ALL OF THE ABOVE
HIP HOP ACADEMY
MONTHLY NEWSLETTER: February 2023
"The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members." – Coretta Scott King
Notice the Montana spray cans at the bottom of the frame? The above mural lives here in Lansing at The Village Lansing and was painted by our own AOTA Executive Director, Ozay Moore.
What better way to kick off Black History Month than highlighting these amazing movers and shakers who have called Lansing home?!
Throughout this month we will be highlighting:
Stevie Wonder
Olivia Letts
Dj Infamous
Needlz
Malcolm X
Magic Johnson
Follow along with us on Social Media this February as we share about their lives and work in #517.
Speaking of life and work in the city, this month's Newsletter is compiled of AOTA's community collaborations and a window into how our winter classes.
Community Collaborations
The Wharton Center, AOTA, and GEAR UP support Black Violin
This month, we're linking up with The Wharton Center and GEAR UP to support Black Violin.
AOTA Griots and Instructors will provide workshops for all the 9th-grade classes in The Lansing and Waverly School Districts.
These workshops will initiate conversations, give an intro to Black Violin, and are designed around music being a form of self-expression.
Then, on Feb 28th, they will have the opportunity to see Black Violin at the Wharton Center.
Stay tuned for footage and updates on this exciting opportunity.
LSO (Lansing Symphony) and AOTA Griots
We're thrilled to announce that AOTA Griots will be performing with Patrick Harlin on Feb 16th for the Lansing Symphony event at The Robin Theatre.
This event is centered around "style-bending tendencies featuring music that blends classical chamber music with influences of pop, bluegrass, hip-hop, Yiddish music, and jazz..." and you guessed it - hip-hop performances, one including our Griots!
We can't wait to update you on how this goes.
Lansing Winterfest and AOTA DJ's
Come spend the day with us at Lansing Winterfest!
When: Saturday, Feb. 18th, 11 am - 4 pm
Where: Reutter Park
What: AOTA will be providing a different DJ each hour:
5am
Ozay Moore
Juice
Yz Council
Disc Dolo
Click here to find more info on the day like the Hungry Hungry Hippo tournament and more.
We hope to see you there!
Program Update
Classes Running 5 Days a Week
Recap of AOTA's newest class addition: Intro to DJing.
AOTA officially has classes running every day of the week!
Tuesday's class is the newest addition to the roster, Intro to DJ'ing. Watch a recap above.
So far, this winter session has proven to be beneficial, productive, and enlightening for both the students and instructors.
One student told his mom, "I wish I could go to AOTA every day."
We can't help but immediately think of our notable funders who make this meaningful programming available to the students.
We'd like to shout out a HUGE THANK YOU to our supporters for making this happen!
Griot/Student Highlight
Josiah Chavez aka Juice
Josiah is an AYO Griot and is now involved in giving back to the Youth B.A.R.S. students!
He supports instructors, James and YoungHeat, in instruction as well as provides a unique opportunity for the kids to learn from and look up to a fellow AOTA student/graduate.
Watch him in action here (scroll to second video.)
Thanks for all of your hard work and support, Juice!
Volunteer Highlight
Clara Martinez
Clara is highly connected to the Lansing community in many ways, a couple being that she is on The AOTA Board and is a dance educator at Everette High School.
Thankfully, she also volunteers every week at our Breaking classes!
Her calming demeanor is a bright light to each student and family that walks through the door. If you see her this week, tell her she's awesome, will you? It will be great for her to hear over and over especially when it's not something she seeks to hear.
We appreciate you, Clara. Thanks for all you do!
Join the Building Committee
If you haven’t already, please consider being a part of the “Five Won Svn Building Committee” Monthly Donor Club.
Becoming a monthly donor in one of our 3 tiers comes with a few perks, tokens of our appreciation.
The value of your support is nearly impossible to articulate, but...we HAVE to do something seeing as you're so phenomenal!!!
See the tiers below:
#Build517
It will never get old to say THANK YOU for your continued support as we #build517 together!
Old school appreciation, new school application.
#EachOneTeachOne
#Build517
