Mariama White-Hammond, Executive Director
mariama@projecthiphop.org
Mariama White-Hammond was born and raised in Boston, MA. Having been involved in the organization throughout high school and college, in September 2001, Mariama became the Executive Director of Project HIP-HOP, leading the organization as it became an independent 501(c)3 organization. Mariama has received a certificate in youth work through the B.E.S.T. Initiative Youth Worker Training, and a certificate in trauma response from the Children’s Trauma Recovery Foundation. For her work at Project HIP-HOP, she received the 2004 Roxbury Founder’s Day Award and along with youth at PHH received the 2005 Boston Celtics “Heroes Among Us” Award. Mariama is also involved with a number of other organizations in Boston including the SE/LR Youthworkers Alliance.
D. Farai Williams, Artistic Director
farai@projecthiphop.org
D. Farai Williams, is a “creative activist”. Having studied at Moscow Theatre Art School and the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard University where she received her MFA and garnered regional and international credits; she left for NYC and made her Broadway debut in “The Lion King”. Upon completion of her run, Farai did additional training at TOPLAB NY (Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory), which utilizes the techniques of Augusto Boals’, Theatre of the Oppressed – interactive theatre games, exercises and presentations. Having returned home to Boston she shifted her focus from performance to direction and facilitation. Farai now utilizes the arts for social and political change. She is a core collective member of TOPLAB New England and is thrilled to lend her talent, passion and commitment to social justice to the development of her community. She has joined the team at Project HIP-HOP to develop and facilitate high quality, impactful, culturally artistic experiences for young people, to create positive change for themselves and our collective communities. (Farai is shown here with daughter Ariella-Yve)
Janine Quarles, Organizing Director
janine@projecthiphop.org
Janine joine PHH as a teenager, grew into a youth leader, and then went off to college. After graduating, she became a community organizer for the Union of Minority Neighborhoods, where she organized to obtain full civic engagement of the Black community in the city of Boston by speaking truth to power and taking on the public school system crisis. Janine graduated from Bennett College with a degree in Mass Communications (Journalism and Media Studies-Print). She is currently enrolled in UMASS Boston’s Women in Politics and Public Policy graduate certificate program.
Nene Igietseme, Membership Services/Leadership Development Coordinator
nene@projecthiphop.org
Nene comes to Project HIP-HOP through an AmeriCorp program with New Sector Alliance, a non-profit capacity building and consulting organization. Selected because of her experiences in leadership development work with young people, Nene brings a deep commitment to social, resource, and economic justice and young people’s role in movement building to her job as Membership Services/Leadership Development Coordinator at Project HIP-HOP. In addition to working with the team to design trainings and workshops that develop Project HIP-HOP members’ analytical and leadership skills; Nene focuses on providing resources and services that young people might need outside of the organization, such as college access help, tutoring, health education, etc. She is also working on developing PHH membership tracking and accountability systems. Nene isn’t a talented singer but she loves to serenade her family and friends. She also excels at creating flipcharts.
