History

We are Words, Beats & Life (WBL), DC’s longest running, dopest Hip-Hop based arts educational non profit.We are here to break down those barriers that keep our cities' outstanding young creatives from taking full advantage of the opportunities that come along with living in the Nation’s Capital. 

Our goal is to invest in Washington, DC’s creative eco system to employ our extensive list of artists and creators to be living examples of what our city’s creative youth can accomplish with the right tools and the best role models. We achieve this goal through our many workshops, after school programs, concerts and festivals. We are Unapologetic advocates for the transformative power of hip-hop culture in all its forms. We empower artists, aspiring artists and lovers of expression to relentlessly create, refine and define systems that demonstrate positive change through our individual and collective brilliance. 

Our arts based educational programs equip youth, creatives, practicing artists and scholars to move from theory to practice. We harness the power of the imagination to reshape the lives and communities we serve.

Mission

As a set of cultural practices and art forms with a global reach, Hip-Hop has demonstrated its power to transform the lives of young people around the world and right here in the nation's capital. Our mission at Words Beats & Life is to transform individual lives and communities through Hip-Hop culture in all its forms. WBL has developed programs to support Arts Education and Creative Employment for young creatives throughout the District of Columbia with the human and material resources and opportunities to participate in the District’s creative economy as both creators and project managers. We do this through a curriculum that involves instruction, research, and the hands-on application of lessons learned as performers and creative directors. In the last year we have engaged more than 30,000 youth and young adults through in person and virtual programming designed to educate and inspire. This includes just over 3,000 students in Arts Education and Creative Employment programming in schools, libraries and community spaces.

What are WBL’s priorities?

1. Arts Education

Our Arts Education programming exposes students to new knowledge, techniques and methods, as well as provides opportunities to grow their knowledge and network through alternative winter and spring break activities. We also provide opportunities for young artists to practice what we teach through performances, and public art making, as well as encouraging these students to manage their own projects and events by participating in our Arts Management program. Our work in schools has been with young people in Middle School, High School and College, with participants ranging from 12-22. In community contexts, we work with people as young as 10 and with adults 23 and older. Despite popular misunderstandings about our culture, Hip-Hop is likely created, participated in, and celebrated by the most diverse set of people in terms of audiences, practitioners, supporters, and consumers. Our teachers, students, audiences, and selected master artists are diverse not just racially, ethnically, religiously, and economically but also in terms of age, gender, orientation, and ability status.  Programs include the WBL Academy, Like a Boss: Arts Management Program,  Walk It Like I talk It, Entrepreneurship Program.  Finally we have our College and career mentorship program called College Material  

2. Creative Employment

Our Creative Employment work focuses on engaging members of the larger creative community, to share their knowledge and experience as guest speakers, mentors and potential employers.  To that end WBL hosts a regional alternative spring break focused on Visual Arts and Performing Arts, and a national alternative Winter Break speaker series focused on the media arts.  Each year we also host an annual Creative Economy Internship and Career Fair by partnering with Creative Non Profits in the DC metro area.

We emphasize Creative Employment as one of our core values at WBL. By engaging members of the larger creative community we bridge the gap between the experienced and new through our Regional Alternative Break series, Career Fairs and Creative Economy Internships. 

3. Cultural Diplomacy

Since 2010, words Beats and life has been working to send artists abroad, and bring artists from abroad to the US.  These collaborations have taken the form of master classes, musical and dance performances, along with public art creation and offering scholarships to pay for primary schools for students in partner organizations abroad.  We are working to make more of these collaborations more focused in commerce.  We want to develop cooperative agreements that allow for greater exchange, and revenue generation for WBL and our international partners.     

For a decade we have been working to send artists both abroad and to the US through our continued commitment to Cultural Diplomacy. Through master classes, musical performances, public art creation, and offering scholarships to students alongside partner organizations abroad, WBL wants to develop cooperative agreements that allow for greater exchange and revenue generation for us and our international partners. 

4. Centering Marginalized Voices

There is power in the margins.  Power to innovate, create and tell stories that are new for many Americans.  Our priority is to expand minds, knock down walls, and build bridges between communities.  Our approach to this work is interdisciplinary, people of color and often women led.  It has included theater, gallery shows, mural making, poetry performances, publishing, and documentary work.  This work has allowed us to share the histories of people and places through the arts that would not ordinarily attend a hip-hop based event.        

5. For the Culture

WBL creates work to reach outside the hip-hop community to continue to grow it across various demographics. We host events and create work that has the hip-hop community and the process of building community in person and virtually for hip-hop communities, locally, nationally and globally.  This is arts for community building and expanding sake through culture.  This work is critical considering how many people's knowledge of hip-hop ends at Rap music on the radio.  This is our effort to showcase the culture in all its forms by lifting up the work of artists all over the world.. 

2040 Vision

In 2040, Hip-Hop will be over 65 years old and Words, Beats and Life will be approaching 40 years. We believe that by 2040, Hip-Hop will have evolved again from an aspirational culture and set of values, to an outcome-driven, design-centered cultural practice that lives in communities across the globe and ensures justice and equality for all who encounter it. We believe WBL will be an integral part of this evolution, as we continue our mission to serve youth and creatives and provide our communities with increased access to technology, wellness resources, and education through hip-hop culture over the next twenty years. WBL maintains a strong commitment to sustaining our reputation, and more importantly, fulfilling our goals of continuing to center marginalized voices, advance arts education, and to promote creative employment and strengthen global connections. While we cannot predict with complete certainty what WBL will be in the year 2040, having a clear and compelling vision provides us with the framework to help ensure the long-term success of the communities we serve.