History of Ed Emcees
Between 2015 - 2019, during his Ph.D studies, Tony Keith, Jr. could not find any published theories about educators who are also professional poets, spoken word artists, rappers, and mc’s. He believed that [our] roles in solving problems with racial equity in education are critical, but our voices in academia are unheard because Hip-Hop is often misunderstood. So, he developed a theory of Hip-Hop Educational Leadership (HHEL) for his dissertation conducting research about ten people who fit this description.
2019 Squad
(ltr): Jessica Valoris; Jessica Care Moore; William E. Jenkins; Tony Keith, Jr.; Yusha Assad; Veracity Savant; Branden Balenzuela; Elisabet Velasquez. Not pictured: Melissa Princess Best; JP Reynolds and Justis Lopez.
Note: Pseudonyms were used in the research.
Blackout Poetic Transcription (BPT)
Dr. Keith developed a method called Blackout Poetic Transcription (BPT) for transcribing their interviews into small chunks of poetically formatted qualitative data, which are called “data poems”. Next, he reviewed the BPT method with Lul Marley - a young adult rapper from Washington DC who, at the time, did not have any academic or professional training in qualitative research methods.
Lul Marley found “jewels” in the data poems that related to his own experiences with Hip Hop and educational inequities, thus granting Dr. Keith a “stamp” of approval that the method was accessible for him. Then, Dr. Keith searched through hundreds of the data poems to identify Common Themes from their told stories and discover language to answer his Research Questions.
Dr. Keith shared the findings from his research through a public performance of his dissertation at Bus Boys and Poets (14th & V) in Washington DC, funded by Humanities DC on Oct. 28, 2019. The free event, which featured original poetry, rap, and spoken word by members of the 2019 Squad, was sold out in three hours.
Then he successfully defended his dissertation, formally, at George Mason University on Oct. 31 2019, where it won an outstanding award from the College of Education and Human Development. He also won the inaugural outstanding dissertation award the Hip-Hop Special Interest Group (SIG) of the America Educational Research Association (AERA).
