The Hip-Hop Word Count: A Searchable Rap Almanac

Tahir Hemphill is an award-winning creative director and multimedia artist working in the areas of interdisciplinary thought, collaboration and research.

As creative director, Hemphill has planned strategy for businesses in the entertainment, advertising, and nonprofit industries. He has conceived and implemented design-based solutions for brands including Mercedes Benz, L’Oreal, Verizon, and Microsoft. Hemphill has been a consultant for Y&R, Publicis, Grey, Saatchi & Saatchi and Burrell Communications.

Hemphill’s creative process explores the vicinity between the profound and the profane, between art and science. His artwork will be featured in the upcoming Talk to Me exhibit at MoMA which explores communication between people and objects. Hemphill's work has been exhibited at Siggraph (Siggraph 2002); Queens Museum of Art (Queens International Biennial, 2002) and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (Black New York Photographers of the Twentieth Century, 1999).

Hemphill holds a B.A. in Spanish Language from Morehouse College, a Strategic Planning Certificate from Miami Ad School, and a M.S. in Communications Design from Pratt Institute -- where he authored and designed a treatise on the methodologies of creatives who use traditional advertising techniques to promote subversive and prosocial campaigns.

Currently Hemphill enjoys his role as cultural entrepreneur, operating the Brooklyn-based creative enterprise, Staple Crops. His current project, The Hip-Hop Word Count is a searchable rap almanac. Hemphill also manages the media arts education program for Red Clay Arts, a nonprofit incubator for contemporary artists that he co-founded in 2000. Tahir recently joined the Hip-Hop Education Center at NYU as Assistant Director, Research.

Tracee Worley is a Brooklyn-based artist and curriculum developer who has worked closely with public schools in California and New York in several capacities to support school improvement and reform initiatives. She has worked in New York City public schools for 9 years, using arts, technology, and popular culture to help students and teachers become more active and enthusiastic in the learning process. She currently works as a curriculum developer for Urban Arts Partnership, where she co-created Fresh Prep, an innovative multimedia curriculum that uses Hip-hop music to review the key content and skills tested on the New York State Regents Exams. She holds a B.A. in African-American Studies from UC Berkeley,  an M.A. in Education from Brooklyn College, and a M.S.W. from Columbia University.

Alisha Wormsley is a multi-media artist, photographer, teaching artist and writer from Pittsburgh PA. After studying anthropology and documentary arts at UC Berkeley she began traveling, studying and creating different forms of art and public art.  Now, between two ferns (Pittsburgh and Brooklyn), Alisha has been a teaching artist for many cultural institutions including, The Studio Museum of Harlem, Children's Aid Society, The Romare Bearden Foundation, ICP, the August Wilson Center and was just commissioned to develop and implement curriculum for the Faith Ringgold School in Harlem. Alisha is consistently involved in numerous projects and collaborations. She recently returned from 3 months in Santiago de Cuba, exhibiting her work and leading a public art project with children named Found Art and EXCESS. 2008-2010 August to October she held a three-year residency at Project Row House in Houston, TX, she is working on Lilith the Succubus—a multi media opera that uses opera, choreography and photography, film and installation as equal mediums of expression. She was awarded the 2011 Visual Arts Fellowship at the August Wilson Center in Pittsburgh PA.

The mathematics and ELA curricula are designed based on NYS and NYC standards.

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