The Urban Griots Collaborative (UGC) explores culturally-grounded approaches for how we design learning experiences, environments, and digital tools with a focus on leveraging the common embodied faculties we share as humans (rhythm and movement). We conduct Early Music Based Interventions based on our design prototypes and provide high quality, culturally-relevant curriculum and resources for parents, practitioners and future school leaders through our Urban Griots Clinics.
In a nutshell, UGC is

A Network
Network Nodes
for culturally-grounded research that connects scholars, community members, and students from local universities and diverse global institutions to cultivate and exchange knowledge. This encourages innovation by uniting diverse perspectives while upholding a commitment to cultural authenticity.
A Catalyst
Africa Spiral Map
for creativity, design and innovation in arts, science, education, and technology. Our co-design approach to address societal challenges is rooted and fueled by deep insights into trans-African cultural knowledge systems, practices, and tools, ensuring that each solution is not only effective but culturally resonant.
A Hub
Baobab Tree
akin to a “Village Square” where stakeholders gather in the spirit of community, echoing the African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child". This communal approach ensures that each project taps into diverse insights, experiences and expertise, yielding holistic, innovative solutions across all of our initiatives
Our interdisciplinary research and development projects centralize concerns, theories and frameworks from:

Music
Recoding Drum Language
Drummologie
Education
Urban Griot Playground
Culturally-Relevant Pedagogy
Design
Alphariddims
Cultural Computing
Contact
Pierre-Valery Tchetgen, PhD
Assistant Professsor
College of Arts, Media & Design
Department of Music
Northeastern University
Room 337F, Ryder Hall
info@urbangriot.org
Urban Griot Collaborative
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