The Cipher
Organize. Provide. Convene. Present.

Mission

The Cipher exists to build the capacity and impact of organizations, institutions and individuals who use hip-hop as a tool for social change. The Cipher serves as an invaluable resource to hip-hop non-profit organizations, artists, activists, educators, practitioners and scholars around the globe. We accomplish this goal by providing resources based on research, convening members of the field, establishing promising practices for this field, and advocating on behalf of the field with members of the government, foundation and corporate communities.

Definition of the Field

Our field is made up of institutions, organizations and individual artists and scholars that use hip-hop culture to promote lasting social change. 

Assessment of the Need

WBL began the Cipher because we were and remain interested in leveraging resources to empower individuals, institutions and organizations. The Cipher is completely unique in the hip-hop non-profit field. As a community, hip-hop non-profit organizations are often absent from traditional capacity-building conferences and symposia. In turn, this means that we often work in seclusion from one another, using trial and error as the primary method for identifying which practices are promising. Because of the competitive nature of the funding process, we are discouraged from finding ways to work together, and instead encouraged to explain what not only makes our programs great, but even better than those of our peers.

Between 2009-2011, the Cipher will expand the impact of our teach-in to two geographies—San Francisco, CA; and Washington, D.C. for Remixing the Art of Social Change: A Hip-Hop Approach. Over the past few years, our teach-ins have convened over 400 organizations and individuals from around the globe doing comparable work, but often working in isolation from one another.