France
From January 29th to February 10th, 2024, five Hip Hop artists traveled to Paris, France as part of the Next Level program. Def-i (MC), Ken Fury (Dancer), Danielle Mastrion (Aerosol Artist), and Amore Querida (DJ) joined site manager Corey James Gray to perform for audiences and collaborate with local artists to promote cross-cultural creative exchange and conflict transformation. Team France was supported by local partners Rstyle and Canal 93, as well as the U.S. Embassy in Paris.
Next Level, a cultural diplomacy program that uses Hip Hop to create connections, is an initiative of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Meridian International Center. The program promotes conflict transformation, entrepreneurship, and artistic and professional development among younger and underserved audiences around the world.
During the residency, the artists hosted workshops on dancing, aerosol painting, DJing, and emceeing techniques. Additionally, there were multiple talks and moderated discussions on arts education, artistic entrepreneurship, and conflict transformation.
The first part of the program coincided with increasing hype around the 2024 Paris Olympics' inclusion of Breaking as a sport. The team visited Paris’s “Urban Olympic Museum” and Spot 24, the venue for the Olympic Exhibition of Sport and Urban Cultures. In addition to dance, the artists in residency also collaborated with local artists through a jam held at Canal 93, with nearly 40 local emcees in attendance. The program culminated in two performances: the first at the U.S. Embassy and the second as a public event held at La Place de la Concorde.
The residency workshops saw 19 participants in attendance, including 9 women and 10 men. However, the program’s outreach extended much further through partnerships with academic institutions, public performances, and artist collaborations. Altogether, the residency provided many opportunities for exchanges, furthering Next Level’s goal of creating a global Hip-Hop community.
