PARTICIPANTS
Astro Mega
Hip Hop Producer / DJ
A sample-based producer, Astro Mega finds inspiration in everything he hears, from jazz records to the boogie of the 1980s, and also the tranquil nature of reggae music. He describes his sound as “gritty, dusty and straight from the crates,” which informs his aesthetic of being heavily reminiscent of 90s Hip-Hop. Influenced by more than just hip hop, Mega is also a fan of R&B groups like Loose Ends and Groove Theory. The melodic sounds of these groups are incorporated into Mega’s beats as well, with beats that can support R&B melodies just as well as gritty lyrics. With plenty of releases to his name, that includes beat tapes and remix projects, his consistent output of music shows an evolution on each release. Between releases, he has performed in the US while also being the founder of the Toronto producer showcase PTRN SLCT.
Cosmo
DJ
As a battle DJ he was crowned the first Canadian National Redbull 3style Champion in 2009. He continued to build his reputation as one of Canada’s most versatile DJs winning the East Coast Music Awards DJ of the Year, The Halifax DMC’s & DJ Olympics and defending the Montreal Redbull 3Style title. His winning formula mixes Old School DJ ideals with new technology rocking any crowd with a seamless blend of Elements Turntablism, Funk, and HipHop Classics. His wins earned him invitations to headline at Canada House as part of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics as well as opening for rap legends Nas & GZA. A move to Montreal in 2009 would introduce him to a then unknown rapper named Azealia Banks. He became her touring DJ which led to 10 years of global shows, festivals and runway appearances. A move to Toronto in early 2019 would lead to an increased focus in production. In May 2019 Cosmo released his first solo EP Just In Time . He continues to take part in beat making communities in both Montreal, and Toronto taking part in Loop Sessions, Loveless, and PTRN SLCT events, as a beat maker, and DJ. His production credits include work with rapper Ghettosocks, E1 Jazz Artist Thompson Egbo and multi-instrumentalist Maya Killtron.
Courtney Chartier
Archivist
Courtney Chartier is the Director of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Columbia University. Prior to her position at Columbia, Courtney worked as the Head of Research Services at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library at Emory University, and the Archives Research Center of the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library where she lived out two dreams: processing the papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the papers of Tupac Shakur. Courtney was the 2014 President of the Society of Georgia Archivists (SGA), and the 76th President of the Society of American Archivists (SAA)
Francesca D’Amico Cuthbert
Chief Research Officer, Hip Hop Education Center
Francesca D’Amico-Cuthbert is an award-winning historian of Hip Hop culture, the creative industries, and the music marketplace, and she currently serves as the Chief Research Officer at the Hip Hop Education Center. 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 postdoctoral research explored 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.
Fred Brathwaite
Pioneering Visual Artist and Filmmaker
A New York City native and long-time Harlem resident born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, Fab 5 Freddy’s ongoing and active career as a visual artist and filmmaker has spanned decades. He initially entered the scene in the late seventies as one of the first graffiti artists to exhibit his paintings internationally. Over the years, he wrote, performed, and produced music, and wrote and produced several films, including the cult classic Wild Style, the first film on hip-hop culture. He directed music videos for KRS-ONE, Queen Latifah, Nas, and Snoop Doggy Dog, as well as companies like Pepsi. He was also the original host of YO! MTV Raps, which immediately became the highest-rated show on the channel and brought hip-hop culture to millions of households across the world.
Giuseppe Pipitone
Independent Scholar
Giuseppe “U.NET” Pipitone is a distinguished independent scholar and activist with a remarkable 25-year focus on researching hip-hop culture and politics, particularly emphasizing oral history. His influential publications include the groundbreaking “Renegades of Funk,” “Bigger than Hip Hop,” “Louder than a Bomb,” “Stand 4 What,” and “Original London Style” for Agenzia X. In collaboration with Paradise the Architect of X Clan, he co-authored “No Half Steppin’,” published in the US by Wax Poetics Books in 2016. U.NET is a regular contributor to Alias (Il Manifesto) and Billboard Italia. Notably, in 2019, he earned the prestigious NAS Fellowship at the Harvard Hip Hop Archive, solidifying his academic and activist legacy. His extensive collection of interviews with activists, artists, lawyers, and political prisoners spans various formats, from analog mini-cassette tapes to MP3 and digital video interviews, offering a diverse and comprehensive perspective on his work.
Harold Gonzalez
Dj, Record Collector, Music Producer, Founder of Future Rootz Records
Harold Gonzaléz is also known as AfroQbano. Born in Habana and living in Chicago, he is a DJ, eclectic record collector, music producer, radio host and founder of Future Rootz Records. His music production and DJ sessions are rooted in the African diaspora and always reflect his Afrocuban identity. In Cuba, he worked as a DJ for a number of House and Hip Hop clubs, and produced and toured with some of the most innovative underground Cuban artists and ensembles. After moving to Chicago, he established himself as an essential part of the local global music scene. He has collaborated with a number of contemporary international artists, and his original tracks and remixes have been featured on albums and mixtapes across the world. Highlights of his career include sharing stages with luminaries like Mos Def, Pete Rock, Mulatu Astatke, Antibalas, Ebo Taylor, Cimafunk and Los Van Van.
James Gabrillo
Assistant Professor of Music
James Gabrillo is an assistant professor of music at the University of Texas at Austin. He was previously a lecturer at The New School and a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton. His work has been published in the Journal of Popular Music Studies, Musical Quarterly, Rock Music Studies, American Music Perspective’s, and International Journal of Creative Media Research. He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge.
Jason "J-Sun" Noer
Hip Hop Scholar and Choreographer
University of Minnesota – Department of Theatre Arts and Dance
JASON “J-SUN” NOER is a practitioner of several Street and Hip Hop Dance forms, which he
teaches, choreographs, and performs. He is a member of Battlecats (MN), Rock Lordz
(MN), and West Coast Rockers (CA). He is also the artistic director of MIXTAPE, a Hip Hop dance theater collective serving the Twin Cities Hip Hop Dance scene by breaking down barriers to resources and helping to cultivate an artistic ecosystem. J-Sun is the former Disciplinary Head of the Hip Hop Dance track at the University of Minnesota (2017-2023). His scholarship includes Music, Moves, and Mind-Sets: Theorizing Hip Hop History and Pedagogy Through Break(danc)ing (2018), Towards a Computational Music Theory of Everything: Shaping Future Music with Big Science (2020), Creativity and Theory in Musicianship (2022), “Broken Promises: Developing a Practice of Listening and Atturning to Feminists in Breaking,” and “Hip Hop Dance and the Circulation of Breaking Footage” (2023).
Jonzi D
Creative Director, Breakin’ Convention
An MC, dancer, spoken word artist and Creative Director of Breakin’ Convention, he is the foremost advocate for hip hop who has changed the profile and influenced the development of the UK British hip hop dance and theatre scene over the last two decades. His critically acclaimed works include 1995‘s Lyrikal Fearta, 1999’s Aeroplane Man, 2006’s TAG… Just Writing My Name, 2009’s Markus the Sadist and 2013’s The Letter: To Be Or To MBE? about his choice to decline an MBE from the Queen. Jonzi’s has been featured in HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, had his short films Silence da Bitchin’ & Aeroplane Man screened on Channel 4, toured his work extensively all over the world and delivered his own TED Talk about the influence and evolution of hip hop culture.
Khalid el-Hakim, Ph.D.
Founder, Black History 101 Mobile Museum
Dr. Khalid el-Hakim is the founder and curator of the Black History 101 Mobile Museum, a collection of over 10,000 original artifacts of Black memorabilia dating from the trans-Atlantic slave trade era to hip-hop culture. Visiting 41 states at over 1000 institutions, he has received national and international attention for his innovative work of exhibiting Black history outside of traditional museum spaces. Currently, Dr. el-Hakim is a national spokesperson for Toyota’s Need a Nudge campaign and in 2021 Freedom Scholar Award from the Association for the Study of African American Life and Culture (ASALH). Among other honors, he was name one of the Change Makers for NBCUniversal’s Erase the Hate campaign and was one of the 100 Men of Distinction in Black Enterprise Magazine. Dr. el-Hakim taught middle school social studies in Detroit for 15 years and founded the Michigan Hip Hop Archive at the Lewis Walker Center on the campus of Western Michigan University.
Kulsoom Anwer Shaikh
High School Teacher
Kulsoom Anwer Shaikh is a teacher and curriculum leader of English with the Toronto District School Board. She is a co-author of Beyond Five Paragraphs: Advanced Essay Writing Skills and of Constructing Meaning: Skills for Understanding Contemporary Texts (Nelson). Kulsoom is a Curriculum Developer at Northside Hip Hop Archive. She holds a Master of Education from York University with a focus on policy and curriculum that responds to linguistic diversity in the classroom.
Leonard Schmieding
Historian and Educator
I studied English, American Studies, History, and History Education at universities in Germany (Freiburg im Breisgau, Leipzig) and the U.S. (Indiana). In 2011, I received my PhD from the University of Leipzig with a dissertation on hip-hop culture in communist East Germany. Since then, I have been a researcher, educator, and public historian in the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington, DC, Münster, and currently in Berlin. While I continue to be interested in youth cultures, migration, and public memory, I am now focusing on building networks between museums, memorials, archives, schools, and universities to use the power of history for active citizenship in our societies in Germany and the U.S. I bring together scholars, curators, and educators in partnerships and professional development, and I work with students, both in secondary schools and at university, to use museum resources for deep historical learning.
Mark Campbell
Assistant Professor of Music and Culture
Mark V. Campbell is a DJ, scholar and curator. His research explores the relationships between Afrosonic innovations and notions of the human. Dr. Campbell is currently the Principal Investigator in the SSHRC funded research project, Hip Hop Archives: The Poetics and Potentials of Knowledge Production. His recent books include the monograph AfroSonic Life (2022), the co-edited collection of essays, We Still Here: Hip Hop in North of the 49th Parallel published (in 2020) and his forthcoming co-edited collection Hip Hop Archives: The Politics and Poetics of Knowledge Production with Murray Forman is due out in 2023. Mark is Assistant Professor of Music and Culture at the University of Toronto Scarborough and holds Research Fellow positions with the Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence and the Research Centre for Music, Sound and Society in Canada.
Martha Diaz
Community Organizer, Media Producer, Archivist, Curator, Educator and Founder of the Hip-Hop Education Center
Martha Diaz (MD) is an award-winning community organizer, media producer, archivist, curator, educator, and founder of the Hip-Hop Education Center. MD has traversed the Hip-Hop entertainment industry, the public arts and education sector, and the academy over the past 30 years. Through her exhibitions, and publications of research reports, books, and curricula, she has chronicled Hip-Hop history to preserve its cultural value and memory. A graduate of New York University’s Gallatin School for Individualized Study and Tisch School of the Arts Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program, MD has worked on archival projects with Parkwood Entertainment, Tupac Shakur Estate, and Ralph McDaniels’ Video Music Box Collection, to name a few. Among her numerous fellowships, MD has served as a Senior Fellow at the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation – National Museum of American History, Nasir Jones Fellow at Harvard University, and Senior MacArthur Civic Media Fellow at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. She also serves as an advisor and associate archivist and curator for The Hip Hop Museum.
Mary Fogarty
Associate Professor of Dance
Dr. Mary Fogarty is an Associate Professor of Dance at York University, Toronto. She has co-edited two anthologies: The Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Dance Studies (2022, with Imani Kai Johnson) and Movies, Moves, and Music: The Sonic World of Dance Films (2016, with Mark Evans). She also co-edited a special issue about Breaking in the Olympics with Jason Ng, forthcoming in the Global Hip Hop Studies journal. Her other recent research appears in Hip-Hop Archives: The Politics and Poetics of Knowledge Production (Campbell and Forman, eds. 2023), the third edition of That’s The Joint! The Hip Hop Studies Reader (Forman, Neal and Bradley, eds., 2023), Geographically Isolated and Peripheral Music Scenes: Global Insights and Perspectives (Ballico, ed., 2021), and We Still Here: Hip Hop North of the 49th Parallel (Marsh and Campbell, eds., 2020).
Matthew Lefaive
Digital Humanities Developer
Matthew Lefaive is the Digital Humanities Developer in the Critical Digital Humanities Initiative at the University of Toronto. He received a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Linguistics from the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) in 2019. Matthew assists researchers in the digital humanities with the technological aspects of their projects, including web development and programming, database design, research and ideation, and more. He also has experience as the current Project Coordinator for the Department of Language Studies at UTSC, developing and maintaining several web platforms. Matthew is interested in the use of digital methods to amplify the reach of digital humanities research, digital music-making and sharing, and project sustainability.
Murray Forman
Professor of Media & Screen Studies
Murray Forman is Professor of Media & Screen Studies at Northeastern University. He is author of The ‘Hood Comes First: Race, Space and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop (2002) and One Night on TV is Worth Weeks at the Paramount: Popular Music on Early Television (2012). With Mark V. Campbell, he co-edited Hip-Hop Archives: The Politics and Poetics of Knowledge Production (2023). He is also co-editor (with Mark Anthony Neal) of the first two editions of That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader (1st edition 2004; 2nd edition, 2011) and is co-editor of the Reader’s forthcoming third edition with Mark Anthony Neal and Regina N. Bradley (December, 2023). In 2003-2004, he was awarded a U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, and he was an inaugural recipient of the Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Harvard University (2014-2015).
Nwaka Onwusa
Music Industry Thought-Leader
Nwaka Onwusa is a thought-leader in the music industry, having served as Chief Curator and Vice President of Curatorial Affairs at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. She rose through the ranks at The GRAMMY Museum at L.A. Live, starting at the box office and ultimately becoming lead curator with more than 20 exhibits to her credit. Her work at the Rock Hall has been nothing short of outstanding, with her exhibition “It’s Been Said All Along: Voices of Rage, Hope, and Empowerment” winning Best Exhibit of 2020 by the Ohio Museum Association. Nwaka’s fearless approach to amplifying diverse voices in arts and culture earned her recognition in Rolling Stone Magazine’s June 2021 Future of Music Issue. Her passion for music knows no bounds and extends across all genres and continents.
Pablo D. Herrera Veitia
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Pablo D. Herrera Veitia, a poet and pioneering Afro-Cuban rap producer, obtained a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of St. Andrews. He is a scholar-practitioner working through the assemblage of Orisa/Ifa worship practice, global hip-hop studies, and multimodal ethnography. Herrera Veitia is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Afrosonic Innovation Lab, ACM, University of Toronto Scarborough; and a 2018-2019 Nasir Jones Fellowship alumnus at the Hiphop Archive and Research Institute, Harvard University. Publications include Rap Cubano in Archive: The Immaterial Paradox in Hip-Hop Archives: The Politics and Poetics of Knowledge Production (Campbell & Forman 2023; Intellect Books); Living Archives: Libretas de Santo and Afro-Cubaneity Today, in Black Archives and Intellectual Histories: Cultures of Thought in South Africa and the Black Diaspora, (Ouma & Mkhize; under review Duke University Press); and Caliban’s Return: Afro-Cuban Cosmopolitics Between Politesse and Multiculturalism, in Cosmopolitan Moment, Cosmopolitan Method (Wardle & Rapport; Routledge).
Pacey Foster
Associate Professor of Management
Pacey Foster is an Associate Professor of Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston where he is a member of its Organizations and Social Change group. As a creative industries scholar his research focuses on social networks in creative industries, the dynamics of creative clusters and scenes, and community engaged scholarship. His work has appeared in the Creative Industries Journal, The Journal of Management, The Journal of Management Studies, The Oxford Handbook of Creative Industries, Poetics, and Regional Studies. In 2016, Pacey launched the Massachusetts Hip-Hop Archive (MHHA) at the Archives and Special Collections at UMass Boston’s Healey Library using its pioneering community public archiving program, the Mass Memories Roadshow, as a model.
Sean Robertson-Palmer
Community Development Organizer
Sean Robertson-Palmer is a Community Development Coordinator at the City of Mississauga, where he works closely with the city’s professional and community arts organizations to build capacity in the arts sector. Sean obtained his Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance Studies from York University and has taught courses in arts administration, contemporary performance, and pop culture at several Canadian colleges and universities, including York University, Humber College, and Sheridan College. Sean has also served as a Mural Coordinator for StreetARToronto, helping to facilitate a series of public art projects throughout Toronto. His writings on music, pop culture, and fashion have been featured in GQ Magazine and the forthcoming book Hip-Hop Archives: The Politics and Poetics of Knowledge Production (Campbell and Forman, eds. 2023).
Sergey
NGO/Program CEO
Sergey Ivanov (Aka DedylaP) – Chief executive of Hip hop Library, Regional Rep. European Hip hop Studies Network, Regional manager Hip hop Works International, musicant, DJ, poet, independent researcher. Participant of numerous music events, festivals and performances.
Organizer of the events related to the street culture and Hip Hop: festivals, conferences, jams, workshops, theater plays, and social activities. Since 2009 have executed more than 15 international exchanges with US, Sweden, Germany and Finland. In 2012 got Ph.D. in Cultural studies in State Pedagogical Univercity, with the dissertation about Russian Hip Hop culture – Phenomenon of Russian Hip hop: meaning appearance in the context of cultural interaction. Author of more then 30 articles in scientific and public media, participant of the international hip hop studies events.
Vanese Smith
Co-founder of Loop Sessions Toronto, Music Producer/Sound Artist, DJ, Educator
Vanese Smith – is the co-founder of the Toronto Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts supported music organization Loop Sessions Toronto, which focuses on music production, education, and vinyl record culture. For over 2 decades she has created and performed electronic music and DJed under the alias Pursuit Grooves, and has served as mentor for Toronto Metropolitan University, Artscape, Canadian Music Centre, Small World Music, and Disney to name a few.
DJ DTS
DJ and Canadian Hip Hop Historian
Dave ‘DTS’ Clarke’s career as an award-winning DJ has spanned 30+ years. As co-founder of CIUT 89.5 FM’s MasterPlan Show/Generation Next, Canada’s longest-running Hip Hop radio show, DTS is considered a tastemaker on the Canadian music scene.
DTS has worked extensively with the Northside Hip Hop Archive to preserve Canada’s contributions to Hip Hop culture. He has collaborated with some of Canada’s biggest Hip Hop artists and has shared his industry knowledge and DJ skills at UofT and MTU, teaching students about the power of Hip Hop and the art of DJing. Most recently, DTS appeared as a panellist in Black Community Mixtapes, a five-part docuseries produced by the OYA Media Group that aired on City TV.
DJ, music historian, youth mentor, and instructor – DTS’s “deep 2 the soul” passion has him elevating and boosting the commercial success of Canadian urban music across Canada, the U.S., and the Caribbean.
Dustin Good
Dustin Good is a Product Manager at Roland Americas, overseeing samplers, drum machines, tabletop synthesizers, and DJ equipment. He has years of experience in the Music Instrument industry but also as an active musician, producing and performing electronic and acoustic music ranging from Techno to Hip Hop, Ambient to Jazz. His approach is always driven by the philosophy that electronic equipment should be approached and appreciated like any other instrument – inspiring tools to be learned and explored that allow the artist’s personal expression to evolve and be communicated. Dustin also has a background in youth music programming and always maintains an engaging, educational approach in his public-facing work.