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Colombian-American futurist Martha Diaz (MD) is an award-winning community organizer, media producer, archivist, curator, educator, and social entrepreneur. One of Women’s eNews distinguished 21 Leaders for the 21st Century, she has traversed the Hip-Hop entertainment industry, the public arts and education sector, and the academy over the past 30 years. Her passion is advancing human rights and transforming communities through Hip-Hop education, media, and technology. MD has produced and consulted on numerous Hip-Hop media projects including, Where My Ladies At? by Leba Haber Rubinoff (2007), Black August: A Hip-Hop Concert by dream hampton (2010), and Nas: Time Is Illmatic by One9 (2014). In 2002, MD founded the highly acclaimed Hip-Hop Odyssey (H2O) International Film Festival, the first festival of its kind. She curated the first Hip-Hop movie series presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and served as a guest curator at the Museum of the Moving Image and The Schomburg Center. In 2010, MD launched the Hip-Hop Education Center for Research, Evaluation, and Training at New York University, which is now affiliated with the Universal Hip Hop Museum. Through her exhibitions and publications of research reports, books, and curricula, she has chronicled Hip-Hop history to preserve its cultural value and memory in addition to formalizing the field of Hip-Hop education. A graduate of New York University’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program, MD has worked on archival projects with Parkwood Entertainment (Beyoncé Knowles-Carter), Tupac Shakur Estate, National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and Paley Center for Media to name a few. MD was a Senior Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History - Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, Fellow at Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Program in Social Entrepreneurship, A'Lelia Bundles Community Scholar at Columbia University, and a Nasir Jones Fellow at Harvard University. She is currently a Senior Civic Media Fellow at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab, Visiting Scholar at Virginia Union University, and Chair of Archives, Curatorial, and Educational Affairs at the Universal Hip Hop Museum.
Martha Diaz
Friday 9:00
Friday 9:00
Colombian-American futurist Martha Diaz (MD) is an award-winning community organizer, media producer, archivist, curator, educator, and social entrepreneur. One of Women’s eNews distinguished 21 Leaders for the 21st Century, she has traversed the Hip-Hop entertainment industry, the public arts and education sector, and the academy over the past 30 years. Her passion is advancing human rights and transforming communities through Hip-Hop education, media, and technology. MD has produced and consulted on numerous Hip-Hop media projects including, Where My Ladies At? by Leba Haber Rubinoff (2007), Black August: A Hip-Hop Concert by dream hampton (2010), and Nas: Time Is Illmatic by One9 (2014). In 2002, MD founded the highly acclaimed Hip-Hop Odyssey (H2O) International Film Festival, the first festival of its kind. She curated the first Hip-Hop movie series presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and served as a guest curator at the Museum of the Moving Image and The Schomburg Center. In 2010, MD launched the Hip-Hop Education Center for Research, Evaluation, and Training at New York University, which is now affiliated with the Universal Hip Hop Museum. Through her exhibitions and publications of research reports, books, and curricula, she has chronicled Hip-Hop history to preserve its cultural value and memory in addition to formalizing the field of Hip-Hop education. A graduate of New York University’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program, MD has worked on archival projects with Parkwood Entertainment (Beyoncé Knowles-Carter), Tupac Shakur Estate, National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and Paley Center for Media to name a few. MD was a Senior Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History - Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, Fellow at Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Program in Social Entrepreneurship, A'Lelia Bundles Community Scholar at Columbia University, and a Nasir Jones Fellow at Harvard University. She is currently a Senior Civic Media Fellow at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab, Visiting Scholar at Virginia Union University, and Chair of Archives, Curatorial, and Educational Affairs at the Universal Hip Hop Museum.