Next Level, an international musical diplomacy program of the department of music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the U.S. Department of State, has received an $800,000 renewal grant.
The new two-year award from the State Department will fund sending teams of hip-hop artist-educators to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America to promote cultural exchange and conflict resolution among underserved communities.
Teams of artists will spend up to three weeks teaching and performing in the host countries.
The grant’s first cycle is now halfway complete. In all, the program will have visited seven countries in Africa, Eastern Europe and South Asia and have worked with hundreds of children and young adults.
Mark Katz, a music professor and director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, is the project’s principal investigator.
Katz said the continuation of the grant will allow the program to build on a successful model and reach more young people around the world. He is also particularly interested in collaborating with UNC faculty who conduct work in the countries the program will visit.
Read more about the creation of the program here: https://college.unc.edu/2013/12/09/nextlevel/, and follow the artists’ work on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NextLevelUSA.
