Hip Hop Grantees

Grantee Name: Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC)
Project Name: Onthe1.org
Award Amount: $50,000
Project Award Date: Summer 2006

Organization Description:
The Bay Area Video Coalition, or BAVC ("bay-vac"), was launched in 1976 as a way to make emerging video technology accessible to independent film makers. Today, with that mission still at its core, BAVC has evolved into a community media arts resource center.

Project Description:
Onthe1.org, a complex, web-based resource, which will provide technological, production, and promotional resources to young, Hip hop artists. Unlike other websites, this site will act as a free community portal that links all aspects of Hip hop digital culture. Onthe1.org will provide a creative space where Hip hop producers, performers, and enthusiasts can communicate and network. The site is scheduled to launch in Spring 2007.

 

Grantee Name: The Mural Arts Project
Project Name: History Through Hip Hop
Award Amount: $5,000
Project Award Date: Winter 2005

Organization Description:
The Mural Arts Project is an innovative arts organization that strives to transform East Palo Alto from a place perceived only as plagued by crime and violence to one known for its innovative and community-inspired art and culture. Their method is to change public perception through the installation of murals created by local youth.

Project Description:
History Through Hip Hop is a novel after-school music program. It uses Hip hop culture to teach urban youth History, English, and creative writing skills. The curriculum combines Hip hop music, community activism, and technology to provide a stimulating and engaging learning environment.

Grantee Name: The Mural Arts Project
Project Name: Virtual Museum
Award Amount: $50,000
Project Award Date: Spring 2006

Project Description:

To establish a dynamic virtual tour of the public art murals installed in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park; it will include imagery, narrative, and interactive audio and video communication elements. Mural Arts Project worked with community leaders, members, and youth to research and develop a new digital mural concept for installation on a suitable public site. The website is schedule to be operational in Spring of 2007.

 

Grantee Name: Horizons Unlimited
Project Name: The DJ Project
Award Amount: $50,000
Project Award Date: Fall 2004

Organization Description:
The DJ Project, a youth focused venture of Horizons Unlimited, is an arts and entrepreneurship youth program grounded in hip-hop culture. In 2000 the DJ Project began to bring culturally relevant educational and technology training opportunities to San Francisco Bay Area youth. The DJ Project uses music to nurture the creative spirit of disconnected youth. It imparts credible, realistic, and practical information about the entertainment industry and provides training in emerging digital technologies. The DJ Project currently operates after-school, project-driven arts and music programs, as well as hip-hop employment and entrepreneurship modules at four different sites in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Project Description:
In 2004, The DJ Project developed a program that allowed youth from different parts of the Bay Area to create and market music on-line. Youth participants collaborated in small teams and worked virtually to produce numerous CDs. At the end of the program, many of the youth participants met for the first time during the community CD release party.

Grantee Name: Horizons Unlimited
Project Name: The DJ Project – Grind and Glory
Award Amount: $50,000
Project Award Date: Winter 2006

Project Description:
The DJ Project formed a collaborative between BAVC and Youth Sounds called Grind and Glory to produce a youth-run hip-hop arts competition. Based on the “American Idol” format, Bay Area youth competed for slots, and once selected, were divided into two groups: performers and producers. All youth participants were required to attend monthly professional development workshops which center on their areas. Youth performers were required to attend industry education seminars as well as performance workshops. Youth producers were required to attend professional development workshops as well as back stage management, event coordination, and promotions seminars. Although youth were divided into two groups, the hands-on experience of collectively producing a competition developed complimentary and interdependent skills in technology, professional development, and positive self-presentation for all participants. Hundreds of Bay Area youth participated in the project. From this event, Uth TV created a full length pro-bono documentary that was submitted to the Sundance Film Festival.

 

Grantee Name: Just Think
Project Name: Flipping the Script in Bayview
Award Amount: $25,000
Project Award Date: Winter 2005

Organization Description:
Just Think teaches young people to lead healthy, responsible, and independent lives in a culture highly impacted by media. Founded in 1995 as a concerned response to the ever-increasing deluge of messages youth receive from television, radio, film, print media, electronic games, and the Internet, Just Think has successfully created and delivered media arts and technology education locally, nationally, and internationally for ten years. Just Think’s programs have reached nearly 7,000 students, teachers, and parents.

Project Description:

Just Think designed a successful hip-hop based curriculum Flipping the Script. This nationally recognized program meets California state teaching standards in English, History and Social Science and is taught from a culturally relevant perspective.

Flipping the Script in Bayview is a collaborative project among two San Francisco based non-profits organizations, Just Think and BAYCAT, and Thurgood Marshall High School in San Francisco. Together, they seek to implement a pilot program using the Flipping the Script curriculum. This collaborative expands BAYCAT’s successful, after-school, media arts, and technology training program. In 2005, 100% of BAYCAT participants graduated and are now pursuing higher education.

 

Grantee Name: Movement Strategy Center
Project Name: Web Portal
Award Amount: $50,000
Project Award Date: Fall 2005

Organization Description:
Movement Strategy Center (MSC) was created in 1999 to actively support movements that aim to increase youth and adult participation in social justice issues. MSC uses a variety of tools to achieve its objectives: collective visioning and mapping, formal and informal collaborations among organizations and joint strategies to develop stronger and more effective movements.

Project Description:
Movement Strategies Center is creating a highly dynamic web portal-- designed with a Hip hop flavor--to address the needs of youth, youth activists, and youth organizations, www.mybloc.net. The purpose of this site is to unify the social justice community by creating a centralized site that will hold information on all aspects of social activism. This site will use the concept of social networking as its platform and will allow multiple levels of connections among young individual users, organizations, and social justice movements. The site is scheduled to launch at the end of this year.

 

Grantee Name: Pasadena City College
Project Name: Rap Sessions
Award Amount: $40,000
Project Award Date: Spring 2006

Organization Description:
Pasadena City College in collaborations with Bakari Kitwana created Rap Sessions, a national conversation on Hip Hop and Race. Rap Sessions is a multiracial panel of Hip hop experts who tour California and the nation
to engage youth in candid, compelling conversations about race, gender, and power. These “town hall” styled meetings have expanded our nation’s current understanding of race and youth culture.

Project Description:
Rap Sessions added new virtual components to its website to allow youth who cannot attend to still learn from the forum. These components include digital stories, video blogs, and a short documentary. Currently, 300-500 youths attend each event; the virtual component have increased the number of youth who are exposed to the Rap Sessions forum and on-going dialogue dramatically. The virtual components build-out will continue into 2007.

Grantee Name: Pasadena City College
Project Name: Rap Sessions
Award Amount: $10,000
Project Award Date: Winter 2005

Project Description:
The tour began with four California sites and then became national. CTFC funded the live recording of each panel discussion. The created content was then reformatted for mass distributed on www.Rapsession.org.

 

Grantee Name: Youth Outlook
Project Name: Mobile Publishing Teams
Award Amount: $50,000
Project Award Date: Summer 2004 and 2005

Organization Description:
Youth Outlook, (YO!) the youth division of New American Media, produces and distributes youth media content locally and nationally. YO! is the umbrella organization that house YO!TV, YO!Radio, and four magazines (Debuge, The Beat Within, SNAG, SPRAWL). YO! also podcasts and streams youth content directly from its website, www.youthoutlook.org. YO! trains and employs youth ages 14-25 in fall aspect of its programs.

Project Description:
In 2004 and 2005, CTFC awarded YO! $50,000 to fund YO!’s Mobile Publishing Teams. These youth lead teams traveled to seven local Bay Area high schools and conducted classes on magazine, audio, and video production. The result was that over 110 youth participated in the multi-media classes. Within one year, YO! participants produced eight youth magazines, six, 5- 10 minute videos, and 7 feature length articles all of which were posted on YO!’s website.

In 2005, YO! was awarded an additional $50,000 to continue its Mobile Publishing Teams work and distribute the content they created. Because of the enormous amount of content YO!TV was able to air 12, 30min programs through the WB Channel and Channel 21; produce 24 essays for YO! Radio; and streamed 8 feature stories from its site.

In 2005, YO! was awarded a Webby by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence in website and digital arts content.

Grantee Name: Youth Radio
Project Name: Web Radio Project
Award Amount: $50,000
Project Award Date: Summer 2005

Organization Description:
Youth Radio is an award winning nationally recognized leader in Youth Media content creation and distribution. It provides intensive, free, after school media training and broadcast journalism education to over 400 low-income and youth of color annually. Youth Radio’s content reaches 22 million people annually through its multiple media outlets including National Public Radio (Latino USA, Morning Edition, All Thing Considered) Public Radio International (Marketplace), CNN.com, CBSHealthWatch.com, and the Pacifica News Service.

Project Description:
In 2005, CTFC awarded Youth Radio a second grant to launch an independent Web radio station. This grant also supported a collaboration between Youth Radio and iTunes. Youth Radio now has the ability to stream its content 24 hours per day from its and iTunes websites. In one year, Youth Radio successfully created and aired 352 hours of content, trained 13 youth to be web radio hosts, produced a CD of original music “beats,”and began to run a live two-hour program once a week on KPFB.

Grantee Name: Youth Radio
Project Name: Web Radio Project
Award Amount: $50,000
Project Award Date: Summer 2004

Project Description:
In 2004, CTFC awarded Youth Radio a grant to support Young Reporters Ask What Matters to You?: Multimedia Technology in Action. This project trained youth reporters to use a variety of technologies (audio, web, video) for their work. Through the use of technology youth reporters were able to cover the Iraq war from the youth perspective. They were able to communicate directly with Iraq youth and young US soldiers. For their in-depth coverage and superior field work Youth Radio won the Edward R. Murrow award.