Thug Life Army

If you are familiar with hip hop culture, and especially the hip hop and rap icon Tupac Shakur (2Pac) then the name Leila Steinberg is one you are familiar with.

Leila Steinberg is an artist and community organizer who began working with youth twenty years ago in the San Francisco Bay area. Ms. Steinberg's background in the arts is as a performer and a businesswoman. She started working with Tupac (2Pac) in 1989 and was his first manager. He went on to become one of the most famous hip hop / rap artists in the world and has remained so even after his death in 1996. Tupac Shakur is now an icon. His legacy as the most beloved and influential hip hop rapper of all time lives on in the hearts and minds of millions of young people.

Leila Steinberg is committed to helping people who fall through the cracks of society. In 1995 she began a series of specialized programs for youth within the juvenile justice system and those residing in residential treatment facilities.

As hip-hop music became the expression of today's youth, Leila Steinberg began training artists to develop voices powerful enough to reach a generation. While conducting poetry workshops in Northern California, she met Tupac Shakur and he became a regular participant in her class. They shared a vision of developing a space where each artist in attendance is encouraged, inspired and motivated to address social change in their work. Tupac referred to Leila as the "bow" and himself as the "arrow."

This image of aiming at a target is a useful metaphor for participants in her workshops as they learn to exert control over their words and understand their impact. Leila Steinberg recognized Tupac's talents as a poet and performer who could reach his audience in a way that many rappers before him could not. He did this by speaking from the heart.

Leila Steinberg started the Microphone Sessions, a weekly workshop where young musicians and hip-hop artists write and perform new material, get feedback and launch discussions about pressing issues in their lives and in their communities. Steinberg's collaboration with Tupac deeply influenced the way she developed her workshops. One of the main forces behind Tupac's success and the lasting impact of his work is the confessional nature of his lyrics. His writings have been used in curriculums from the University of Berkeley to middle schools in the South.

The poems published posthumously in The Rose That Grew From Concrete, were written by Tupac (2Pac) while he attended Leila Steinberg's workshop. He entrusted her with original copies of his work to safe-keep. Along with Tupac's mother, Afeni, Leila was instrumental in getting them published. Leila Steinberg was Co-Executive Producer of the spoken-word album of the same name, released on Interscope Records, with performances by Quincy Jones, Run D.M.C. and Danny Glover. She also produced and appears in the Tupac documentary, "Thug Angel," with Executive Producer Quincy Jones III.

Watch The Microphone Sessions live at www.TheMicrophoneSessions.com this Monday at 8pm, by clicking the "live stream" link or by directly visiting http://www.TheMicrophoneSessions.com/livestream

*AIM was founded by Leila Steinberg in 1998. This year AIM moved from a volunteer effort into an organization with paid staff members, expanding Steinberg's Heart Education programs and their reach in the community. AIM puts these programs into environments where they are most needed. Inner-city youth must have alternative ways to experience and envision their lives.

AIM programs confront juvenile crime and victimization, drug abuse and gang violence and other pressing issues facing at-risk youth in a workshop format that combines creative arts with an open dialogue. We encourage participants to take responsibility for their actions and get in touch with their emotions. Steinberg helps them connect with their hearts and turn anger and pain into creativity.

AIM promotes artistic expression as a way to handle problems as opposed to choosing violence, drugs or other forms of escape. As the program facilitator, Steinberg sees confronting pain as the best way to move past it. She believes self-awareness is a key to making better choices.

The only way to stop overcrowded juvenile halls and jails, and to correct the misperception that the solution is to build more prisons, is by providing successful countermeasures to the problems that lead to incarceration. Steinberg's Heart Education is one successful answer to this very complex and mounting issue. Her two decades in rap music have provided an extraordinary foundation for facilitating communication with at-risk and high risk youth.

To find out more on AIM please visit - http://hearteducation.org/index.html

And be sure to watch The Microphone Sessions live at www.TheMicrophoneSessions.com this Monday at 8pm, by clicking the "live stream" link or by directly visiting http://www.TheMicrophoneSessions.com/livestream

Also look for Leila Steinberg in the upcoming Tupac book titled: ‘TUPAC REMEMBERED Bearing witness to life and legacy’

Authored By: Molly Monjauze With Gloria Cox & Staci Robinson.

More on ‘TUPAC REMEMBERED Bearing witness to life and legacy’ can be found at http://www.thuglifearmy.com/news/?id=4145