Reclaiming the Narrative: Hip-Hop writing workshop

This workshop invites participants to engage Hip-Hop emceeing and lyric writing as a critical, creative, and emancipatory practice for reclaiming personal narratives. This workshop centers Hip-Hop as a site of joy, belonging, and community, the session positions lyricism not only as artistic expression, but as a method of meaning-making and resistance. Drawing on frameworks from Critical Race Theory (CRT), particularly the use of counter-storytelling, participants will explore how dominant narratives about identity—especially those shaped by race, class, and institutional power—can be interrogated, disrupted, and rewritten through Hip-Hop creative practice (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002).

Workshop facilitator: Dr. Lawrence “Dr. Pellz” Young (aka Kopelli) is a Hip-Hop artist, higher education scholar, lecturer, and researcher. Dr. Young is a member of the Detroit Hip-Hop Collective, Cold Men Young, and in recent years has blended his Hip-Hop creative practice with his higher education scholarly work. Dr. Young’s research focuses on Hip-Hop counterspaces as safe havens and sites of joy, resilience, community, and belonging.

This event is pay-what-you-can with a suggested donation of $20. Your donation, in any amount, allows us to continue our mission of producing Detroit's only Hip-Hop Theatre Festival. Learn more at

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