ADIA McCLELLAN WINFREY, PSY.D.
AKA
"DR. DIA"
I am married, the mother of four, a Hip Hop scholar, and hold a doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology. I have a lifelong relationship with the Hip Hop culture. As a teenager growing up in Jeffersonville, Indiana, a racially mixed town outside of Louisville, Kentucky, I received messages from all sides that rap was BAD. This always hurt me, because I loved the culture so much, and I wanted the rest of America to recognize its genius. I made a vow early on, to speak out about the positive aspects of rap music, which I did in the classroom, and at the church I grew up in, Gilt Edge Baptist Church. The Hip Hop artist that impacted me most was Tupac Shakur, and his death at the beginning of my senior year of high school changed my life.
From the beginning, Mr. Shakur's message spoke directly to me. And while I'm sure millions of people had similar feelings-- for me, Tupac was more than my favorite rapper-- he helped me make sense of my world. When "Brenda's Got a Baby" came out in 1992, I was 12 and my 12 year old friend was having a baby. When I was 13, and felt the fire of anger towards oppression, particularly in response to the Rodney King tragedy and the L.A. riots, the entire Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. tape transformed my anger into the seeds of revolution. All those Sundays when I spoke at my church, it was Mr. Shakur's examples I used to state my case for rap music. And when the movie "Tupac Resurrection" was released, and I heard Tupuac state that his mission was to spark the brain of the person that would change the world...I was determined to push even harder for Hip Hop.
Hip Hop culture has had a hand in my development...it was not the only hand, but an important one nonetheless. It's been there during most of my major milestones, joys, and sorrows. And as I matriculated through my doctoral program, I realized I could not be the only person that had this connection to the culture. As I explored the role rap music plays in the lives of today's teenagers, I also began to think about the the purpose music served for millions during slavery and the civil rights movement. This was the thought that led me to use rap as a major portion of my dissertation...and along came the H.Y.P.E. movement!
H.Y.P.E. was born out of my lifelong love of Hip Hop, and desire to uplift our youth. It has been an honor and a blessing to talk to professionals and parents about H.Y.P.E., and even more so to work with youth using the H.Y.P.E. curriculum. The positive feedback I have received has been so encouraging, and it is my ultimate goal that H.Y.P.E. will be implemented everywhere there are youth whose voices need to be heard.
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LET'S GET H.Y.P.E.!!
