Here’s why we’re re-imagining higher education (a good excuse for a party too, so join us)!

Hanson Hosein

We’ve been “Hacking Edu” aggressively so far this month, with our successful Happy Hour last week, and tonight’s student-propelled Advisory Roundtable dinner.   It’s our attempt to boldly re-imagine higher education, moving away from an industrialized, hierarchical model to a more nimble, collaborative one.  How do we need to learn?  What are we willing to pay for?  What are the essential skills of a 21st century workforce?  What are emerging trends are already disrupting the traditional model of lecture-based, degree programs?  I set the stage for this series of events with my most recent Media Space commentary:

 

But the driving motivation for the month is our big Four Peaks TV episode under the big top at the University of Washington’s Red Square.  The show starts at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 19th, but we’re throwing a pre-show party with refreshments at 5 to get things going.  Tickets are free, so register and join us!

Hacking Edu -- Courtesy Dan Thornton
World-renowned poet, artist and musician Meklit Hadero, Gabriel Teodros and Mark Gonzales will be helping us celebrate our Four Peaks: Hacking Edu happening by performing and sharing their work as part of Husky Fest activities coming up on April 19 starting at 5:00 under the big tent in UW’s Red Square.
Soulful, tremulous and strangely cinematic, Hadero’s voice will implant scenes in your mind — a softly lit supperclub, a Brooklyn stoop, a sun-baked road. Close your eyes, listen and dream.
– Lynn Jacobson, Seattle Times
Teodros has brains, musicality and a refreshing attitude.
– Robert Christgau, Rolling Stone Magazine
Meklit Hadero
Named a TED Global Fellow in 2009, Meklit has served as an artist-in-residence at New York University, the De Young Museum, and the Red Poppy Art House. Meklit has also completed musical commissions for the San Francisco Foundation and for theatrical productions staged by Brava! For Women in the Arts. She is the founder of the Arba Minch Collective, a group of Ethiopian artists in diaspora devoted to nurturing ties to their homeland through collaborating with both traditional and contemporary artists there.
Now touring in support of her debut album while nurturing plans for her next, along with numerous side-projects, Meklit is gracing renowned festivals and concert-halls worldwide. Most at home not in one place but many, she’s an artist leaping from stage to stage before our eyes.
Gabriel Teodros
To know that another world is possible, and bring it to life through music; this has always been the mission of Gabriel Teodros, the emcee, educator and community organizer who made his mark with groups Abyssinian Creole and Air 2 A Bird. Teodros reached an international audience with his critically-acclaimed solo debut Lovework, setting stages on fire all across the US, Canada, Mexico and Ethiopia. In 2012, he released his newest solo project, Colored People’s Time Machine, and is about to release a group project with fellow Ethiopian-American artists Meklit Hadero and Burntface entitled CopperWire: Earthbound. For more information visit www.gabrielteodros.com
Mark Gonzales
An HBO Def Poet with a Master’s in Education, a Mexican and a Muslim, a Khalil Gibran meets Pablo Neruda in a lyrical break dance cypher, Mark Gonzales lives in the center of intersections. With appearances in Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, universities in Beirut, foster homes in Portugal, and cities across the Americas, he transcends citizenship identity to break borders and build beauty across continents through culture. He is respected internationally for his creative approaches to suicide prevention, human rights and human development via performance, photojournalism, and narrative therapy.