Toni Blackman is an international champion of hip-hop culture, known for her irresistible, contagious performances and alluring female presence. She's all heart, all rhythm, all song, all power - - a one-woman revolution of poetry and microphone. An award-winning artist, her steadfast work and commitment to hip-hop led the U.S. Department of State to select her to work as the first ever hip-hop artist to work as an American Cultural Specialist. After her first residency in Dakar, the folks there started calling her the Hip Hop Ambassador and it all took on a life of itself, already serving in Senegal, Ghana, Botswana, and Swaziland where her residencies include performance, workshops, and lectures on hip hop poetry. Toni, a graduate of Howard University, has shared the stage with the likes of Erykah Badu, Mos Def, The Roots, Wu Tang Clan, GURU, Bahamadia, Boot Camp Clic, Me'Shell NdegeoCello, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, and even Rickie Lee Jones. Her first book, Inner-Course was released in 2003 (Villard/Random House). In 2004, she performed in Spain at the Barcelona World Social Forum, at the Cutting Edge Festival in Darmstadt, Germany, and toured South Africa as a headliner on the Urban Voices Festival. Also, the SENERAP Festival featured her in Dakar in 2003. This past summer she spoke at the ESSENCE Music Festival alongside Common, Yo Yo, & Shemar Moore.
Highly respected as the Founder and Director of Freestyle Union, a cipher workshop that uses freestyling as a tool to encourage social responsibility, Blackman's work has held great influence in the world of hip hop activism. This former Echoing Green Fellow recently completed a fellowship with Soros Foundation's Open Society Institute. Her latest effort is the Freestyle Union initiative, I Rhyme Like A Girl, which is run in partnership with the New School University. Toni has done extensive work with the Girl Scouts of America and was instrumental in launching "The Girls Hip Hop Project" at the Center for Cultural Exchange in Portland, Maine (a program that provides workshops for teen girls from the Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, and many other places).
Toni is a member of the Spoken Word Committee of the New York Chapter of the Recording Academy (aka The GRAMMY's). Also, AOL BlackVoices named Toni as one of the top ten African-American Next Generation Leaders to watch. She recently hosted an episode of Sunshine Airlines for Austrian National Television-which celebrated 30 years of hip-hop and the contributions of Chuck D. In 2006, she toured Southeast Asia with the Lincoln Center Musical Ambassador program as one of the first hip-hop acts ever invited.
This multi-talented woman has been listed in Essence Magazine's listing of "30 Women to Watch," been featured in SAVOY Magazine, BOOK Magazine, Newsweek Japan, The Washington Post, and in The New York Times. NHK-Global Japan Television produced a full-length documentary on her work with hip-hop airing it to 11 million viewers on national TV in Japan. She and her work have been highlighted several times on BET, as well as on FOX News and VH1, featured in Upscale, Vibe, Honey, appeared in Tokion magazine and appears in numerous award-winning documentaries including Furious Force of Rhymes, Beyond Beats and Rhymes, and Freestyle.
Currently, Toni is a Creative Consultant for Sesame Workshop's The New Electric Company, recording new music for her debut album, and teaches the "Art of Emceeing" at Brooklyn Communication Arts & Media High School (BCAM).
Key Lecture Topics
I Rhyme Like A Girl: The History and Role of Women in Hip Hop Culture
The Sacredness of the Cipher: The Spirituality of Freestyle, The Spirituality of Hip Hop.
Hip Hop Culture and The International Impact
The Intersection of Hip Hop, Education, and Activism
Poetry, Spoken Word, and the Literary Arts.
