Causes: Arts & Culture, Children & Youth, Cultural & Ethnic Awareness, Performing Arts Centers, Performing Arts Schools, Youth Development

Mission: Words Beats & Life (WBL) transforms individual lives and whole communities through the training in and presentation of the elements of hip-hop culture.

Geographic areas served: Maryland, Virginia, District of Columbia

Programs: Urban arts academy as part of the urban arts academy program, wbl students participated in and hosted the annual "bumrush the boards: hip-hop chess tournament", created and distributed the jump-off mixtape as part of the "express yourself campaign to prevent youth violence", and the second edition, "college bound". They also hosted and participated in 4th annual freshest of all time b-boy/girl jam as part of the dc hip-hop theater festival. Wbl students created new murals in and around d. C. In the past year, including the "land of 1,000 drums" mural dedicated to the rich musical history of ward 8 of washington, d. C. , under the direction of cory stowers, director of design and urban arts academy instructor.

cipher program as part of the cipher program, partnered with professors and departments at columbia college, northwestern university, university of chicago, howard university, the university of maryland, morgan state, georgetown university and the university of the district of columbia to engage students studying hip-hop and social change in university settings. They also solidified partnerships with the kennedy center, lincoln theater and the national portrait gallery to host events at their respective spaces. Successfully published two issues of the wbl global journal of hip-hop. Wbl also presented the j dilla foundation, ludacris foundation, and lupe fiasco foundation along with a number of more traditional foundation and government based funding institutions. Also in 2010, wbl hosted it's inaugural midwest teach-in (700 in attendance over ) and the dc teach-in (5,000 in attendance over 6 days)