Colombian-American futurist, Martha Diaz, is an award-winning community organiser, media producer, archivist, curator, educator, and social entrepreneur. One of Women’s eNews distinguished 21 Leaders for the 21st Century, she has traversed the Hip Hop entertainment industry, the public arts and education sector, and the academy over the last 30 years. Her passion is advancing human rights and transforming communities through Hip Hop culture, media, and technology.
Martha has produced and consulted on numerous Hip Hop media projects and founded the highly acclaimed Hip Hop Odyssey (H2O) International Film Festival, the first festival of its kind. She curated the first Hip Hop movie series presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and served as a guest curator at the Museum of the Moving Image and Schomburg Center. Through her publications of research reports, books, and curricula, she has chronicled Hip Hop history to preserve its cultural value and memory.
A graduate of New York University’s Gallatin School for Individualized Study and Tisch School of the Arts Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program, Martha has worked on archival projects with Parkwood Entertainment (Beyoncé Knowles-Carter), Tupac Shakur Estate, Ralph McDaniels’ Video Music Box Collection, National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and The Paley Center for Media, to name a few. In 2010, Martha launched the Hip Hop Education Center.
Among her numerous fellowships, MD has served as a Senior Fellow at the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation – National Museum of American History, A’Lelia Bundles Community Scholar at Columbia University, Nasir Jones Fellow at Harvard University, and Senior MacArthur Civic Media Fellow at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. Martha was a Visiting Scholar at Virginia Union University, and is currently a professor of Hip Hop and inaugural Fellow at the Center for Creative and Entertainment Arts at Virginia State University. She also serves as an advisor and associate archivist and curator for the Universal Hip Hop Museum.
