A native New Yorker, HipHop Feminist, and Scholar Activist, Dr. Dawn N. Hicks Tafari is passionate about the arts, culture, education, and translating theory into practice. She has served as an elementary school teacher, a curriculum facilitator, a teacher education program coordinator, and an educational consultant for school districts, universities, and agencies across the country. Dawn’s work focuses on HipHop Feminism, Black boys and men in academic spaces, Critical Race Theory, and Kwanzaa as a site of resistance. Dr. Tafari is the 2017 recipient of the Winston-Salem State University & Wake Forest University Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Building the Dream Award and has been featured in the Winston-Salem Chronicle as “Busta Brown’s Person of the Week”.