Mal Jones on Clubhouse

Bio

Arts Educator/Master Folk Artist, Hip Hop Historian, Cultural Consultant, Creator. CEO of The Uplyft LLC https://youtu.be/21kUIIudbho
Mal Jones is Jacksonville’s cultural ambassador who uses his platform to bridge the gap between Hip Hop culture and education. Jones is both a dynamic public speaker and lecturer that advocates for arts education through the lens of Hip Hop.

Jones is the founder of The Lyricist Live, a community freestyle rap cypher and educational workshop that encourages youth to use self-expression freely without the usage of foul language by focusing on the broad landscape of the literary arts. His award winning improvisational show has been the main event of Jacksonville’s Art Walk for over 10 years. For his works, Jones has been recognized as a visionary. Starting in 2011, he has taken his street rhyme cypher into the classroom by developing a Hip Hop inspired curriculum that speaks directly to students and educators about writing and literacy.

In 2019, Jones was invited to host a TEDxJacksonville Talk on his founding of The Lyricist Live show and his ode to Shakespeare “Hip Hop Shakes” that has garnered his movement worldwide notoriety.

In 2016, Mal Jones became the first Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville Ambassador of the Arts bringing his poem “Hip Hop Shakes” to Bristol England to represent Jacksonville for their 400th year anniversary of Shakespeare celebration.

In 2013, Mal Jones became the first Hip Hop artist in Florida’s history to be labeled as a Folk Artist by The Florida Folklife Program and Division of Historical Resources for his traditional skill of improvisational freestyle rap. Two years later, Jones made history again by starting the first state funded Freestyle Folk Rhyme Apprenticeship Program that teaches the traditional skills of freestyle rap as an official state Folk Art.