Marcus is originally from the Englewood Community in the South Side of Chicago. He is a conscious Hip-Hop artist/educator who is an advocate for Black students. He completed his Masters of Education in Social Justice Education and is currently a Ph.D student in the Social Justice Department at The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, under the supervision of Dr. rosalind hampton.
His research focuses on Critical Hip-Hop Pedagogy and Critical Race reading practices within Black Studies. Using Critical Hip-Hop Pedagogy and Critical Race reading practices, the goal is to create counter-spaces of resistance with Black students who are willing to move collaboratively and transnationally to challenge and deconstruct institutions (schools & prisons) constructed by eurocentric-colonialistic ideas and methods of teaching.
His research interests include the mixed methodologies of:
- (Auto)ethnography;
- Black Emancipatory Action Research (BEAR);
- Critical Race Theory (CRT) reading practices;
- Youth Action Participatory Research (YPAR).
The goal again, is to create counter-spaces and platforms for critical-creative art based practices for Black students to reclaim their voice and their African/Caribbean/ Afro-Latino/ Indigenous ways of learning. Marcus contends that as Black students begin to take ownership and reclaim their voice and develop their own pedagogies and methodologies for learning, they will be able to counter colonial eurocentric institutions (schools & prisons) that continue to uphold anti-Black, oppressive teaching approaches as a weapon aimed against Black students versus using education and pedagogy as a liberatory practice for Black students.
