Meet our Hip Hop Artist Residency Teaching Artists!

Arts Corps, EMP Museum, and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are hosting year 2 of the Hip Hop Artist Residency, which will serve up to 40 emerging youth artists through two tracks: the Vocal Track, which will  foster self-expression through lyricism, rhyme structure, and delivery and the Production Track, which will emphasize media literacy, beat-making, and song construction. Participants will feature their work at a culminating event at the end of the residency.

Meet our cohort of incredible teaching artists who will be leading the program this year!

 

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Madeleine Clifford

 

Maddy “MADlines” Clifford is a rapper, writer and educator from Seattle. She’s taught hundreds of literary arts workshops throughout the Bay Area, where she currently resides. Maddy also holds an MFA from Mills College, has independently released three musical projects, and performed widely, including opening for Souls of Mischief. In 2015, she served as a Hip-Hop Ambassador to Uganda through the Next Level Program, a project of the US Department of State. She’s also spent the last three years facilitating poetry workshops with incarcerated youth in San Francisco. Her range–from stage, to panel, to urban classroom, to academic setting–is extensive. Maddy’s ultimate goal is to leave an indelible footprint in a shifting cultural landscape, one in which young people’s dreams for peace can take root!

 

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Olisa Enrico-Johnson

 

Olisa “Spyc-E Enrico has been rockin’ the mic for over 20 years. Born into a life of music Olisa began exploring theatre in 2003. She has a BFA in performance and an MFA in Theater Pedagogy. Olisa believes that artists and art are vital to the state of culture and society and hopes to share her soul through performance and teaching. Olisa is a board member of www.TheConciliationProject.org (TCP) (501c3) whose mission is “…to promote through active and challenging dramatic works, open and honest dialogue about racism in America in order to repair its damaging legacy”. Olisa teaches students of all ages and stages. Her teaching, of any subject, incorporates principles of community and shared responsibility.

 

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Jamal Farr

 

Jamal Farr a.k.a. Jace is a Seattle hip-hop fixture. He’s been involved with the Seattle hip-hop scene since the mid-1980s and has done work with such organizations as National Black United Front, Impact Management/K Records, and Loose Groove/Sony, as well as rapped on many independent releases.

As a hip-hop performer, Jace participates in the broader arts scene, beyond just the hip-hop scene, and uses his time to help young people in his creative writing classes to navigate their lives with words. Jace is currently a member of the hip-hop/soul-inspired group Black Stax. He prides himself of the work they do with other artists internationally as well as within the Seattle community.

 

 

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Erica Merritt

 

Erica Merritt began singing and performing at the age of five. In middle school she was featured in a band called Starlighters, which consisted of three student vocalists and a few members of the faculty. At 14, she joined theatre and music performance groups at Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center. She studied voice and music in college, and began teaching choir through Northwest Folklife in 1998. Over the course of the last 15 years she has taught voice, songwriting, and choir through various art organizations. Merritt has also worked in the field of social and human services for over 18 years, and has enjoyed the amazing opportunity to combine her passions of social well-being and music through the art of teaching.

 

 

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Tyrone Miller

 

Winner of Vocalo Radio’s “Quest For The Best DJ” battle, Tyrone “DJ Bizzon” Miller’s creative turntablism skills, original production and hands-on style has made him one of the Midwest’s most sought- after DJs. He’s opened for or performed with artists including Kendrick Lamar, Baauer, Mac Miller, ?uestlove, Just Blaze, Naughty By Nature, People Under The Stairs and DJ Abilities. From the songs you’ve heard to bangers you haven’t, Tyrone prides himself on rocking the party without compromising artistic music selection. The same work ethic and originality that make him a standout on the turntables carry through to his other roles in music – radio host, music columnist, event organizer and youth work professional.

 

In addition to DJing, Tyrone co-hosts Those Hip Hop Guys Radio on WMSE 91.7FM, Milwaukee’s only all underground and old school hip-hop radio show. He’s a member of Vocalo Radio’s DJ collective, which broadcasts on Chicago’s 91.1FM and Indiana’s 89.5FM. He created and writes for JSOnline’s Those Hip Hop Guys Blog, the only column in a major Wisconsin publication focused on hip-hop culture. He is also a youth work professional with experience in teaching music classes, directing youth programming, creating curriculum, leading workshops, writing grants and organizing fundraising events and concerts. All of these projects are inspired by his mission to put musical diversity and real choice back into people’s hands, rather than letting mainstream media dictate what defines good music.

 

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Otieno Terry

 

Born and raised in the Central District, Otieno Terry is a singer-songwriter and producer sure to take you on a journey with his eclectic and passionate style. With roots in soul, hip-hop, and jazz, Terry blends a vast array of genres for a truly unique sound through which he delivers powerful messages. As a former participant in Seattle Theatre Group’s More Music @ The Moore program, and winner of EMP Museum’s Sound Off! competition in 2014, Otieno continues to gain recognition for his collaborations with Seattle-based artists, in addition to his own music. Furthermore, he is a teaching artist and mentor with Creative Justice Program.

 

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