Artists & Projects Directory

• Africa Consortium
• Boyzie Cekwana
• Dan Hurlin
• David Roussève/REALITY
• Dean Moss
• Gregory Maqoma
• Los Muñequitos
• Marc Bamuthi Joseph
• Ralph Lemon
• Stories Left to Tell
• The America Project
• Yasuko Yokoshi

Marc Bamuthi Joseph/The Living Word Project

Several activities can be presented in tandem with the break/s:

Writing workshops
Writing workshops can last anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours with a primary focus on spoken word poetry. Elements of performance craft, theater games, gesture and movement can be included at any individual teacher's discretion.These workshops can be specifically geared to students in the seventh grade through college seniors.

Spoken Word, Spoken True
This workshop is for spoken word artists and dancers looking to find the right intersection of the poetic and movement forms. Poets who wish to extend their work beyond the parameters of the three-minute slam format and look towards developing longer performed narratives in verse will find this particularly illuminating. Bamuthi challenges writers to explore myth and contemporary iconography, using text, gesture and movement to create short pieces with definite shape and dramatic arc.

Creating Story Through Beatboxing with Tommy Shepherd
Learn how to create worlds through sound. Participants will compose atmospheres, invoke emotion and tell a story with beats, rhythms, melodies and resonance. This workshop will concentrate on a variety of beatboxing styles and sound effects as well as basic acting and movement technique culminating in a performance.

Hip hop & Educators
Bamuthi is available to speak to high school and university educators about his institution of hip-hop as a core component of contemporary curricular studies. Using his work at Youth Speaks and at The University of Madison as case studies, Bamuthi illustrates methods of using contemporary arts to facilitate the recruitment and retention of students of color. He introduces the role of hip-hop in curricular studies, operationalizes urban oral literacy, models the emergence of new aesthetics in literary research and performance, and facilitates discussion on academic support of students of color at major universities.

DJ 101 with Excess
The course is a combination of lecture and lab; however, students will spend the majority of the time receiving hands on turntable training. This overview course is ideal for students interested in starting their career as a DJ, as well as for those interested in picking up a new hobby. Skills covered include: equipment set up and break down, standard hand-to-record and hand-to-fader technique, basic music theory, basic mixing and blending, basic scratching and basic beat making.