Kitchen Cabinet 2008

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The “Kitchen Cabinet” is an informal advisory group that ensures ZeroDivide's Hip hop Initiative remains relevant and “in touch” with the pulse of Hip hop culture. Leaders in the Hip hop social movement engage in dialogue to strategize, collaborate, and coordinate their efforts so that Hip hop activism remains a force in fostering social justice.

A recent gathering, sponsored by ZeroDivide, sought to answer questions regarding local, regional, and national efforts that support the hip hop community’s participation in the 2008 elections. What activities and tools are these efforts using to involve the hip hop community? What are some of the best examples of ways the hip hop community has impacted, or can impact the 2008 elections? What can be done to take this momentum beyond the election to benefit communities on a national scale.

Stay tuned as we continue to update this page with information.

Kitchen Cabinet Attendees:

Arnold Chandler
Research Analyst
Arniec1@gmail.com

Arnold L. Chandler is an advocate, researcher and technology strategist. Currently, he is a Research Analyst working with a team to reform the Oakland Police Department as part of a federal lawsuit settled in 2001. A researcher and policy strategist at PolicyLink for over five years, Chandler has authored several important policy analyses and studies in the social justice field as well as advised several nonprofit organizations on the use of Internet tools for supporting advocacy and social change efforts. Chandler is also the founder and lead organizer of a community group known as FABC (www.fabookclub.com) that formed in the Bay Area in early 2004 to use music as a tool for community-building and civic participation.

Robert Collins
Manager, Bump Record
Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC)
Robert@bavc.org

Robert Collins is the manager of Bump Records and oversees all operations of the BUMP Records label, including marketing plans, recording and production timelines, and artist management. He has spent over nine years in marketing, branding, and media management, including stints as General Manager of Live Up Records and Nu Gruv Alliance, Executive Publisher of Ruckus Magazine and founder of Ruby Avenue Artist Management. He has a B.A. in political science from Morehouse College.

TJ Crawford
Executive Director
Chicago Hip Hop Civic Engagement Project
therealtjcrawford@gmail.com

TJ Crawford is the Executive Director of the Chicago Hip Hop Civic Engagement Project and the past chair and co-founder of the National Hip Hop Political Convention. Recently, he joined Chicago’s only Black-owned radio station, WVON, as executive producer and co-host of the city’s first hip hop talk show. Crawford, in partnership with Prof. Lance Williams and the Chicago Council on Urban Affairs, works to produce various workshops, trainings, and seminars around hip hop and media literacy for both high school students and staff. His work with CHHCEP includes publishing and producing the MPR Report in print, radio and on the internet, producing the THIS is HIPHOP Stage and Pavilion at the African Festival of the Arts, and PE 101 Political Education and Training.

Monica Delgado
Executive Director
Justice by Unities in Creative Entergy (J.U.i.C.E)
rampartjuice@gmail.com

Monica Delgado is the Executive Director for Justice by Unities in Creative Energy (J.U.i.C.E.), a Los Angeles-based youth arts non-profit focused on violence prevention and skill building through the elements of hip hop culture. Delgado is a Puerto Rican/ Bolivian community-based planner with MAs in Community & Regional Planning and Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico.

Lisa Fager
President and Co-Founder
Industry Ears
Lfager2670@comcast.net

Lisa Fager is the President and Co-Founder of Industry Ears, an advocacy/activist think tank concerned with the impact of media on children and people of color. She has more than fifteen years of experience in various marketing and public relations roles for major entertainment and radio/televisions broadcasting companies including Infinity Broadcasting, Capitol-EMI Records, and the Discovery Channel.

Jakada Imani
Executive Director
Ella Baker Center
jakada@ellebakercenter.org

Jakada Imani is Ella Baker Center’s new Executive Director. For years, Imana has been a lead strategist and chief team member on some of their most high profile campaigns. Most recently, he headed Books Not Bars, taking the campaign to replace California’s abusive youth prisons with effective rehabilitation programs to ever-increasing heights. Before that, Imana helped lead the “Stop the Super Jail Campaign,” a two-year effort to stop Alameda County from building a massive, expensive and remote juvenile hall that it didn’t need. Before Ella Baker Center, he was a Constituent Liaison for Oakland Councilwoman Nancy Nadel where he helped launch or lead many important Bay Area organizations.

Mazi Mutafa
Executive Director/ Co-Founder
Words Beats and Life (WBL)
mazi@wblinc.org

Mazi Mutafa is the co-founder and Executive Director of Words Beats and Life (WBL), a hip hop non-profit committed to transforming individual lives and communities through the elements of hip hop culture. He is alum of the University of Maryland and member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity.

Mark Anthony Neal
Associate Professor of Black Popular Culture
Duke University
Dr-yogi@att.net

Mark Anthony Neal is an Associate Professor of Black Popular Culture in the Program in African and African-American Studies at Duke University. He holds a Doctorate in American Studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Neal’s scholarly interests are in black popular culture, black feminist and queer theory and black intellectual production. In his new book “New Black Man: Rethinking Black Masculinity,” Neal describes how the “Strong Black Man” – an ideal championed by generations of black leaders – may be at the heart of problems facing black men today.

Shamako Noble
Co-Founder and President
Hip Hop Congress
Shamako@hiphopcongress.com

Shamako Noble is a co-founder and current President of Hip Hop Congress. He is also the Director of the H2Ed program for the Hip Hop Association, which uses education, media and leadership to preserve and develop hip hop culture. As an artist, Noble has been performing since a very young age. At this time, he has performed or organized over 200 events since starting his career. In 2004, he released his first solo album, “The Return of the Coming of the Aftermath.” Locally he also operates with an organization called R.E.F.U.G.E. (Real Education for Urban Growth Enterprises) which specializes in using the Urban Arts to teach life skills, leadership, and culture.

McCrae A. Parker
Director of Strategic Initiatives
Youth Radio
mccrae@youthradio.org

McCrae Parker leads the youth development and training programs, designing and implementing integrated services for Youth Radio participants. Parker has 15 years of experience in the youth, workforce development, media policy and education fields through his previous work with organizations such as Just Think!, Children Now, the SF Department of Children, Youth and Their Families and, the San Francisco Conservation Corps.

Theda Sandiford
Vice President, New Media
Rush Communications
bondgyrl@gmail.com

Theda Sandiford is the Vice President of New Media at Rush Communications and is now consulting GlobalGrind.com, handling industry relations. Sandiford has fused her interests in multimedia marketing and content development to create unique content campaigns and go to market strategies for her consulting clients, which have included Phat Fashions, Community Connect, Asylum Records, Capitol Records, Koch, and Kevin Liles Enterprises. Sandiford is also the former Brand Director for Def Jam mobile, where she worked after being inspired by the multimedia experience she gained from her work in Def Jam records’ new media department.

Angela Woodson
Director of Outreach & Fatherhood Project Manager
Ohio Governor’s Office of Faith Based Initiatives
arthangel005@hotmail.com

Angela Woodson is the Director of Outreach & Fatherhood Project Manager in Ohio Governor’s Office of Faith Based Initiatives. Woodson co-chaired the first ever National Hip-Hop Political Convention in 2004. A longtime political organizer in Ohio, she’s worked on campaigns for senate, gubernatorial and local elections.