Abstract:
The Beat Making Lab is a winner of the 2014 Indie Art Awards. The UNC Chapel Hill group puts on classes, international residencies, runs a community youth center in Chapel Hill, and operates a backpack-sized recording studio. They recently received a one million dollar grant from the State Department to fund their Next Level program which uses popular music and dance to foster diplomatic goodwill and model conflict resolution through collaboration. The group has traveled to Senegal, Panama, Fiji, and Ethiopia teaching hip-hop, making beats, and recording music.