The Dargan [coming soon]
Check back soon for more information about this project.
Shodekeh's Innovation Lab of Embodied Scholarship & Hip Hop Imagination
Dominic Shodekeh Talifero is a Baltimore-based beatboxer, vocal percussionist, and breath artist. He brings his musical passions to the materials in the Ideations of Potential collection. This is the first hip-hop based collection to enter Towson University's Special Collections, the first in the University of Maryland system, and the first in the State of Maryland. It is also the first living archive of a professional beatboxer anywhere in the world. With the culture of Hip Hop entering it's 50th year in 2023, the timing of such an collection couldn't be more in tune with Hip Hop's current state of evolution.
You can explore projects in the collection and read more about Shodekeh's life journey. You can also:
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- find his work in other collections
- discover his craft beyond the archive
- listen to curated playlists
- read the full Archive Statement
- browse the finding aid
You can investigate the individual projects in the Innovation Lab, or browse all the items in the collection.
Shodekeh’s career spans the globe and includes partnerships with dancers, musicians, doctors, and other universities. Browse the images or use the link below to see performances, listen to interviews, and read articles about Shodekeh’s work beyond Ideations of Potential.
Alash Ensemble with Shodekeh at the IlluminAsia Series
Shodekeh and Dr. Charles Limb at the Salzburg Global Seminar
Learn more about Shodekeh by browsing this interactive map.
I, Dominic Shodekeh Shodargan Talifero, hereby pledge to utilize my Living Archive for the preservation, cultivation, and maximization all of my human gifts, intelligence, intuition, imagination, energy, training, creativity, potential and all future attempts at complete Musical Embodiment for the greater purpose of shining a sustained light on the silent epidemic and evolving crisis of Black Youth Suicide and Ideation, of which I am a continued survivor, as well as all other endemic forms of this tragic phenomenon within the human experience in the face of the greatest catalyst of my deep trauma, my absolute sworn enemy, that being the global system of Racism / White Supremacy.
This is my War and my Cosmic Assignment, now during this era of converging pandemics and beyond, and I promise that I will not rest until the day that this goal surpasses my own time on Earth if need be, in order for this mission to hopefully be passed down to future generations if necessary, so that there may be Peace, so help me God.
- 2020
Learn More: The National Institute of Mental Health: "Addressing the Crisis of Black Youth Suicide"