Youth cultural organizing at Project HIP-HOP

Over the last few decades, movement activists and scholars have increasingly recognized the importance of art and culture in social change efforts. But when it comes to the day-to-day work of developing youth as active, justice-oriented citizens, talk of art and culture remains marginalized. How can we develop in young people the kind of imaginative, creative, cultural leadership we need in our communities? The most innovative answers to this question are coming from the margins of mainstream arts education and civic engagement. In non-profit and community-based organizations across the country, artists, organizers, educators, and cultural workers are creating youth-centered spaces dedicated to a blend of artistic expression and social activism. In this dissertation, Paul Kuttner offers an indepth look at this work through a portrait of the Boston-based youth organization, Project HIP-HOP (PHH), which practices youth cultural organizing. Working at the intersection of community-based youth arts and youth-led community organizing, PHH trains young artists as cultural organizers who can use their art to catalyze individual and collective action for social justice. Based on this portrait, Kuttner presents a theoretical framework outlining the organization's cultural organizing model: how PHH works to raise consciousness through artistic practice, develop unity through history and ritual, and catalyze action through public performance, all rooted in an asset-based approach to youth and communities of color. This hybrid form of youth work has the potential to teach us much about fostering a new generation of justice-oriented cultural leaders.