PAA All-Stars to Perform At Harvard University, Other Boston Sites
Student Group to Demonstrate the Positive Nature of Hip-Hop Culture
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Jahi credit (BFresh Photography)
(Cleveland, Ohio) Progressive Arts Alliance (PAA) is pleased to announce that the PAA All-Stars student
group will perform and present at Harvard University in October. The PAA All-Stars consists of students
from the annual RHAPSODY Hip-Hop Summer Arts Camp, which was recently highlighted in the World
Almanac for Kids as a featured “fun camp.” All youth in the group are from the Greater Cleveland area.
The PAA All-Stars, a group of emerging, young professional artists from PAA’s annual camp, opened
for legendary hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash at the 2007 Ingenuity Festival of Art and Technology in
Cleveland. The group has also performed at the 2007 Annual Meeting of The Cleveland Foundation and has
also made appearances at Cleveland City Hall, the Ohio Independent Film Festival, and the Diversity Center of
Northeast Ohio as well as performing at the Cleveland State University Wolstein Center with the Contemporary
Youth Orchestra. Members of the group include Robert Crump, Shutha Dejarnette, Tyler Drummer, Connnor
Musarra, Rolanda Carter, Demetrius Camp, Ray Smith, and Tristen Hall.
Students will perform at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education’s Continuing the
Conversation: Building Community conference that will convene an international audience of Arts In
Education Harvard alumni. PAA Executive Director and Founder Santina Protopapa is among the Harvard
alumni who will be at the event. Students will also perform at other sites in Boston and will visit other youth
arts education programs. Sites include the Berklee School of Music, The Flagship Intel Clubhouse at The
Museum of Science, Boston, and the worldwide headquarters of undergroundhiphop.com.
Students will share the stage with Jahi, an international hip-hop emcee originally from Cleveland, who
is among the professional artist-educators at PAA. For over ten years, Jahi has worked with youth using hip-
hop in education in addition to touring nationally and internationally with groups such as Public Enemy,
Blackalicious, and Nobody Beats the Beats, among others. His lyrics are best described as socially conscious.
PAA’s annual Hip-Hop Summer Arts Camp is an installment of the RHAPSODY Hip-Hop Education
Program: Recognizing Hip-Hop as a Powerful Source of Development for Youth. RHAPSODY is a
program of Progressive Arts Alliance, a Cleveland-based non-profit arts-in-education organization. The mission
of PAA is to provide experiences in the contemporary arts that stimulate critical thinking and promote
progressive thought. Much of PAA’s educational mission centers around the utilization of the contemporary
arts as a compelling educational tool. For more information, visit http://www.paalive.org, e-mail
paainfo@paalive.org or call (216) 772-4PAA (4722).