Street dance has struggled for attention and perceived legitimacy in higher education settings, and it seems like this archive has the potential to further your ongoing work to place street dance and hip-hop at the forefront of dance programs at colleges and universities.

In academia, they often think they know what hip hop is and what street dance is, but they don’t. They’re completely in the dark about it. Almost all of the universities that have street dance academically, the faculty has no clue—they’re leaving it up to the professor of record or one adjunct professor to teach and they assume they know what they’re doing. The institution itself really is just focused on how many bodies are in the room. So there's a major disconnect with hip hop and street dance within academia, and it only becomes a focus when, like, a big article comes out. They didn't know this was happening at their university, and they're not there from the beginning, and then they jump in on the bandwagon because now, from the capitalist point of view, they’re getting marketing and promotion. I do think there's a disconnect within the institutions, but I do think there are universities that are open to really understanding what street dance culture and hip hop culture is. I think we’re still in a really weird position, because right now there's a few places where hip hop may be a minor. There are a few places that are moving towards that because students come in and they assume that there's someone teaching hip hop already and then what happens is institutions hurry up and get someone to teach it, but it's an elective and not really part of the curriculum. I think it’s changing but it’s a slow change.

Yes, I’m definitely seeing change, but it has been very gradual. I’m curious to hear if there are any plans to use this archive to support that change.

I think that's part of it, right? I think the existence of it and connecting with those universities and colleges by way of their libraries and their dance departments—I think that's getting the word out there. Most of the time, when I tell people I teach street dance history, they're like, “What do you mean street dance history?” I say, “Well, you know, you have to look at it as an extension of African culture.” When we look at it this way, it means we're coming from enslavement, and a lot of that same movement from enslavement is very present within our movement today. We're still holding and retaining, from the ancestors, a movement culture—and you see that all through hip hop. And so that's important.