Four years after moving to Lansing with his wife in 2006 to start a family, Seattle native and musician Ozay Moore, 42, founded All of the Above Hip Hop Academy, a nonprofit that offers hip-hop-related courses and workshops to school-aged children.
“I tried to identify the custodians, places and spaces that were doing the work to protect and maintain the culture here in our city. What became clear is that we just didn’t have a mechanism to support legacy — to pass the baton on to the next generation,” Moore said. “We wanted to create an ecosystem by which artists could develop their craft, get plugged in, sharpen their skills and find camaraderie among like-minded individuals.”
Fourteen years later, the academy has grown far beyond Moore’s initial vision. While it has been “intentionally mobile” since its inception, Moore has known for several years that it needed a permanent home. He found one in a 1,900-square-foot space on Washington Square in downtown Lansing, which celebrated its grand opening on July 25.
