Urban Essentials | Symposium 2025
Urban Essentials Festival PROGRAM: lowair.lt
Urban Essentials Festival TICKETS: bilietai.lt
Symposium | Crossfade: From Knowledge to Creation in Hip-Hop Studios
The symposium “Crossfade: From Knowledge to Creation in Hip-Hop Studies” invites researchers, artists, and practitioners to rethink hip-hop as an interdisciplinary field of knowledge, creation, and community. Hip-hop culture—from sound and movement to image and word—constantly balances between artistic practice and critical reflection, between personal experience and collective memory.
The event aims to open a space for discussion on how hip-hop research and practices create new ways of knowing, methods, and languages. The symposium explores topics related to hip-hop dance, music, education, cultural heritage, creative technologies, and artistic research.
“Crossfade: From Knowledge to Creation in Hip-Hop Studies” invites us to view hip-hop as a constant transition—between knowledge and creation, between academia and the street, between the individual voice and the collective rhythm.
Information:
November 13, 2025
Location: LMTA Campus (Olandų St. 21A, Vilnius), Room 303.
The symposium will be held in English. The presentations will be recorded. If you do not wish to appear in the recording, please let us know when you register.
~ 9:30 AM Registration
~ 10:00 AM Opening Remarks
The symposium will be moderated by: Airida Gudaitė (lecturer and doctoral student at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre; creative director and choreographer at Low Air Vilnius City Dance Theatre | School) and Laurynas Žakevičius (director, choreographer, and producer at Low Air Vilnius City Dance Theatre)
Jonzi D presentation:
~ 10:10 – 10:40 Jonzi D (Breakin’ Convention, Sadler’s Wells, UK)
“Engaging the Elements”
How can we explore rap, street dance, beatboxing, turntablism, and graffiti as theatrical tools?
Jonzi D is one of the UK’s pioneering MCs, a dancer, spoken word artist, and director who has been shaping the British hip-hop dance and theater scene for over two decades.
In 2004, Jonzi D founded “Breakin’ Convention,” a globally recognized platform for hip-hop disciplines, and has supported hundreds of hip-hop artists through projects such as “Open Art Surgery” and “Back to the Lab.”
Notable works include “Lyrikal Fearta,” “Aeroplane Man,” “TAG… Just Writing My Name,” and “The Letter: To Be or To MBE?” Jonzi D has appeared on HBO’s “Def Poetry Jam,” delivered a TED Talk on hip-hop culture, and directed the award-winning films “Our Bodies Back” (2020) and “AUTOCORRECT” (2022), while touring internationally.
In 2023, Jonzi D was honored with the De Valois Award for lifetime achievement and received recognition from the New York State Assembly.
Toki Wright presentation:
~ 10:40 – 11:10
Toki Wright (Berklee College of Music, 2-time Emmy Award winner, USA)
“Hip-Hop: A Voice for the Voiceless”
Toki Wright, Chair of the Professional Music Department at Berklee College of Music, is an internationally recognized MC, producer, writer, radio host, arts diplomat, and community organizer.
He led the first accredited hip-hop studies program at McNally Smith College of Music, which was recognized by New York University’s Hip-Hop Education Center as the best transformative model in higher education.
As an artist, Toki Wright has released albums with Soul Tools Entertainment and Rhymesayers, performed at Coachella and Rock the Bells festivals, and collaborated with Talib Kweli, BJ The Chicago Kid, and others. A two-time Emmy Award winner, he co-produced the CLIO Award-winning “Watch the Stove” mixtape, hosts “Soul Tools Radio” and “Wright About Now,” and serves as a judge for the NPR Tiny Desk Contest.
Lucas Benjamin presentation:
Presentation
~ 11:10 – 11:40
DJ Lucas Benjamin (Amsterdam University of the Arts, “Music Wax Production,” NL)
“Artistic Talk / Performative Talk”
“I want to take people on a musical journey—from gospel to soul, funk, hip-hop, house, and beyond. All of this—through a single specific track.”
Lucas Benjamin is a DJ, curator, and music entrepreneur. Growing up in a family of DJs and musicians, he became interested in music at age twelve through breakdancing and later developed a deep love for the sounds of jazz, soul, and funk.
He honed his skills in record shops, performed worldwide with the b-boy group “Extraordinary Gentlemen” (EXG), and as a member of the DJ duo “Bomb-Collectors” in the Netherlands. Following an injury in 2011, he devoted his full attention to DJing and teaching. As DJ Lu-Chi’sz, and later under his own name, he has performed at festivals, parties, and theater stages around the world, released the mixtape series “Music Is What Feelings Sound Like,” joined “Wicked Jazz Sounds,” and became a co-founder of “MORE BOUNCE Collective,” “Wicked Wax,” “Ghetto Funk Collective,” and “Steppin’ Into Tomorrow.”
~ 11:40 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Coffee break
~ 12:00 – 13:00 Discussion session with Frieda Frost (PhD student and lecturer at the Department of Arts and Music, University of Cologne, DE/MA), Jonzi D (“Breakin’ Convention,” “Sadler’s Wells,” UK), Toki Wright (Berklee College of Music, two-time Emmy Award winner, USA), DJ Lucas Benjamin (Amsterdam University of the Arts, “Music Wax Production,” NL).
