BAbout
Educator first. Everything else is a teaching tool.
EducatorScholar EmceeAuthorScholarSpeakerFacilitatorTeaching ArtistCommunity Leader
Hip Hop.
Education.
Spirituality.
Bavu Blakes deliberately walks at the intersection of Hip Hop, education, and spirituality. He does not treat them as separate lanes he switches between; he treats them as one practice, each keeping the others honest.
He believes education is way more important than school. That conviction was formed at the front of a middle school Humanities classroom, where he is an award-winning instructor, and sharpened by a Master of Education. It is why his work with leaders is about moving from language to labor, and from academic to applicable.
As an artist, Bavu became Austin's first emcee with a song added to daytime commercial radio. He has appeared on at least 21 vinyl records and collaborated with Grammy-winning producers including Adrian Quesada and Gary Clark Jr. In recognition, April 23, 2015 was proclaimed Bavu Blakes Day.
He is the founder of Hip Hop Grew Up, an Editor's Pick TEDx speaker whose talks fold theatre, music, lyric, and image into argument, and the co-author of El's Mirror — written with his son.
Bavu Blakes / personal archive
The record, in pieces
Bavu’s Board
Scholar emcee. Educator. Speaker. Author.
One Austin story, woven through music and teaching.
Pick a photograph to open its story
Walk the board / scroll to explore
Overview / full board
Bavu’s Board
Milestones, pinned to one board.
HHip Hop Grew Up
The culture,
taken seriously.
Founded by Bavu, Hip Hop Grew Up honors the culture as an intellectual and spiritual inheritance — and builds programming for the generation that grew up inside it and now leads.
Explore Hip Hop Grew Up ↗ (opens in a new tab)EThe book
El's Mirror
Co-authored by Bavu and his son. A father-and-son collaboration: the work he does in classrooms and on stages, carried home and onto the page.