About
Inspired by the title of the Rakim recording “Know The Ledge” – featured on the Juice soundtrack – this professional development day explores the role of Hip Hop education, pedagogy and curriculum building at the elementary, high school, and post-secondary (college and university) levels of education.
The morning and afternoon sessions will feature some of the foremost thought leaders in the arena of Hip Hop education, teaching and curriculum development in formats that include panel discussions and facilitated workshops. The day’s conversations, which are intended for both teachers and teacher candidates alike, will detail the value and practical application of Hip Hop pedagogy and strategy in the classroom.
As RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan once expressed, “knowledge is to know the ledge so we don't fall off the edge.”
Facilitators
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Dr. Francesca D’Amico-Cuthbert
Program Associate
Francesca D’Amico-Cuthbert is an award-winning historian of American and Canadian Hip Hop culture, the creative industries, and the music marketplace. She holds a Ph.D. in History from York University in Toronto, Canada (2019) and has served as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Toronto (2020-2022) and the University of Calgary (2022-2023). Her doctoral research traced how American emcees in the era of mass incarceration constructed complex ethnographies of urban spaces, transformed dispositions of power, and unmasked the modes and mechanisms of a persistent and haunting coloniality in the afterlives of American slavery. Her recent postdoctoral research explores Canadian Hip Hop’s relationship to national mythmaking, commerce, anti-Black market segmentation and the availability of state revenue streams and marketplace exposure. Her research has been published in: #HipHopEd: The Compilation on Hip Hop Education, The Journal of Canadian Historical Association, Canadian Journal of History, Musicworks, and The Dance Current.
As an Hip Hop educator Francesca has taught several courses on the histories of popular culture, including “Hip Hop and the City” – a course that explores Hip Hop’s evolution from a translocal urban art form to a global commodity. In addition to being a multi-disciplinary creative with training in vocal and instrumental music, dance, and the dramatic arts, Francesca also serves as the Chief Research Officer at the New York City based Hip Hop Hop Education Center where she works collaboratively to establish Hip Hop Education standards and the professionalization of the field.
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Dr Rhonda C. George
Turntablist, Sociologist
Dr. Rhonda C. George is a turntablist and award-winning sociologist whose research examines the social and intersectional dimensions of race, racialization, and racial stratification within social institutions. Her interdisciplinary work interrogates the ways in which Black communities, particularly Caribbean diasporic groups, experience, navigate, and resist systemic racial barriers. She is particularly interested in how Black Popular Culture shapes the identity formation, epistemologies, and aspirations of Black communities.
Guests
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Dalton Higgins
Author / Publicist / Journalist / Course Instructor
Dalton Higgins is an award-winning journalist from Toronto’s “Little Jamaica'' neighbourhood who first began writing for publications such as The Source Magazine – “the Bible of hip-hop music culture and politics” – where he penned the magazine’s first major interviews for many iconic artists – everyone from J Dilla to Nelly. He would go on to author six books – two of which centered the subject of Hip Hop (Far from Over: The Music and Life of Drake, which is carried in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame & Museum’s collection and his best-selling book Hip Hop World which is used in dozens of high school and college curriculums and is carried in Harvard University’s Hip Hop archive). As a broadcaster, Higgins has hosted his own digital cable TV show “Urban Groove'' on BPM TV, and has co-produced and co-hosted podcasts for the CBC (This Is Not A Drake podcast) and Rogers Media (Black Tea). As a well-known Toronto publicist, his company roster includes clients that have won a wide range of awards and accolades including: Grammy Awards (USA), BET Awards (USA), Emmy Awards (USA), The Mercury Prize (UK), Victoires de la Musique/French Grammy’s (France), and Juno Awards (Canada). More recently, as the Toronto Metropolitan University’s Music-Pro-in-Residence, Higgins created and teaches the university course “Deconstructing Drake and The Weeknd” that has been featured on CNN, New York Times, NPR, BET, Revolt TV, and 6ixBuzz among many other media outlets.
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Shaheen Ariefdien
Educator/artist/African-centered rites of passage facilitator
Shaheen Ariefdien is a Tuesday-born class clown, son, partner, Child and Youth Care practitioner, African-centered Rites of Passage facilitator, arts practitioner, Hip Hop producer, and educator at Humber College. He has worked on numerous community and youth-based projects in regions as diverse as South Africa, Switzerland, Angola, Holland, Namibia, Denmark, Northern Ireland and Canada. As a member of the pioneering Hip Hop group, Prophets of da City, he has performed at the inaugurations of Presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. He has also produced and co-produced over a dozen albums. He has also performed with The Fugees, James Brown, Quincy Jones, to name a few. His writing contributions have appeared in Jeff Chang’s Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop (2007), Paul Saucier’s Native Tongues: The African Hip Hop Reader (2011) and H. Samy Alim, Jeff Chang and Casey Wong’s Freedom Moves: Hip Hop Knowledges, Pedagogies, and Futures (2023). Shaheen has a passion for exploring African-centered, arts-based and other non-Eurocentric approaches to Child and Youth Care and education. He is interested in exploring the connections between hip hop, justice and healing.
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Jon Corbin
hip-hop artist, spoken word poet, speaker, band leader, writer and DJ
Jon Corbin is a Canadian hip-hop artist, spoken word poet, speaker, band leader, writer and DJ based in Milton, ON. Since 2001, first under the name The Runaway, Jon has blessed stages big and small with lyrical themes of faith, love, family, social justice, and personal growth.
Corbin is a veteran artist who has quietly carved a niche in Canada’s hip-hop community, collaborating with multiple Polaris Music Prize nominee Shad, Juno Award winner Caroline Brooks of The Good Lovelies, and many other revered emcees on both sides of the border.
As a speaker, Corbin speaks passionately on topics of identity, race and racism, mental health and community connections. As a musician, Jon provides a dynamic show that stays true to the basic tenets of hip-hop: peace, love, unity, and having fun!
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Michael “MikeAll” Grandsoul
Michael “MikeAll” Grandsoult is a Scarborough, Ontarian and Hip Hop Headucator. He began writing poems in the primary years of elementary school and started rapping in the junior grades. He has released three solo albums; "Mike Check" (2008), "Mike Support" (2015) and "Mike All" (2018). In 2012, Michael became a published author for the first time via the anthology, “Basodee.” Michael is currently an elementary school teacher with the Toronto Catholic District School Board. He uses rap/poetry as a bridge for learning and strives to promote passion for literacy. He credits his love of literature to his Guyanese- born parents, Cheryl and David Grandsoult, who read to him as a child and encouraged him to read and write. MikeAll’s goal is to put the poet back into Rhythm And Poetry. https://mikeall.bandcamp.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/mikeallhiphop
MikeAll is a Scarborough, Ontarion and Hip Hop Headucator. He began writing poems in the primary years of elementary school and started rapping in the junior grades. He has released three solo albums; "Mike Check" (2008), "Mike Support" (2015) and "Mike All" (2018). MikeAll’s goal is to put the poet back into Rhythm And Poetry. https://mikeall.bandcamp.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/mikeallhiphop
