The secret panel for SlavConf. Reinforcement was revealed live on Bloomberg TV Bulgaria on 28 October. It will be a Hip Hop panel featuring experts from the United States. The panel is the last segment on the agenda of the 5th anniversary of SlavConf.
The panelists will be Martha Diaz, DJ Scetch and Rahman Jamaal. Learn more about them below.
Martha Diaz – Hip Hop Education Center
Colombian-American futurist Martha Diaz (MD) is an award-winning community organizer, media producer, archivist, curator, educator, and social entrepreneur. One of Women’s eNews distinguished 21 Leaders for the 21st Century, she has traversed the Hip Hop entertainment industry, the public arts and education sector, and the academy over the last 25 years. Her passion is advancing human rights and transforming communities through Hip Hop education, media, and technology. In 2010, MD launched the Hip Hop Education Center for Research, Evaluation, and Training at New York University. Through her publications of research reports, books, and curricula, she has chronicled Hip Hop history to preserve its cultural value and memory in addition to formalizing the field of Hip Hop education. A graduate of New York University’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program, MD has worked on archival projects with Parkwood Entertainment (Beyoncé Knowles-Carter), Tupac Shakur Estate, National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and Paley Center for Media to name a few. She is currently a Senior Civic Media Fellow at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab, CEO of Hip Hop CU (CommUniversity), and Chair of Archives, Curatorial, and Educational Affairs at the Universal Hip Hop Museum.
Scetch – Academix
Scetch has been immersed in the hip-hop music, marketing and entertainment culture for over 30 years, as a DJ, Creative and Entrepreneur. Along the way, he developed the ability to incorporate lateral thinking in my creative and business ventures. He balances his understanding of creativity, business, marketing, entertainment, technology and how they intersect with music culture. He grew up in Los Angeles during the 80’s and 90’s, an era filled with violence, drugs and other peer pressures. As a young music lover and aspiring creative, he was faced with the sad reality that there were no music or entertainment career training programs available in K-12 public schools or in my community. Here we are almost 40 years later in the 2020’s and not much has changed. Los Angeles is still the music, media and entertainment capital of the world, yet there are no creative and workforce development programs for K-12 students to explore and pursue a career pathway in these industries. This needs to change and I Scetch wants to make it happen.
Rahman Jamaal – Rap Force Academy/Hip Hop Congress
Rahman Jamaal is an organizer, educator, and multi-talented artist from the Bay Area, CA. In 2003 he starred in the critically-acclaimed Sundance Film “The Beat” while chairing the first college chapter of Hip Hop Congress at the University of Southern California, where he earned degrees in Cinema-Television, Communications in the Entertainment Industry, and Music Industry. After graduating college he wrote the first state-standard-approved high school curriculum for rap & emceeing in California, which he has brought to K-12 schools, juvenile halls, universities and non-profit organizations around the world, through his entrepreneurial brand Rap Force Academy.