Confronting Misogynoir in Hip-Hop: Empowerment v Exploitation, A #BHeard Town Hall

Nicole Duncan-Smith is an author, reverend and writer and journalist. Over her career, she has worked as an editor and/or writer for the following publications:AtlantaBlackStar.com, OprahDaily.com theGrio.com, BET.com, AllHipHop.com, Rap Pages, Vibe Magazine, The Source, The Source.com.

Ivie Ani is an award-winning, internationally recognized journalist, writer, editor, critic, and on-air host covering culture. Ivie is a Nigerian-American Bronx native and New York University alumna with a dual degree in Journalism and Africana Studies. Her writing has been published in The New York Times Women in The World, The Village Voice, NY Mag, GQ, Teen Vogue, Vanity Fair, VIBE Magazine, The Fader, NBC News, BBC, PAPER magazine, Pitchfork, Complex, LEVEL Magazine, OkayAfrica, Grazia UK, NYU’s Social and Cultural Analysis Journal, and more. She is the former Editor In Chief and Editorial Director of AMAKA Studio and the former Music Editor of Okayplayer, and has held positions at Instagram & Facebook (META), BET Networks, and Associated Press. Most recently, she hosted her own live radio show “In Full Effect” on Amazon Music’s AMP platform.

Ivie has received Harvard's 2022 Eminence Award and has spoken at Harvard University, Yale University, New York University, Wesleyan University, Fordham University, and Howard University. She has moderated panels for Sony Music, Sephora, United Masters, Instagram, Audiomack, AFROPUNK, Afrochella (Afrofuture), Twitter, and more. She's done on-air commentary for ABC News Live, BBC Radio, NPR, BET, Entertainment Tonight, Sirius XM, Genius, Hot 97, MTV News, Netflix, and Revolt TV, with more commentary that has been featured in Nylon, Tidal, The Cut, Bustle, Racked, and more. She's been profiled in The Washington Post & APM Reports podcast and has appeared as a guest-hosted on Red Bull Radio. Ivie speaks on and moderates panels about media, music, journalism, identity, pop culture, the diaspora, and history.

Ivie’s ability to cut through the noise of current events and conversations to offer insight, accurate information, critical analysis, and pointed discourse sets her apart from her contemporaries. She is a trained and decorated journalist with 10 years of experience in traditional print, digital media, the red carpet, radio, broadcast, and beyond. Ivie sets the tone and the bar for culture reporting, criticism, and tastemaking to enlighten, engage and produce work with a purpose.

Ivie Ani is an award-winning, internationally recognized journalist, writer, editor, critic, and on-air host covering culture. Ivie is a Nigerian-American Bronx native and New York University alumna with a dual degree in Journalism and Africana Studies. Her writing has been published in The New York Times Women in The World, The Village Voice, NY Mag, GQ, Teen Vogue, Vanity Fair, VIBE Magazine, The Fader, NBC News, BBC, PAPER magazine, Pitchfork, Complex, LEVEL Magazine, OkayAfrica, Grazia UK, NYU’s Social and Cultural Analysis Journal, and more. She is the former Editor In Chief and Editorial Director of AMAKA Studio and the former Music Editor of Okayplayer, and has held positions at Instagram & Facebook (META), BET Networks, and Associated Press. Most recently, she hosted her own live radio show “In Full Effect” on Amazon Music’s AMP platform.

Ivie has received Harvard's 2022 Eminence Award and has spoken at Harvard University, Yale University, New York University, Wesleyan University, Fordham University, and Howard University. She has moderated panels for Sony Music, Sephora, United Masters, Instagram, Audiomack, AFROPUNK, Afrochella (Afrofuture), Twitter, and more. She's done on-air commentary for ABC News Live, BBC Radio, NPR, BET, Entertainment Tonight, Sirius XM, Genius, Hot 97, MTV News, Netflix, and Revolt TV, with more commentary that has been featured in Nylon, Tidal, The Cut, Bustle, Racked, and more. She's been profiled in The Washington Post & APM Reports podcast and has appeared as a guest-hosted on Red Bull Radio. Ivie speaks on and moderates panels about media, music, journalism, identity, pop culture, the diaspora, and history.

Ivie’s ability to cut through the noise of current events and conversations to offer insight, accurate information, critical analysis, and pointed discourse sets her apart from her contemporaries. She is a trained and decorated journalist with 10 years of experience in traditional print, digital media, the red carpet, radio, broadcast, and beyond. Ivie sets the tone and the bar for culture reporting, criticism, and tastemaking to enlighten, engage and produce work with a purpose.
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The first official U.S. Hip Hop ambassador, Toni Blackman, has not only traveled to 50 countries around the world but rocked Summerstage events, performed at the UN, Town Hall NYC, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Apollo Theater, 9:30 Club in DC, the Roxy in L.A., the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, BRIC, and Lincoln Center. This year Toni has hosted and performed at the UN, on Broadway and the Def Poetry Jam Reunion. Multi-talented, this pioneer in Hip Hop theater and Hip Hop education, has worked both behind and in front of the camera. She’s an artist and a visionary.

Creator of Rhyme like a Girl and The Freestyle Union, Toni recently worked as the Spoken Word/Rap Coach for Kwame Alexander’s Emmy Award winning Disney series, The Crossover. Creator and co-host of Lyrical Meditation Cypher Podcast. Author of Innercourse (Villard/Random House), her new book, Wisdom of the Cypher, (Red Sky Presents, released March 2024). An Echoing Green Fellow Alum, Toni served as the keynote for Warner Music’s Social Justice Summit and her Hip Hop Meditation Music series was supported New York State Council on the Arts. This Howard University graduate was recently selected for a SheStories Grant with Big We Foundation.Toni is a bi-continental woman living between Brooklyn, NY and Dakar, Senegal.