Hip Hop Dance Workshop with Muslim-American Amirah Sackett

San Diego CA— On November 9, 2018 at the Academy of Our Lady of Peace, Amirah Sackett led a hip-hop dance workshop for high school girls from the Academy of Our Lady of Peace (OLP) and International Rescue Committee’s refugee girls empowerment programs. The event was co-hosted by OLP, the San Diego Diplomacy Council, and IRC.
Amirah Sackett is an internationally recognized hip-hop dancer, choreographer, teacher, and arts envoy who has used hip-hop to transcend stereotypes about women and the Muslim community in the U.S. and abroad. The event featured welcoming remarks by Congresswoman Susan Davis, a performance, a movement workshop, and an intersectional conversation about identity and self-confidence growing up girl, as well as food, games, and time for girls from across San Diego County to meet each other and build a relationship.
Chicago-based Amirah was in San Diego through the weekend to perform at the San Diego Diplomacy Council’s signature event, Beats into Bridges: Celebrating Art Diplomacy on Saturday, November 10. She also taught a popping and locking workshop which was open to the public at Culture Shock Dance Center on Friday, November 9.
Amirah’s global dance diplomacy endeavors began when she was honored as one of the first female hip-hop artists to receive the Jerome Travel/Study grant in 2008 and travel to Rotterdam, Holland to study and train at Hip Hop Huis, a center in Europe for hip-hop artists. In 2014, Amirah traveled to Dhaka, Bangladesh as part of “Next Level,” a hip-hop cultural exchange program by the U.S. State Department and University of North Carolina. In April 2016, Amirah was honored to be part of “Caravanserai-American Voices,”a Midwest tour of American Muslim hip-hop artists. In 2016, Amirah and her work “We’re Muslim, Don’t Panic” reached viral video fame, after being featured in videos online by PopSugar Celebrity, Huffington Post, AJ+, and Upworthy with millions of views each.