The Hip-Hop-based education framework is a student-centered wholistic approach using Hip-Hop history, culture and music as a hook, bridge, and/or discipline to learning and teaching. For over 30 years visionary leader, Founder and Executive Director Martha Diaz has pioneered the field, culminating in the creation of the Hip Hop Education Center; a nexus to centralize and connect the work of Hip-Hop artists, teachers, students, scholars, archivists, curators, and social entrepreneurs from across the globe.
Acting at the forefront of the diversity and inclusion movement, Hip-Hop Education Center (HHEC) catalyzes equity in education through a multi-disciplinary approach including; advocacy for culturally responsive pedagogy & arts programming, leadership and workforce development, transnational research, and the creation of a living digital repository of Hip-Hop educational resources and history. The HHEC partners include the Universal Hip Hop Museum, Lincoln Center, Words, Beats and Life, California Department of Education Career Technical Education, NY Public Library, Arts2Work, and Music Will (formerly Little Kids Rock).
Founder and Executive Director Martha Diaz is a graduate of New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study M.A. Program and Tisch School of the Arts Moving Image Archiving and Preservation M.A. Program, a Senior MacArthur Civic Media Fellow at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab, a Harvard University Nasir Jones Fellow, and an Inaugural Fellow at The Center for Creative and Entertainment Arts at Virginia State University. As a first generation Colombian- American who grew up feeling invisible and underserved in the classroom, Diaz has traversed the Hip-Hop entertainment industry, the public arts and education sector, and the academy for three decades to reform education, transform lives, and innovate communities. She and The Hip-Hop Education Center are uniquely positioned with the personal testimony, leadership, network and expertise to make impactful change.
