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Our Summer 2026 classes for ages 8 to 18 are open for registration and are available as in-person classes in Washington, DC.
Innovative Hip-hop C
urriculum
Join our creative arts classes to propel your career as a DJ, fashion designer, music producer, radio broadcaster, artist, or poet.
Academy Spotlights
Jamilla Okubo
Teaches: Mixed Media
Jamilla Okubo is an interdisciplinary artist exploring themes of self-making, spirituality, interiority, and Black womanhood through her American, Kenyan, and Trinidadian heritage. Integrating figurative painting, pattern design, and fashion, she uses dress as a central motif to narrate stories of self-expression and cultural agency.
Flex Mathews
Teaches: Rap/Emcee
Flex Mathews also know Dathan L. Harbor who has spent most of his life being an rap artist/MC started working at WBL in 2010 as an MC instructor. Up for any challenge pertaining to art, he'll never back down, and is excited to go head up with the bull that is presented in front of him.
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Check out what we accomplished in 2025 with this rap-up video from Trus real.
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The Counterbalance Blog
Fascism in Rap
When Donald Trump was elected and took office in January, I was horrified but not surprised. For the past 25 years, our country has trended toward a conservative and authoritative regime, culminating in the rolling out of Project 2025, a foundation that had been laid as far back as the mid-80s. In the ‘80s, Donald Trump was a failed racist real estate mogul, failing upward in the financial world due to his father’s wealth (sound familiar? Read: Elon Musk) and as likely to become president as he was to become a world-class athlete.
Guard Your Mental
As a Black youth who came of age in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in the 1990s, I do not recall much communal dialogue about the value of good mental health. I grew up in a culture that shunned those who struggled with their mental faculties and designated them as crazy. My community believed that having devout faith in God was the catch-all cure for any “afflictions” one might be facing and so were generally averse to the idea of therapy.
How do we keep our Nations' Leaders Accountable | kNOw new leaders
Join Words Beats & Life Inc.’s Founder and Executive Director, Mazi Mutafa, and the hosts as they talk about what accountability looks like for leaders, educators, celebrities, etc. in the sixteenth episode of kNOw new leaders.
