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From Tulane University to UC Berkeley, our three finalists each believe their business will change the world.

The review panel includes: Kim Gordon, founding member of Sonic Youth; Wayne Coyne, lead singer and song writer from The Flaming Lips; Tom Morello, the Grammy Award-winning American guitarist of Rage Against The Machine; and Beth Ditto, American singer from Indie rock band Gossip.

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As our pickup truck kicked up a trail of dust, lurching towards the village of Cerro del Chivo in Oaxaca, I felt a world away from Mexico City. I was finally about to see the kind of musical scene that I had studied in class: a place where people sing to pass the time, and where stories are passed down across generations through verses and songs.

I caught up with my friends from the rap duo BAMBproduction to talk about their music, various challenges for French youth and minorities, and a little about what President Obama’s election means for them.

Native Noise was a celebration of Waitangi Day, a national holiday commemorating the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. The treaty established principles that would govern the relationship between the Crown and the tāngata whenua (people of the land), the Māori people.

This portrait of Edgar Alejandro “Alex” Paz is part of a series of interviews I did with students at the School of Mexican Music in Mexico City. Alex and his classmates come from diverse backgrounds and bring a wide range of goals to the study of Mexican music. Some are looking for local fame, or at least a career of gigging at restaurants and weddings.

An hour and a half (and a wicked sunburn) later, I have never been so glad to hear the sound of bass and feel its vibrations through the ground.

Ten hours before Mah won the award, I had the pleasure of meeting her. After a guitar lesson, Lamine Soumano drove me out on his motorcycle to buy a ticket of my own to the ceremony, and we picked up Mah’s entry badge while there.

Back in October, I went to a few days of the Adou Festival— a hip-hop festival in the Parisian suburb of Villeneuve-la-Garenne. Coordinated by choreographer, dancer, and singer Khady Fofana and her organization, Association Nubian Soul, Adou celebrated hip-hop culture with a week of exciting events.