aka Sage Salvo who, founded a literacy program called Words Liive that helps teachers build standards-aligned lessons that integrate music and media, increasing student engagement and educational success. Sage details the core offerings of this groundbreaking program, and talks about how hip-hop music and lyrics...

Kevin Kosanovich founded the College of William & Mary Hip Hop Collection dedicated to documenting and preserving Virginia’s hip-hop history. Kevin earned his PhD writing about the Bronx River Houses, the Zulu Nation, and hip-hop’s international expansion. He is currently the Content Archivist for StockX.

A veteran of more than a dozen international tours, including as a State Department Cultural Ambassador with the Music Abroad Program, Mikal Amin is someone I consider to be the epitome of a hip-hop teaching artist. He’s taught master classes, led workshops, lectured, published essays, produced and curated events, and most important, stood right by the sides of young people from all walks of life,...

This episode, I speak to Mark "Metal" Wong and Steve "Believe" Lunger from Hip Hop Fundamentals. Based in Philadelphia, Hip Hop Fundamentals is an educational company run by breakdancers, whose mission is to “use the dynamic American art form of Breaking to effectively teach academic content, youth empowerment, and social issues.” With a roster chock full of talented, passionate teaching artists,...

This episode, Manny Faces talks with Dr. Ian Levy about hip-hop and school counseling. Dr. Levy was the 2016 New York State school counselor of the year and is currently Assistant Professor of School Counseling at Manhattan College. Levy, who has been recognized for piloting the development, implementation, and evaluation of a Hip Hop based counseling framework in urban schools, examines mental he...

On this inaugural episode, host Manny Faces is joined by Dr. Bettina Love, 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 a...