Melisa Riviere is a Latina hip-hop audio-visual/event producer, scholar, activist and talent manager whose work spans from the Twin Cities to Cuba and Puerto Rico. Melisa is currently a MacArthur Scholar Ph.D. candidate in the Anthropology Department at the University of Minnesota completing her research on the global diffusion of the four elements of hip-hop, with a particular fieldwork focus in the Caribbean. She has worked with In The House Magazine, Songo Sounds, Time Machine Squad, and The Lab Studios in Puerto Rico as well asThe Cuban Agency for Rap, La Fabri K and the Hermanos Saíz Association in Cuba. Her work on either island includes documenting hip-hop conferences, festivals, and live performances, leading keynote talks and pedagogical workshops as well as producing audio recordings and music video clips with Anónimo Consejo, Tego Calderón, Doble Filo, Los Aldeanos, SieteNueve, Intifada, and Obsesión amongst others. Currently Melisa simultaneously teaches courses in Anthropology and Global Studies at the University of Minnesota and Hamline in the Twin Cities; forms part of the co-founding directorship of ‘B-Girl Be: A Celebration of Women in Hip-Hop’ in its fourth year at Intermedia Arts; and serves as the CEO of Emetrece Productions, an audio-visual production and artist management company that focuses on ‘edu-tainment’ making education entertaining and entertainment educational.

Link to Emetrece Productions web site at http://www.emetreceproductions.com