WHAT IS THE CIPHER?

The goal of the Cipher is to build the field’s capacity by serving as a national resource. This is done by providing research and resources, convening members of the field, establishing promising practices for this field, building capacity and advocating on behalf of the field with members of the foundation and corporate community. This program area is completely unique in the hip-hop non-profit field. Collectively, the hip-hop non-profit community is often absent from traditional conferences and symposia. In turn this means that we often work in isolation, using trial and error and the method for identifying which practices are promising. Because of the competitive nature of the funding process, we are discouraged from finding ways to work together, and are instead encouraged to explain what not only makes our programs good, but better than those of our peers.

As one of the two major programs of Words Beats & Life, Inc. (WBL), the Cipher is a growing resource to an ever-expanding network of hip-hop artists, organizations, educators and scholars. This year, the Cipher will expand to four geographies—St. Paul, Minnesota; Chicago, Illinois; San Francisco, CA; and Washington, D.C.—for its third national gathering, Remixing the Art of Social Change: a Hip-Hop Approach teach-ins. Past teach-ins drew over 150 organizations from around the U.S. doing comparable work that were previously working in isolation from one another.

The Cipher is responsible for WBL’s membership, the Remixing the Art of Social Change annual and local teach-ins, Words. Beats. Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture, the Bootleg Festival: Mixtapes, Films & Hip-Hop’s Underground Economy, the University Project and other arts presenting and training related to hip-hop culture for individuals and institutions.

For more information, please contact Cipher Director, Simone Jacobson, at simone@wblinc.org.