User:Adjoajo/hanan

Dr Hanan Hameen-Diop is an arts administrator, educator, adjunct professor, mentor, dancer, curriculum developer in the arts. She was born in New York City, and raised in the Bronx. She has over 30 years of experience. She is the founder and Executive Director of Artsucation Academy Network. She is a co-founder of the Official Juneteenth Coalition of Greater New Haven, the New Haven African Arts Alliance, and Premiere Dance Company at the Neighborhood Music School. Hanan is the Artistic Director of the BAM DanceAfrica Candle Bearers founded by Dr. Chuck Davis (dancer). She is a co-choreographer with the M'Bosse Dance Company in Kaolack, Senegal since 2020, and a cultural exchange program in Senegal. Hameen works with and leads multiple dance companies that teach hip-hop, African dance, drumming, and culture in New Haven, Connecticut, New York, New England, and Senegal.

Hameen is a lupus support group facilitator, and works with the Lupus Foundation.

Early life
Hameen grew up in an artists household. Her father is Jesse Hameen II, and her mother Iman Hameen was a school teacher, dancer and filmmaker. Hameen started dancing at 3 years old, and reading at the age of 4.

She was raised in the South Bronx. The childhood apartment building where she grew up in was diversed with African diaspora families. She is quoted as describing her South Bronx community as “When we said Black people, we meant all of us,” she said. “We was together. We are all the descendants of those who were enslaved. It’s the drums. It’s the dance. It’s the storytelling. It’s the griot. We are all the same people.” Her family has roots in New Haven, Connecticut. They were a part of the Great Migration from the South of the United States to northern towns and cities.

Hameen attended Science Skills Center High School in downtown Brooklyn. She was one of Patricia Dye's first year students. Dye is a New York City educator who is featured in the 2015, Emmy-nominated documentary PS Dance. Dye designed a student-centered mentoring model which trained Hameen. Her program was a model for students to develop life and leadership skills.

While in high school Hameen performed with the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Dance Africa. She says that every year a dance company from Africa or the African Diaspora came to Brooklyn and taught dance and culture.

Hameen is quoted as sayings "My grandmother always said, 'Our purpose in life is to bring civilization and bring our people to the next level,'" she said. "It's about seeing what was done before, honoring and acknowledging, and then seeing what can you do to help it to grow.

Education
Hameen's early educational experiences were in specialized STEM learning environment. Her doctoral research focussed on culturally relevant instruction, STEAM fields education, and the motivation of gifted and talented African-American youth.

From 2017 to 2022, Hameen attended Walden University and received a PhD in Education specialized in Educational Curriculum and Assessment.

In 2009 to 2011, Hameen attended Baruch College in New York City, and received a  Master of Educational Leadership Baruch College Graphic.

From 2003 to 2005, Hameen attended State University of New York Empire State College receiving a Bachelor of Dance and Administration degree.

Career
Hameen is a certified principal. She has worked with the New York Board of Education. She implemented a curriculum that focussed on the need for arts education for young people. She leads multiple dance companies that teach hip-hop, African dance, drumming, and culture in New Haven, New York, New England, and in Senegal.

Artsucation Academy Network, founded in 2012, she heads multiple dance companies that teach hip-hop, African dance, drumming, and culture around New Haven, New York, across New England, and recently, Senegal. Hameen is a curriculum developer for the New Haven Neighborhood Music School starting in 2012.

She participates in the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, Conneticut. She teaches her 'Free to Dance' workshop. The workshop is a combination of African dance movements and Hip-Hop. The workshop blends folklore storytelling and educates participants about the culture where the styles come from.

This workshop she gives during Juneteenth Day celebrations. Hameen is quoted as saying “We weren’t allowed to dance, we weren’t allowed to participate in our traditional culture because dance for us is more than just dancing, that is how we told the history,” Hameen said, “passed down through various forms of intelligence, it wasn’t verbal linguistics, it was audible, it was kinesthetic.”

In 2010, Hameen was diagnosed with Lupus. She wrote a book 'Rebirth of a Dancer: Lupus Tried to Kill Me But Dancing Saved My Life', about her journey and day-to- day challenges with Lupus. In 2012, she founded "Africa is Me!' a dance and drumming class at the Stetson Library in New Haven, Connecticut.

In 2012, she also founded the Artsucation Academy Network.

In 2015, Hameen founded 'Ms Hanan's Dance and Beyond'.

Hameen is a 2018 and 2023, Mandela Washington Reciprocal Exchange Alumni.

In June of 2023, Hameen participated in a New Haven Play Project by the Long Wharf theatre. Performances and films that celebrated the stories of New Havens. The project was titled I AM: Muslim American.

She is a member of the Dance Africa Elder's council. Which was started by Chuck Davis in 1977.

Projects

 * Artsucation
 * H.I.G.H.E.S.T.E.A.M. (Healthy Living, Inclusive Instruction, Geography, History, English and Language Arts, Science, Technology, Engineering, Artsucation, and Mathematics.
 * Free to Dance
 * Africa is Me
 * Lupie-Licious Fitness - a program that focusses on individual needs for people with Lupus.

Awards

 * 2018 - Arts Council of Greater New Haven 2018, Phenomenal Woman and Artist Commission