What is the Urban Design Corps.....


The Urban Design Corps is a corporation focused on starting companies guided towards providing careers and resources for minorities and underprivileged people. The Urban Design Corps gives successful minorities the opportunity to invest in a permanent solution to the economic problems facing minority and underprivileged communities. In effect, the Corps provides an opportunity for successful members of minority communities to assist in the economic revival of their communities.

The Urban Design Corps is designed to have an exponential growth rate, as it is a requirement for all companies started by the Urban Design Corps to become investors in the Urban Design Corps., giving a set percentage of earnings back to the Urban Design Corps each year. Start-up companies of the U.D.C. are expected to have great potential for profit,backed by extensive support and resources from the Urban Design Corps.

Giving designers the opportunity to start-up a company is the competitive advantage that the Urban Design Corps has over other establishments of its kind. The Urban Design Corps is a non-profit organization, however the companies started by the Urban Design Corps are for profit.

The target market for the Urban Design Corps is investors and entrepreneurs. Investors are needed to provide funding for the product ideas developed by the entrepreneurs.


Read on for more information, or Click Here For Contact Information


The Urban Design Corps, HipHopera & the Journey of the Lost Souls

There is a serious problem with our Nation's inner cities. History shows us that legislation is ineffective. We must start from scratch and use the basic tools we have. These basic tools are the strength of the human spirit, the ability of human beings to create, and the intellectual property protection laws granted by our constitution.


Here is the basis of the hypothesis:

The K-12 educational system must be overhauled. Kids are bored, schools are under funded, and teachers are threatened. We can either bring in the military and crank up the prisons, or we can create a new system that gets kids and teachers excited, and motivated to create.

The educational system does not emulate the real professional world into which kids must graduate. In the real world, a huge array of skills is needed, from writers to technologists. The fundamental drivers of the economy are consumables. Jobs are retained from locally produced consumables, which can be kept at home through intellectual property law. Lets have kids learn by creating things; from new products, to music, to literature. Lets have kids learn to communicate, sell, deal, and network by the medium of opera, which encourages lavish productions, and where fantasy is encouraged. In this manner, there is no embarrassment for flops, and big hits can make lots of money to better fund schools and businesses. AND, since this is primarily an inner city program with a higher percentage of minorities, the Opera form which we will use to broadcast ideas will be called HipHopera.

How do we start? Marc Graham did a Masters thesis for Prof. Slocum on the initial seed for the Urban Design Corp. Chris Ho is now doing a Ph.D. with Prof. Slocum on forming the UDC. The UDC will be the parent company for a nationwide network of schools that catalyze kids to create. Profits from the products that are a success will go into expanding and maintaining the network. If we have faith in the human spirit, soon Americas schools will be net revenue generators, instead of tax burdens.

Is this possible? Prof. Slocum and Marc Graham have already started laying the foundation for the Urban Design Corp. Together they have produced a rap CD. Together they have been helping students to develop products to showcase in new raps. These products range from MassagaSoap, to CubbeeZ, and Calady. New products will be continually generated by the students in Prof. Slocum's OME (Office of Minority Education) Second Summer Program IAP design seminar.

Together they are starting to create the first HipHopera, Journey of the Lost Souls:

Journey Of The Lost Souls

By Marc Graham 1995
The Lost Souls, NOTE: 2.5 Megs Wav format, but Worth The Wait!!!
Streaming Audio Comming Soon.

Traders stalk amongst the presence of invaders
That infiltrate the essence, victims to the raiders
Who capture the bodies, triangles of Bermuda
Take dices of spices, tobacco to chew up

"Swing Low" about a century or so,
No where else to go,
No one else I know,
Looking to the moon to assume
Will it bring back the ways of the life in the Motherland soon.

No chance, so I sing and dance
Create some more spirituals to preserve the soul.
"Chariot" quarters far from the Marriott
Whips rip when they hit, my skin, they wear it

And tear it up, beat down to the bone
Now they're "Comin for to carry me home"
On and over again, suddenly we're equal,
But pieces are separated by colors of the people

Try to move forward and get hit by the back hand
Shot from a balcony, peace to the Black man.
In time it declines, but the ball still rolls
Return for the next trip, the journey of the lost souls.

People are gathering and willing to represent
Won't be irrelevant, rather be militant
Black and strapped with gats and ready to act upon the powers that be
Minds heated like a chimney

Penalty, the FBI Investigates and takes away
Everything but crime it's left to stay
I see a crackhead and wonder where she came from
Slaves never smoked rocks, tell me why she needs one

Little kids with fat knots,
Jordan's now replace Jox,
Glocs for their sling shots,
The list goes non-stop.
Parents unemployed, happy families destroyed
All potential seen as void and the cities got me paranoid.

I sleep on the floor, dead bolts on the door
For the hearts that fell apart now rotten to the core.
Every day I want more, so I strive to meet my goals
See me as a passenger on Journey Of The Lost Souls


For more information, please contact:

Alexander H. Slocum, Alex & Brit d'Arbeloff Associate Professor
M.I.T. Department of Mechanical Engineering
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 35-010; Cambridge, MA 02139
PHONE:(617) 253-0012; FAX:(617) 253-7549

E-mail: slocum@mit.edu
URL: http://me.mit.edu/people/faculty/AlexanderSlocum



Related Sites:

Precision Engineering Research Group, Led By Prof. Slocum:
URL:http://pergatory.mit.edu

Background
Second Summer
UDC Music
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