Sociologist, Hip Hop educator, media analyst/strategist, realist, writer, Cap, Black & proud...lover of life, music & people. Full bio: KRISTINE (TINA) WRIGHT is an educator/sociologist, specializing in African American studies, social stratification (race, class, and gender), urban education, media, and popular culture. As an undergraduate, she attended UCLA and graduated with degrees in both Communication Studies (media emphasis) and Afro-American Studies. She received her doctorate in Sociology from the University of California, Irvine in 2005 and is currently a tenured faculty member at Los Angeles Southwest College. She has taught for 25 plus years at all levels of the California public school system: K-12, community colleges, California State University and the University of California. Dr. Wright is a trailblazing hip hop scholar in academia, creating one of the first hip hop centered Sociology courses at a R1 university in 2000. She is also a noted commentator and has been invited to speak at numerous events to discuss hip hop, race, class, gender, media, youth political mobilization, and social justice more broadly. Wright serves on the board of two organizations, Hip Hop Congress (hiphopcongress.com) and CEEM (CEEM.coop). She is also the joint owner of JOLO Investments, LLC and the administrator and co-trustee of UTN (utn360.org), a 501(c)3 charity supporting service minded individuals and community organizations working to empower Black/Brown communities through hip hop pedagogy, cultural literacy, media literacy, and community activism/artivism. She has also published a book, 360°: A Blueprint to Black Self-Determination. 360° provides a hip-hop centered analysis of society’s racialized history and a blueprint to actualize Black liberation. In terms of her personal passion for hip hop, Wright states: "While I grew up with hip hop (literally) and will forever appreciate its artistic expressions, for me hip hop has and always will be foremost about the people it represents and our struggle for cultural, social and political freedom." For more on her work, please visit: https://linktr.ee/livlearngrow