Breakin’ Convention & fifty years of hip hop: With Jonzi D

About Jonzi D

An MC, dancer, spoken word artist and director, Jonzi D is the foremost advocate for hip hop  who has changed the profile and influenced the development of the UK British hip hop  dance and theatre scene over the last two decades. 

Since founding Breakin’ Convention in 2004 Jonzi has triumphed in raising the profile  and giving a platform to hip hop disciplines, which has gained worldwide recognition as  being at the vanguard of the development of the art form. Through professional  development projects Open Art Surgery and Back to the Lab, Jonzi has supported  hundreds of hip hop dance and rap/poetry artists on their journey to creating theatre. 

His critically acclaimed works include 1995‘s Lyrikal Fearta, 1999’s Aeroplane Man,  2006’s TAG… Just Writing My Name, 2009’s Markus the Sadist and 2013’s The Letter: To  Be Or To MBE? about his choice to decline an MBE from the Queen. Jonzi’s has been  featured in HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, had his short films Silence da Bitchin’ & Aeroplane  Man screened on Channel 4, toured his work extensively all over the world and  delivered his own TED Talk about the influence and evolution of hip hop culture. 

In 2020 Jonzi directed Our Bodies Back which won ‘Best Artistic Film’ as part of the  Detroit Black film festival, followed up by the sequel, AUTOCORRECT in 2022. He also  wrote Here/Not Here, a short film directed by Bim Ajadi which won the ‘Best Film’  category in Deaffest 2022. 

In 2023, Jonzi D was awarded a citation from Al Taylor of the 71st District – New York  State Assembly in recognition of his efforts for advancing and advocating hip hop  culture in the UK and abroad, and the De Valois Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Dancing Times Critic’s Circle.