Mic Crenshaw facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mic Crenshaw
|
|
|---|---|
Mic Crenshaw performing at Black Lives Matter demonstration at Reed College
|
|
| Background information | |
| Born | 1970 (age 54–55) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Origin | United States |
| Occupation(s) | Recording artist, political activist, and educator |
| Associated acts | Dead Prez, Immortal Technique, Hungry Mob |
Mic Crenshaw (born 1970) is an American recording artist, political activist, and educator. He lives in Portland, Oregon, in the U.S. Mic Crenshaw uses his music and teaching to speak out for fairness and equal rights.
Contents
About Mic Crenshaw
Mic Crenshaw was born in Chicago in 1970. He grew up and went to high school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While in high school, he started speaking up for social fairness and equal rights for everyone.
In 1992, he moved to Portland, Oregon. There, he decided to use music and education to fight against racism. Over the past twenty years, he has made more than ten music albums. He has worked with famous hip hop artists like Dead Prez and Immortal Technique. In 1994, he started his own hip hop group in Portland called Hungry Mob. He was the lead singer for this group.
In 2001, Mic Crenshaw won a poetry competition in Portland. He became one of the best poets in the country that year. He also helped manage KBOO Community Radio twice.
Mic Crenshaw's Activism
Mic Crenshaw has been an activist since he was a teenager. He was one of the first members of Anti-Racist Action. This group stood up to white supremacist gangs.
He also helped start GlobalFam. This is a non-profit project that created a computer center for young people in Burundi. Mic Crenshaw uses his music to talk about how police systems can sometimes be unfair to Black and Brown people.
He has worked with a group called Education Without Borders. This group supports education, music, and art projects. One of these projects is Books to Prisoners. Mic Crenshaw also works with the Black Lives Matter movement. He is the Political Director for Hip Hop Congress.
Global Work for Justice
In 2004, Mic Crenshaw went to a conference in Rwanda. It was about economic fairness and helping young people.
In 2013, he worked with artists from around the world. They started the Afrikan Hip Hop Caravan. This group goes on music tours every year in Eastern and Southern Africa. Between 2013 and 2015, the Caravan performed in places like Cape Town, South Africa, Harare, Zimbabwe, Arusha, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. In 2014, they made an album called "Afrikan Hiphop Caravan Collaborations." Mic Crenshaw helps organize the Afrikan Hip Hop Caravan in the United States.
Music for Change
In 2017, Mic Crenshaw made an album called Last of a Dying Breed. He worked with Micah Fletcher on this album. Micah Fletcher survived a difficult event on a Portland train in 2017.
While teaching at Benson Polytechnic High School, Mic Crenshaw received a special award. It was a $100,000 fellowship from the Fred W. Fields Fund. This money helps people in Oregon understand how unfair opportunities affect families. It also inspires them to help solve these problems.
In 2020, Mic Crenshaw performed at several George Floyd protests in Portland, Oregon. He also performed at Juneteenth in Oregon. In February 2022, he performed with the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church Gospel Ensemble in Portland.
Podcasts and History
In 2020, Mic Crenshaw co-hosted a podcast series called "It Did Happen Here." This podcast had 11 episodes on KBOO. It explored the history of anti-racist groups in Portland from the 1980s and 90s. It also looked at a group called "The Baldies" from Minneapolis, where Crenshaw grew up. The podcast discussed the events around the death of Mulugeta Seraw in 1989. The people who made the podcast talked about it at an Oregon Historical Society event in 2021. Mic Crenshaw was also featured in a TV show called "Minnesota Experience" about The Baldies.
