GET FREE: Creating Space of Infinite Possibilities through Hip Hop-Based Counseling Practices
This webinar titled, "Get Free: Creating Space of Infinite Possibilities through Hip Hop Based Counseling Practices", will provide attendees with tools and strategies on how Hip Hop has been utilized in various counseling spaces such as K-12, college counseling, and community-based counseling. Attendees will learn from a panel of counselors from different educational systems on how they have engaged with students, both in the physical space and virtual space, utilizing Hip Hop as an educational and counseling framework.
In addition, we will have three different breakout tracks (K-12, College, and Community-Based counseling) that will allow attendees to connect, collaborate, learn from, and share ways in which they have utilized Hip Hop to inform their counseling practices working with youth and students.
Drawing from our overall theme of "Space of Infinite Possibilities", we aimed to address the following questions:
In what ways are we creating a space for students to dream big and dream out loud?
What kind of space are we creating to allow for creative expression and entrepreneurial thinking?
For educators, how will our curricular content and pedagogical approaches change and adapt when we purposefully center our students' voices and experiences?
How are we redefining our educational space to serve and support our students equitably?
How are we addressing challenges our students are facing as a result of the racial and environmental pandemic?
What can higher education institutions learn from Hip Hop culture and education in regards to social-emotional learning in a virtual space?
Featuring Keynote Speaker:
Dr. Raphael Travis, Professor and MSW Program Director, Texas State University
Featured panelists include:
Kim Davalos, Promise Scholar Counselor, Skyline College
Adam Freas, EOPS Counselor, Sacramento City College
Dr. Ian Levy, Assistant Professor of School Counseling, Manhattan College
Qiana Spellman, Guidance Counselor, Brooklyn NY
Juana Tello, 5th Elements Youth Program Executive Director
CLOSING EVENT PERFORMER:
Dregs One, Graffiti Artist, Emcee, Producer, and Scholar
SPEAKER / PANELIST / PERFORMER BIOS
Dr. Raphael Travis
Author, The Healing Power of Hip Hop
Dr. Travis is a Professor and MSW Program Director at Texas State University in the School of Social Work. His research, practice and consultancy work emphasizes healthy development over the life-course, resilience, and civic engagement. He also investigates creative arts, especially Hip-Hop culture, as a source of health and well-being for individuals and communities. He is the author of the book “The Healing Power of Hip Hop.” His latest research, linking arts engagement and well-being, appears in a variety of academic journals and book chapters.
The Collaborative Research for Education, Art, and Therapeutic Engagement (CREATE) Lab, at Texas State University (San Marcos, TX, USA) led by Dr. Travis, partners with researchers, educators, artists, and community-based organizations focused on better understanding the educational, health, and therapeutic benefits of music and art engagement. The CREATE Lab has multiple active research projects including studies that build upon the lab’s on-campus music studio. The studio, complete with professional quality music technology, hardware and software, makes constructing, recording, remixing, and other ways of engaging music possible.
Raphael is also the founder and Executive Director of FlowStory, PLLC, blending social work and public health expertise to help guide applied research-driven mental health and health promotion strategies. FlowStory promotes the empowering aspects of Hip Hop culture as a critical tool for learning, growth, and well-being across all ages, but especially with youth in family, education, therapy, afterschool, and summer program settings.
Texas TRIO Association | 2019 Student Leadership Conference Video
Instagram: @raptjr
Kim Davalos
Kim Davalos serves as a lead counselor at Skyline College in the Promise Scholars Program and also loves teaching and collaborating with the CIPHER Learning Community which was the first institutionalized Hip Hop education community on the West Coast. Kim has also sat on the Rock the School Bells advisory board since 2013 as a coordinator and associate director. She received her Masters in Counseling from San Francisco State University and her B.S. in Psychology, minor in Counseling and Social Justice from San Diego State University. Kim finds passion and purpose within her intersectional roles as both a counselor and as a community artist where she integrates poetry and photography processes alongside her SWAG counseling framework to create a more radical and humanizing space for higher education, for our students, and even for herself.
Website: kimdavalos.com / Instagram: @kimdavalos , @kdthephotographer
Adam Freas
Adam Freas (@freaslife) is an EOPS Counselor at Sacramento City College. In addition he currently serves as the director of the Low End Theory Collaborative (@letccrew), a Sacramento based Hip-Hop Education non-profit. This role allows him to tap into his commitments as an artist, educator and community advocate, while impacting educational spaces. In addition, he is a full time Counseling faculty position at Sacramento City College, Freas is currently a doctoral candidate in the Benerd School of Education, at the University of the Pacific. His current research focuses is exploring the impact Hip-Hop based education can have in engaging faculty around privilege, identity, and the countering of whiteness in higher education. His previous publications have explored topics such as Hip-Hop education, race, and social justice. Lastly, Freas is also an artist who continues to create and develop new projects (@25thjazz) that utilize the breadth of his passions and commitments.
Instagram: @freaslife / @letccrew / @25thjazz
Ian Levy
Dr. Ian Levy is an Assistant Professor of School Counseling at Manhattan College, New York City native, former High School counselor, and emcee. His research interests include the examination of mental health practices in urban schools, which entails exploring the effective use of the school counselor and other school staff to support the emotional lives of young people. Most notably, Dr. Levy piloted the development, implementation, and evaluation of a Hip-Hop based counseling framework. His work has been featured on various news outlets including the New York Times, and CNN, and published a variety of reputable academic journals. In 2016 he was named the New York State School Counselor of the Year. Ian has published multiple articles in peer-reviewed journals on the intersections of hip-hop and school counseling, is the author of a forthcoming research monograph with Routledge titled Hip-Hop and Spoken Word Therapy in School Counseling: A Culturally Relevant Approach.
Instagram: @ianplevy
Qiana Spellman
Qiana Spellman, M.S.Ed. is a school counselor and educator at a high school in Brooklyn, New York. She teaches graduate level courses as an adjunct in the Mental Health and School Counseling fields. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Xavier University of New Orleans, a Masters degree in School Counseling from Long Island University, Advanced Certifications in School Building and School District Leadership from Hunter College, and is currently completing her Doctorate of Education in Community Health Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Qiana’s research focuses on the dynamics of school counselors as educators, social justice informed initiatives, the use of hip hop in education, and the effects of racism on public health.
Instagram / Twitter: @ms_q22 / Clubhouse: @dr_q
Juana Tello
Juana is a culture keeper and freedom seeker whose skillset meets at the intersection of education, organizing, and the arts. Her profound experience guides this project, as a product of programs that provided outlets for her cultural, creative, and political expression. In 2008, she graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a double Bachelor’s in Latin American Studies and Education, while organizing with movements for racial, economic, educational, and environmental justice. In 2010, Juana organized to win Ethnic Studies in SFUSD while creating leadership pathways that connect the classroom with grassroots organizations. In 2015 she co-Founder of 5 Elements Youth Program, which is dedicated to creating platforms that increase access for youth of color to develop their artistic and performing talents, while engaging them to critically reimagine health and justice through hip-hop. In 2019 she received her Masters in Public Health from San Francisco State University, sharpening her analysis on innovative models of youth development. As an emerging visual artist, she captures the essence of Bay Area culture and movements for self-determination through an urban Indigenous perspective. Her unique multidisciplinary perspective on conscious youth development dreams of empowering youth as protagonists of their own liberation.
Instagram: @5elementssf
Dregs One
Dregs One has put decades into his craft. An accomplished graffiti artist, emcee, producer, and scholar, Dregs has kept San Francisco hip-hop tradition alive since his teenage years in the Hyphy Era. Perfecting his independent Bay Area hustler, Dregs has maintained an acute awareness of social issues after seen his community evolve from the crack era to gentrification and beyond.
In 2018, Dregs One started putting out his best work yet after co-founding Audio Vandals, an independent production company. In December 2020, Dregs dropped Fog Mode featuring Andre Nickatina and the following month Black C joined the Fog Mode (RBL Posse Remix). This paved the way for Fog Mode: The Album, a new Dregs One solo album that unites different neighborhoods and generations of SF hip-hop. Keeping that Frisco culture alive through graffiti and hip-hop, Dregs continues to make his mark on the world.
Instagram: @dregs_one
DJ Rock Bottom
DJ Rock Bottom is one of those rare people who has built himself a platform on his own terms, in his own way, achieving success with every step. Since 2004, DJ Rock Bottom has been a cornerstone in Sacramento's scene for enriching countless souls with incredible music and unique wisdom. Today, DJ Rock Bottom is steadily building a respected brand with his own two hands and constantly seeking something greater as both an artist and a businessman.
Instagram: @theedjrockbottom