Words Beats & Life

Words Beats & Life inc. is a Washington DC–based hip-hop non-profit working to "transform individual lives and whole communities through elements of hip-hop culture."^[1][2] Founded as a hip-hop conference in 2000 at the University of Maryland, College Park, Words Beats & Life separated from the University to become a separate organization in 2002, officially incorporated as a 501(c)(3) in 2003.^[1][3] Words Beats & Life works with the community by teaching, convening, and presenting hip-hop through the Urban Arts Academy, the Cipher, and publication of the first peer-reviewed academic journal of global hip-hop culture.^[1][3]

According to The Washington Post, the Words Beats & Life Academy “aims to transcend the familiar beats and rhymes and use hip-hop as a catalyst to change lives.”^[4] Starting as a Saturday program, the Academy grew into an afterschool and summer program that serves 150 students during the year and up to 300 during the summer.^[1][5] Classes are taught by practicing artists, who serve as mentors for their students.^[2] Youth, ages 5–23, participate in pre-vocational arts programming to hone skills in graffiti and visual arts, B-boying, DJing, and emceeing. In addition to skill mastery, the urban arts academy focuses on self-awareness and employability, using hip-hop as a platform to engage students in learning, building community, and thinking about their futures.^[1][4][6] For example, emceeing helps students sharpen public speaking skills, and DJing connects students to technology and engineering.^[7] Visual arts skills are used to paint murals and Words Beats & Life has worked in conjunction with the DC Government on the Murals DC project, which aims to redirect the energy of graffiti artist to legal projects to beautify the city.^[8]

Scratch, Sip & Paint

Graffiti

DJing

Hip-Hop Tea Party

Walking Mural Tour

Bike Mural Tour

Concrete and Roses

Chocolate Milk and Butter Crunch

Creative Economy Career Fair(s)

Summer Youth Employment Program

Alternative Spring Break

Like a Boss

The League

The Cipher is a national network, connecting institutions, organizations, and individual artists and scholars using hip-hop as a medium to promote social change.^[1][9] Traditionally, hip-hop organizations are often absent from conferences and symposia in their respective fields, and therefore working in isolation.^[9] Through publication of a peer-reviewed academic journal and an annual Teach-in, Words Beats & Life works to bring together scholars, educators, artists, and activists who use hip-hop as a tool for social change in a discussion of how to work together as a community and maximize the collective capacity to make change.^[9][10][11]

Words. Beats. Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture is the first academic peer-reviewed journal of hip-hop studies, also showcasing the talents visual artists and poets in the field. Combining art and scholarly work intends to present a dialogue between different mediums. Featuring established intellectuals and artists in the field as well as previously unknown individuals, the journal is a resource for hip-hop scholars and non-profits, representing current developments in the field.^[12][13] The Journal is published twice a year with the goal to promote dialogue and interaction between artists and scholars within the DMV.^[14]

Vol 1 Issue 1: Inaugural Issue

Vol 1 Issue 2: The Art of the Name Drop

Vol 1 Issue 3: Where My Girls At?

Vol 1 Issue 4: Poetry, Hip-Hop, and Global Revolutions

Vol 2 Issue 1: Golden Era of Hip Hop

Vol 2 Issue 2: One Day it Will All Make Sense

Vol 3 Issue 1: The Blueprint for a Movement

Vol 3 Issue 2: Bootleg This Journal

Vol 4 Issue 1: It Ain't My Fault

Vol 4 Issue 2: The Sex Issue

Vol 5 Issue 1: I Am

Vol 5 Issue 2: Untitled

Vol 6 Issue 1: Who We Are

Vol 6 Issue 2: Brazil

Vol 7 Issue 1: Spaces and Places

Vol 7 Issue 2: Street Lit

Vol 8 Issue 1: South Africa

Live @ 5

Words Beats & Life Radio

The 5th Element

Malachi Byrd

Kenneth Carroll III

Baltimore

U Street

DC Youth Poet Laureate

Words Beats and Life Festival

Chinatown Block Party

The Fresh Ball

Juste Debout

La Belle Hip-Hop

Bum Rush the Boards is an annual hip-hop chess tournament created in 2005 as a more inclusive alternative to traditional chess tournaments.^[1] Named after Public Enemy's 1987 album Yo! Bum Rush the Show, the tournament aims to connect the hip-hop generation to chess as a model of “overcoming through strategic struggle.”^[15][16] In addition to chess matches cultivating strategic thinking, the event includes workshops about the elements of hip-hop culture and how they related to STEM fields.^[17][18]

Remixing the Art of Social Change is an annual teach-in hosted at Howard University since 2007, bringing together organizations, artists, and scholars that use hip-hop culture to promote social change.^[11][19] Through roundtables, panel discussions, film screenings, and workshops that build on the efforts of the previous teach-ins, the event showcases work being done and creates a network for individuals and organizations to connect and advance how hip-hop is used as a medium to promote positive change.^[11]

The Freshest of all Time is DC's largest B-boy/B-girl jam featuring prominent b-boy crews from DC, Maryland, Virginia, Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. The battle drew more than 600 people in 2009, and 800 in 2010.^[20][21][22]

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This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (August 2020)

• Word Beats & Life website