Hip-Hop Education Hits the Heartland

2nd Annual Spoken Word & Hip-Hop Teacher & Community Leader Training Institute

June 18th – 22nd University of Wisconsin at Madison 

May 2, 2007: This summer, Urban Word NYC and the Hip-Hop Association team up with the University of Wisconsin’s Office of Multicultural Initiatives (OMAI) to offer this weeklong program for teachers, educators, community leaders and education students to learn the best practices in hip-hop and spoken word pedagogy.  Winner of the 2007 North American Association of Summer Sessions “Creative and Innovative Program Award,” this institute brings together the leading educators, professors, emcees and activists utilizing the media of spoken word and hip-hop as relevant, dynamic and necessary educational tools to engage students across multi-disciplinary curricula. 

Each day, institute participants will learn proven, hands-on techniques that will help them to develop lesson plans and strengthen their course study, as well as create a platform from which they will understand the scope of hip-hop history, culture and politics.  The night programming consists of an all-star cast of lecturers and performers who will synthesize the day trainings with effective strategies and cutting-edge multicultural educational approaches.   

Day Programming | Let’s Build:  Morning and afternoon sessions are aimed at giving course participants the tools to engage the 21st century classroom.  Each day follows a theme that will further strengthen participants’ knowledge and understanding of spoken word and hip-hop culture, politics and pedagogy.  Monday: Hip-Hop History: Building from the Past, Tuesday: Hip-Hop and the Community: Working Together, Wednesday: Bigger Than Hip-Hop: A critical look at the role of Women in Hip-Hop, Thursday: Hip-Hop and Spoken Word as Art and Pedagogy, Friday: Hip-Hop and Social Justice: Creating the Right Environment for Change. 

Night Programming | Pedagogy of the Next: The Role of Spoken Word and Hip-Hop in Educating the Next Generation:  This lecture and performance series will bring the learning back from the day sessions, in order to illuminate the theory and the praxis that educators will take back to their classrooms.  Monday: Hip-Hop vs. Tha New World Order: From Beats to Ballots, Tuesday: Gangstas, Wankstas and Ridas: Effective Teachers in Urban Schools, Wednesday: Hip-Hop and the Sisterhood: A night of hip-hop theater with Christa Bell’s CoochieMagik, Thursday: Hip-Hop as Critical Pedagogy, Friday: First Wave Jump Off. 

Closing Night | First Wave Jump Off:  From Old School to New School: An Intergenerational Dialogue with the Pioneer of Hip-Hop DJ Kool Herc, First Wave Jump Off featuring the Legendary Pioneer of Hip-Hop DJ Kool Herc, Baruch "Baba" Israel, K ~ Swift, Queen GodIs and performances by First Wave students.

For Teacher’s Institute application and registration information, contact Karin Silet at silet@education.wisc.edu or 608-265-9568.  Space is limited.

Monday: Hip-Hop History: Building From the Past

 

9-9:30AM: Let’s Build: Lesson Plans & Resources w/ Institute directors Michael Cirelli & Martha Diaz 

9:30-11:30AM, 1-3PM: Hip Hop, History and the Secondary Classroom 

This workshop seeks to place the beginnings of hip-hop in the context of history that is relevant for the secondary classroom. Included in the discussion will be the contexts of urban renewal, forced displacement and the creation of a new art form centered in a response to the pressures facing communities of color in the South Bronx.

Participants will develop an awareness of the importance of history in the creation of hip-hop, understand the organic responses hip-hop cultured formed in response to urban renewal, as well as develop a working understanding of how to use hip-hop in K-12 education. 

Instructor: Professor David Stovall, PhD

7-8:30PM: Pedagogy of the Next: Lecture and Performance Series

Rap-Up Roundtable: Hip Hop vs. Tha New World Order: From Beats to Ballot

 

The conscious hip-hop movement of the late 1980's and early 1990's was built on the foundation laid by pioneering Godfather Afrika Bambaataa who converted the Black Spades street gang into a conscious movement towards social justice, human rights, and political empowerment through Hip Hop Culture.  From the emergence of the movement in the 70`s to the interest in the electoral process of today, members of the Hip-Hop community continue to cultivate Hip-Hop’s political voice and expand its potential in affecting political outcomes. 

Lecturers/Performers: Honorable George Martinez & Ghetto Priest

Tuesday: Hip-Hop and the Community: Working Together

 

9-9:30AM: Let’s Build: Lesson Plans & Resources w/ Institute directors Michael Cirelli & Martha Diaz 

9:30-11:30: THUG LIFE Pedagogy: A Pedagogy of Indignation for Love, Purpose, and Hope 

This session discusses one teacher's use of Tupac Shakur's notions of THUG LIFE (The Hate U Give Little Infants F***s Everyone) as a form of critical pedagogy with urban youth. It draws from pedagogy and curriculum used in a 10th grade Sociology class in East Oakland, which trained students in critical sociological research. Specifically, this session will discuss and provide student work samples from the core research project in the class which was called "Doc Ur Block".  This project had students engaged in semester long analysis of the role of popular culture in broader youth culture, and then studied and documented its impact in their own communities.  Principle #10: Acknowledge the knowledge. Teach and be teachable. 

Instructor: Jeffrey Michael Reies Duncan-Andrade, Ph.D. 

1-3PM: Outside The Four Walls: Including Community into the Cipher of the Classroom    

This workshop will make a clear philosophical connection between how hip-hop, service learning, and knowledge building go hand in hand. Building on this foundation we will give some practical examples on how hip-hop programs are successfully engaging youth using this pedagogy. We will conclude with some hands on tools that teachers can use in their classrooms to engage youth with their education while including the community. This workshop brings education back to its true intent: "creating activated learners that 
challenge the status quo of society". 

Instructor: Roberto Rivera of Elements of Change 

7-8:30PM: Pedagogy of the Next: Lecture and Performance Series

Gangstas, Wankstas, and Ridas: Effective Teachers in Urban Schools

 

The persistent failure of urban schools that serve poor and nonwhite children has been well documented for the last several decades.  Most recently, Jonathon Kozol has dubbed these schools the “shame of the nation”.  These studies have laid important groundwork for the documentation of urban educational inequality.  However, as academic achievement in urban schools remains intolerably low, it is necessary to highlight, examine and understand the practices and strategies that actually work in these schools. Rather than putting the work of highly effective urban educators on a pedestal, telling their stories as though they have some mystical gift that allows them to reach the unreachable, we must work to understand their success. This talk will present a three-year research project in Los Angeles schools that identified and documented the work of five highly effective urban educators. Drawing from classroom practice and student voice, five common elements of effective urban pedagogy will be defined.  Finally, strategies for developing and supporting these core competencies among urban educators will be discussed. 

Lecturer: Jeffrey Michael Reies Duncan-Andrade, Ph.D. 

Wednesday: Bigger Than Hip-Hop: A critical look on the Role of Women in Hip –Hop, Capitalism, and Globalization   

9-9:30AM: Let’s Build: Lesson Plans & Resources w/ Institute directors Michael Cirelli & Martha Diaz 

9:30-11:30AM: Women Reborn Through Popular Music, Media and Culture 

Through the deconstruction of lyrics, a djing demo and an analysis of media culture, this workshop seeks to establish what it means to participate in a shifting paradigm of objectification to one of empowerment within hip-hop culture.  Students will investigate the relationship between women, music and media and illuminate the contributions to hip-hop musically and culturally by women. 

Instructor: DJ Reborn 

1-3PM:  Fresh, Bold and So Def: Women Revolutionizing Hip-Hop and the World  

Ho’s, Strippers, and Gold-diggers are the images of women in Hip-Hop today.  This workshop will highlight the different roles women have and are playing in Hip-Hop, education, business, and international affairs.  At last, women tell herstory and straighten out history. 

Instructor: Martha Diaz 

7-8:30PM: Pedagogy of the Next: Lecture and Performance Series 

Hip-Hop and the Sisterhood: An Evening of Performance featuring Christa Bell's hip-hop theater piece  "CoochieMagik" with special guest DJ Reborn 

CoochieMagik brings a woman's gospel to the altar of the stage.  Through hip-hop

inspired spoken word scripture, ritual and monologue, Bell's one-woman insurgency 
addresses the socio-spiritual journey of women, the conceptual ownership of their bodies and sexuality as well as their intelligence and capacity for healing through self-love.  
 
CoochieMagik is an act of resistance toward the corporately-sanctioned attack on women in mainstream hip-hop and mass media and Bell engages the spaces between spell, song and chant to resurrect, affirm and celebrate a divine feminine consciousness. 
 
A national slam champion, acclaimed spoken word artist, educator and healer, Christa Bell's raw, unapologetic approach addresses the often-insidious cultural impact of misogyny, self-hate and the loss of spirituality on the lives of women and works to challenge and transform mainstream perceptions as well. CoochieMagik, a spiritual and political journey is a revival that intersects hip-hop theater, poetry and ritual. 

Thursday: Hip-Hop & Spoken Word as Art and Pedagogy 

9-9:30AM: Let’s Build: Lesson Plans & Resources w/ Institute directors Michael Cirelli & Martha Diaz 

9:30-11:30: Spoken Word, Theater and the Extemporaneous 

This workshop will examine the power and relevancy of spoken word as a tool to engage young people in uncovering their own personal narratives.  Through theater exercises and “accessing the spontaneous, ”educators will investigate ways of creating an equal playing field and a safe space for students express themselves.  Through these student-centered exercises, young people will feel safe and supported in speaking their mind.  

Instructor: Baba Israel 

1-3PM: Learn Your Lessons 

This workshop will examine ways to utilize hip-hop to engage literacy, critical thinking and creative writing.  Through the course of this session, educators will learn numerous, proven and relevant exercises utilizing hip-hop, as well as ways to be accountable to themselves and their students, while building a comfort level with rap. 

Instructor: Michael Cirelli 

7-8:30PM: Pedagogy of the Next: Lecture and Performance Series 

Rap-Up Roundtable: Hip-Hop as Critical Pedagogy 

This interactive, multimedia session will focus on how social justice education & theory can be utilized to inform a critical Hip-Hop pedagogy across disciplines. Examples of successful and promising Hip-Hop education practices in K-12, Higher Education and community-based organizations will be shared. 

 

With: Marcella Runell, Martha Diaz and community guests 

Friday: Hip-Hop and Social Justice: Creating the Right Environment for Change 

9-9:30AM: Let’s Build: Lesson Plans & Resources w/ Institute directors Michael Cirelli & Martha Diaz 

9:30-11:30AM: Write The Power 

Using Hip-Hop Music and Hip-Hop Cultural History as a springboard, students will explore their own histories and creativity through dynamic writing and performance exercises.  This will be a space where young people can freely express themselves, while learning to be active and positive contributors to their community.  Educators will learn to develop student-centered pedagogy, create spaces for free expression and creative community contribution, and share experiences and methods of establishing and maintaining collective responsibility in order to foster empowerment in the classroom and beyond. 

Instructor: K~Swift 

1-3PM: Conversation 'Peace': The 'Art-n-Craft' of Healthy Hip Hop 

This hands-on workshop acknowledges self-reflection and imagination as key to building and sustaining healthy communities. The Hip Hop Cultural Community is no exception. Every true Hip Hop artist, lover or 'wanna-be-lover' has had to create, free-style, cut, paste, spray paint and glitter 'a way out of no way.'  We have all had to BE the resource and or positive vision that we've needed at some point during our Hip Hop journey. Why not apply this same ingenuity and creativity to our methodology for social change? 

Instructor: Queen GodIs

 
6:30-7:30 Wisconsin Union Theater Public Forum - From Old School to New School: An Intergenerational Dialogue with the Pioneer of Hip-Hop DJ Kool Herc and Baba Israel, K-Swift, Queen GodIs with special performances by the First Wave Multicultural Arts Ensemble 
 
Join the legendary pioneer of Hip-Hop DJ Kool Herc as he discusses the history, present and future of the hip-hop movement he helped spark with three of the most talented MC's on the scene today.  Wisconsin Union Theater 
 
9:00PM First Wave Jump Off  featuring the Legendary Pioneer of Hip-Hop DJ Kool Herc, Baruch "Baba" Israel, K ~ Swift, Queen GodIs and performances by First Wave 

Pedagogues of the NEXT Biographies: 

Michael Cirelli (co-director of Wisconsin Summer Teacher’s Institute) is the Executive Director of Urban Word NYC, a grassroots non-profit organization that provides free, safe, uncensored and ongoing writing and performance opportunities for NYC teens (www.urbanwordnyc.org ).  He served as an interim Director of Program Development for the education initiative for the Hip-Hop Association (www.hiphopassociation.org ), the leading non-profit presenter of hip-hop education resources for teachers and educators.  He was the co-presenter of the 4th annual Hip-Hop Education Summit in NYC, and has been a lead presenter/facilitator at other hip-hop and education summits in Los Angeles, Chicago, Oakland and Washington D.C.  He also teaches a course on hip-hop and literature at the College of New Rochelle, and through Independent Learning at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.   

This past year he curated performances for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Apollo Theater, the Lincoln Center and Dance Theater Workshop.  He was previously the director of PEN West’s Poet in the Classroom program in Los Angeles and has been an educator in Oakland, Los Angeles and NYC public schools for the past eight years.  He has his MFA in Poetry from The New School, and is the co-author of Hip-Hop Poetry & The Classics for the Classroom (Milk Mug, 2004 www.hiphopintheclass.com), a standards-based curriculum that explores the relationship between hip-hop lyrics and “classic” poems.  He was also featured on this past season’s Def Poetry Jam on HBO.

 

Martha Diaz is the president of the Hip-Hop Association, and producer of the H2O International Film Festival and the Hip-Hop Education Summit. An educator, organizer and filmmaker, her impact in Hip-Hop can be traced to her early days as a young and aspiring apprentice for the late Ted Demme, the groundbreaking producer and director behind Yo! MTV Raps.  Martha merged Hip-Hop culture, media, and education to form the non-profit organization, the H2A (Hip-Hop Association).  Now in its 5th year, the H2A is considered one of the leading international Hip-Hop educational institutions, producing the largest Hip-Hop film festival in the world and archiving the largest Hip-Hop media collection.

 
Martha has been invited to participate as a curator, speaker, moderator, and workshop facilitator at numerous arts and educational institutions, conferences, and social forums including: Hip-Hop and Social Change Conference, UN Week, Family and Community Violence Prevention Conference, National Association for Latino Independent Producers Conference, World Youth Festival, The Rose and Erwin S. Wolfson Center for National Affairs Speaker’s Series, and The Hypnotik Festival in Spain.  Martha co-created the recently released, the Hip-Hop Education Guidebook (volume I) with Marcella Runell, and is currently working on the Fresh, Bold and So Def: 100 of the Most Influential Women in Hip-Hop with Raqiyah Mays. She continues to produce and consult, while acting as president of the Hip-Hop Association. She sits on the Middle School Task Force for the NY City Council and is a National Advisory Board Member for Hip-Hop Congress.   

David Stovall received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001. Presently he is an Assistant Professor of Policy Studies in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). His scholarship investigates four areas 1) Critical Race Theory, 2) concepts of social justice in education, 3) the relationship between housing and education, and 4) the relationship between schools and community stakeholders. In the attempt to being theory to action, he has spent the last three years working with community organizations and schools to develop curriculum that address issues of social justice. His current work has led him to become a member of the Greater Lawndale/Little Village School of Social Justice High School design team, which opened in the Fall of 2005. Furthering his work with communities, students, and teachers, Stovall is involved with youth-centered community organizations in Chicago, New York and the Bay Area. In addition to his duties and responsibilities as an assistant professor at UIC, he also serves as a volunteer social studies teacher at the School for Social Justice. 

George “Rithm” Martinez is an award winning artist/ activist / educator and founding board member and the chairman of the award-winning Hip-Hop Association (H2A).  He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, in a single parent home on public assistance and rose to become the first (MC) Hip-Hop artist/ activist to be elected to political office in the United States.   George is a multi-talented Hip-Hop artist with 25 years of performance experience and over 12 years experience teaching and developing Hip-Hop based curricula. Recognizing the potential power of Hip-Hop in community organizing in 1997, he co-founded Blackout Arts Collective, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering communities of color through arts activism and education.  As an educator George became a Doctoral Fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center in 1998 and later became an adjunct professor of Political Science at Hunter College and is currently an adjunct faculty member at Pace University.  George is the former Assistant Director of Intergovernmental Relations for the former Attorney General and current Governor of New York State Eliot Spitzer. 

The Rev. Dr. James G. White a.k.a Ghetto Priest is a former gang member, drug dealer, and high school dropout who became one of the first Rappers from the Midwest to secure a major record label deal. Later, after playing a major leadership role in the Self Destruction: Stop The Violence Movement, he became the first Hip-Hop Artist elected to public office in a major U.S. City. He has served as 1st District Milwaukee County Supervisor for the past 11 years, is a cofounder of the Imani House Residential Drug Treatment Center, and is a cofounder and National Board officer of the Johnson Institutes Faith Partners national training center and national magazine. Dr White serves as National Chairman of the Hip-Hop Congress, and a member of the National Board of Trustees of the Hip-Hop Association.  Dr. White is also an Ordained Christian Minister and serves as Chief Operations officer of Clergy Strategic Alliances.  He is a National Truth Commissioner with the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign, and is National Advisory Board Chairman of the Praxis Project's National Solidarity Campaign for a Just Recovery in the hurricane Katrina & Rita ravaged Gulf Region. 

Jeffrey Michael Reies Duncan-Andrade, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Raza Studies and Education Administration and Interdisciplinary Studies, and Co-Director of the Educational Equity Initiative at San Francisco State University’s Cesar Chavez Institute. In addition to these duties, he teaches an 11th grade Sociology of Education course at East Oakland Community High School where he continues his research into the uses of critical pedagogy in urban schools.  Before joining the faculty at SFSU, Duncan-Andrade taught English and coached in the Oakland Public Schools for 10 years, and completed his doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley.  He is currently completing a co-authored book on effective uses of critical pedagogy in the secondary classroom with Peter Lang Publishing and a second book on the core competencies of highly effective urban educators with Lawrence Erlbaum Publishing. 

Roberto Rivera is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Madison where he earned his bachelor of arts degree in a major he created entitled: "Social Change, Youth Culture and the Arts".   Roberto credits the transformation from being a disengaged student, teen-age run away, and drug dealer to being an honors graduate and successful businessman as a result of having key relationships and discovering his genius through his experience with "real" hip-hop.   The Good Life Program, the core curriculum of Elements of Change, is based off of his experience and the relationships fostered with top educators across the country and is proven to activate the most disengaged students. Despite the fact that he has won many awards for his work from leaders like former President Bill Clinton, Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, and others, his greatest joy is activating genius and inspiring hope in students that are labeled disadvantaged. Roberto is also an award winning filmmaker, actor, playwright, poet, a gifted entrepreneur and speaker. 

DJ Reborn has been pleasing crowds across the country and abroad for over a decade with her mellifluous blend of soul, hip-hop, reggae, house, afro-beat,nu-jazz, rock and more.  This Chicago native now resides in New York and not only spins at clubs and parties but also at museums, (Studio Museum of Harlem, Bronx Museum) as well as live shows (The Roots, Common, Talib Kweli, India Arie, John Legend, Alice Smith and Goapele) Reborn is also a mentor/workshop facilitator for NYC teens. She has crafted a workshop specifically for teen girls that explores djing, creative writing and women’s images in music/media culture. Since 2002, DJ Reborn worked as musical director and live on stage DJ with Will Power on the off Broadway Hip Hop theatre hit show FLOW. She partnered with Will Power again in 2007 as the musical director/sound designer for his original children’s theatre production LITTLE HONEY BO. Reborn was the 2004/05 international tour DJ with Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam and she has made four appearances on BET’s Rap City. She has been featured in TRACE, NRG, URB, SCRATCH, THE VILLAGE VOICE and DJ TIMES magazines. 

Christa Bell, “a one-woman Goddess insurgency with soul,” is a poet, performance artist and cultural activist from Seattle, Washington. She is the founder of WordMedicine Press and Records, the author of three collections of poetry, producer of two spoken-word albums, WordMedicine and Bitchualized (to be released summer of  ‘07), and creator of the one-woman theatrical production, CoochieMagik.  In 2006, as Seattle’s Grand Slam Champion, and after placing third in the Individual Competition at the National Poetry Slam (NPS) in Albequerque, New Mexico Christa headlined her first international spoken-word poetry tour, WordMedicine 2006, where she was invited to perform at over 80 venues across North America. Since  taking to the stage in 2003, she has shared stages with many notable artists, scholars and activists including Angela Y. Davis, Saul Williams, Ursula Rucker, Bill Frissel and Muta Baruka, to name just a few. 

Marcella Runell, currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. Ms. Runell is serving as the Education Fellow for the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, as well as Director of Education for the Hip-Hop Association. She is adjunct faculty at Bank Street College of Education, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where is also a doctoral student in the Social Justice Education Program.  She also taught with the Holyoke Community College Upward Bound program, where she was awarded New Teacher of the Year in 2003. While at N.Y.U., Ms. Runell served in the Office of Student Activities, where she created the curriculum for Social Justice program and co-founded the Harambe Alliance. Additionally, Ms. Runell traveled to Poland and South Africa to do social justice education work and was awarded the Brooklyn Borough President’s Racial Unity Citation in 2001.  Over the past ten years as an educator, Ms. Runell has presented at many high profile national and international special events and conferences. Ms. Runell is currently a freelance writer for the New York Times Learning Network and VIBE magazine. She is also co-author of a forthcoming article entitled, "Islamaphobia"  (2007) and is co-creator/editor of "The Hip-Hop Education Guidebook Volume 1" (2007). 

Baruch “Baba” Israel is a hip-hop performing artist who has toured across the USA, Europe, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. He has released a full length album called MIND MUSIC on Velour Records and the album “Force of Life” which was released as a single in the US, Japan, and Europe by Bay Area label Wide Hive and as a full length record to critical acclaim in Australia and New Zealand on Earshot recordings.  He has been featured on the revenge of the B-boy compilations by Bomb Hip Hop records, on the Ming and FS record “Subway Series” and on Dj Logic’s latest album.  He has also been featured in Hip Hop films such as Freestyle, Breath Control, Hip Hop for Hope, and his music was featured in the Freshest Kids Documentary.  He is co-founder of Playback Theater NYC, an improvisational theater project that performs in hospitals, prisons, and shelters.  Playback NYC has been presented by The Hip Hop Theater Festival in New York, San Francisco, and Washington DC.  He was an invited participant in the Future Aesthetics retreat in San Francisco funded by the Ford Foundation.  He is also a recipient of the BRIO Grant and the Meet the Composer Grant for which he co-scored the music for Rha Goddess’s critically acclaimed piece “Lows Journey.”  He has shared the stage with artists such as Afrika Bambaatta, The Roots, Outkast, Vernon Reid, and the legendary Lester Bowie. He is committed to art as a means of building connections across communities. He was just selected as part of the Dana Leon group to be part the Jazz at Lincoln centers Rhythm Road tour which will take him on an international journey fall 2007. 

K~Swift is a hip-hop artist and educator, who's been recording and performing since 1994. K~Swift was selected as one of five members of the NYC Teen Poetry Slam Team in 2001 and was the coach of the 2002 & 2004 NYC teams. Rapping since the age of three, his poetry has appeared in MH-18, Fusion, Teachers & Writers Collaborative Handbook of Poetic Forms, and Brave New Voices.  Most recently, he's been recording and performing with the progressive Hip Hop collective: New Rap Order.  As former Program Coordinator and current freelance mentor for Urban Word NYC, he managed on and off-site programs and a board of 10 youth, teaches after-school workshops, trains creative writing and performance mentors, presents poetry to teachers, hosts open mics and teen slams, and performs at events.  His debut solo album, "No Plaque, No Problem" was released on NRO Records in May 2006. 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Queen God-Is one of the most dynamic, insightful and thought-provoking spoken word artists of our time. Her gifts however, extend beyond the realms of poetry. Her thematic debut album, "Power U!," presents Queen as co-producer, budding engineer, MC and singer who hooks up both lead and background vocals with her raw yet awe-inspiring sense of harmony.  From public schools and cozy cafes to the Kennedy Center and The Royal Shakespeare Theater Company (UK), GodIs is honored to have graced the stage with some of the top artists of our lifetime. She has also featured at hundreds of concert halls, colleges, and universities both nationally and abroad.  GodIs is featured on two critically acclaimed projects produced by Afro-European singing duo 'Les Nubians.'  The projects, entitled, "Les Nubians presents Echoes: Chapter One" (compilation album) & "Nubian Voyager" (book/cd) can be found in stores everywhere.  Her debut album "Power U!" is available at select venues and online at: www.myspace.com/queengodisbiz or www.cdbaby.com/cd/queengodis.