We were lucky to catch up with Tony Keith Jr. recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tony, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

My company is named “Ed Emcee Academy”

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Peace, I’m the founder and CEO of Ed Emcee Academy in Washington D.C. We are an educational consulting agency specializing in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), but from a Hip-Hop and spoken word perspective. We “Emcee Education”.

I formed my company in February 2019 as a way to streamline part-time income I’d been earning as a poet and teaching-artist. I did not anticipate that by April of the year I would be laid off from my full-time non-profit youth-development job. At the time, I was also completing my dissertation research about people, like me, that are Hip-Hop educational leaders who are poets, spoken word artists, rappers, and emcees. With no other choice, my art and research became my full-time job.

I defended my dissertation in October 2019 and one finding from my study was the language, “Ed Emcee” to describe people like me, who embody Hip-Hop and rhythmic spoken words as professional educational practice. Hence the name: Ed Emcee Academy. We believe in the power of poetry and Hip-Hop to foster conditions for belonging in schools, colleges, and communities.

COVID-19 and ongoing protests for racial equity and social justice have shifted educational conditions for learning and engagement. Students are disconnected, educators are unmotivated, and leaders are uninspired; especially those of us with marginalized identities and who come from underserved communities. What’s needed are opportunities that amplify youth voices, inspire teacher pedagogy, and foster community belonging.

Ed Emcee Academy offers innovative solution-based DEI services that guarantee student engagement, such as our 1/2 day School-based Residencies: popular with private/independent high schools, our team pulls up to a school and facilitates a series of workshops about writing and activism; features original spoken word performances; and hosts open mics, judge poetry slams and more!

We are the premier agency of Ed Emcees; our work is fun, research-driven, accessible, relatable, and translatable to youth and adult audiences.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

In summer 2022, I commissioned a video-recorded spoken word poem called “Change Makers” for Jobs for the Future (JFF) that is posted on their YouTube channel. The piece is a call to action for their member employers to foster conditions of belonging in their workplaces that are equitable to all employees. I returned to that video in February 2023 to see if it had gained any traction and noticed there was a 3-week old comment from someone asking how they could get in touch with me. As an artist, I was flattered to have a new “fan”, as an entrepreneur, however, I am always thinking about revenue streams and cashflow, and I absolutely refuse to miss out on a check.

So, I did some research online and discovered this person was a member of a diversity, equity, and inclusion team at a county educational services center in Dayton, OH. I sent them an e-mail sharing that I was the person they were looking for several weeks ago on YouTube and introduced Ed Emcee Academy as my business. I received an enthusiastic response right away and was informed that their team was in search of an innovative approach to engaging with social justice issues. They said they had no budget, but asked if I could offer a free virtual “poetic lecture” about leadership for their professional development training day. Knowing how critical it is to build relationships with future customers, I do not hesitate to say “yes”, and per my guarantee, delivered an innovative DEI service that was inspiring, informative, and captivating.

The next day, I received an e-mail from them that. said “Thank you so much for you, and for your valuable time with our equity group. Our conversations following your visit were so touching. You truly made an impact at so many levels.” In May of 2023, I signed a paid contract with this team to offer a virtual poetic lecture for their leadership equity banquet and we are currently in discussion about the possibilities for Ed Emcee Academy to do some work with them in-person.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Our reputation in the market is highly attributable the #EdEmcees brand and the personal and professional relationships I’ve built over the years. I have over two decades of professional education experience as an educational leaders, ranging from multicultural administration in higher education to running summer college preparation programs for DC teenagers, and so my network is vast.

My research about Ed Emcees has received several acclaims, including Outstanding Dissertation Awards from George Mason University and the American Educational Research Association, fellowship grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and recent publication of my article, “On Being Ed Emcees: Toward Hip-Hop Educational Leadership Theory, Research, and Praxis” in the Journal of Equity and Excellence in Education. Ed Emcee Academy functions as the entrepreneurial expansion of the #EdEmcees brand, and while we have a growing
presence on the world wide web, the bulk of our business comes via word of mouth from high schools, colleges, and education agencies in the mid-Atlantic who have departments dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Another huge plus for us, is I secured a significant book deal with HarperCollins Publishing for two young adult (YA) works: 1. How the Boogeyman Became a Poet -a memoir in verse (Feb. 2024) and 2. Knucklehead – a poetry collection (Winter 2025). As the premier agency of Ed Emcees, I envision Ed Emcee Academy will secure multiple contracts to facilitate student engagement with these books at schools, colleges, juvenile centers, museums, and libraries.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.edemceeacademy.org/
• Instagram: @ed_emcees
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/edemceeacademy
• Twitter: @ed_emcees
• Other: #EdEmcees

Image Credits
Randolph Garrett