Bavu Blakes is a Scholar Emcee deliberately walking through the intersection of Hip Hop, education, and spirituality. As a middle school Humanities instructor, he is an award-winning teaching artist who constructs and conducts keynote speeches, interactive learning sessions, and multimedia projects.
Through his life experience and career, Bavu has come to believe that education is way more important than school. His personal and professional goal is to be a part of the Netflix of education — explained in detail here.
As founder of the Hip Hop Grew Up educational agency, Bavu has emerged as a trusted mind and voice helping leaders across the United States move from language to labor, from academic to applicable. He has designed and delivered professional learning experiences for teachers, principals, and district leadership, as well as non-profit and community organizations, for the past decade. The antithesis of a sit-and-get lecturer, he is celebrated for incorporating theatrical, musical, lyrical, and visual elements into learning facilitation as well as keynotes for state, national, and international conferences.
While a classroom instructor, Bavu simultaneously earned a Master’s of Education degree and researched how weekly student-driven, campus-wide school assemblies impacted the culture and climate of his school community. Academic research based on his work has been presented at national conferences such as AERA, LRA, and NCTE as well as published in recent books by Harvard Education Press (2023) and Corwin Press (2022).
Originally moving to Austin, Texas, for journalism school, Bavu ascended to regional rap celebrity, becoming the first emcee in town to have a song added to daytime commercial radio. He has appeared on 21 vinyl records to date and released studio collaborations with several Grammy-winning producers including Adrian Quesada and Gary Clark, Jr., as well as people’s champ Paul Wall. Accordingly, Austin mayor Steve Adler proclaimed April 23, 2015, as Bavu Blakes Day to a capacity crowd at City Hall.
Blakes serves his wife, Dr. Tifani Jones Blakes, and their two children. He and his 12-year-old son co-authored El’s Mirror, a picture book and reflective tool for families, parents, mentors, leaders, and educators of children.
Scholar Emcee 