AUTHOR · TEDx SPEAKER
CULTURAL INNOVATION STRATEGIST
Powerful ideas for navigating change, drawn from a culture that has been doing it for more than 50 years.
Keynotes and presentations for TEDx, Google-sponsored and Spotify-sponsored events, Microsoft, Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard, Columbia University, and audiences around the world.
Manny Faces reveals how the ingenuity, resilience, and collaborative power of
Hip Hop can help people and organizations rethink challenges, unlock overlooked possibilities, and create meaningful change.
Endorsed by Dr. Cornel West
MANNY FACES
SELECTED KEYNOTES, PRESENTATIONS, AND COLLABORATIONS
Author of the Cornel West-endorsed book Hip Hop Can Save America! and founding director of The Hip Hop Institute for Social Innovation.
THE BIG IDEA
The world does not need
another generic talk about innovation.
It needs better ways to respond when familiar systems stop working.
Hip Hop emerged amid disruption, exclusion, shrinking resources, and profound social change. Its pioneers transformed overlooked people, borrowed technology, fragmented communities, and limited materials into one of the most influential cultural forces in modern history.
Hip Hop shows how much brilliance we miss
when we mistake unfamiliarity for irrelevance
It offers a practical model for how people and institutions can create under pressure, recognize value others overlook, build across difference, and imagine possibilities where none appear to exist.
For more than a decade, Manny Faces has documented and translated these ideas through journalism, research, media, public scholarship, and his groundbreaking book, Hip Hop Can Save America! Inspiration for the Nation from a Culture of Innovation.
Now, he brings those lessons to audiences searching for more imaginative ways to lead, learn, connect, and build what comes next.
Available for:
KEYNOTES | FEATURED TALKS | PANEL DISCUSSIONS | WORKSHOPS
MEDIA / INTERVIEWS | CONSULTATIONS
SIGNATURE KEYNOTE
A high-energy, idea-rich keynote revealing how Hip Hop’s resilience, resourcefulness, and collaborative spirit can help people and organizations navigate uncertainty, rethink constraints, and design new pathways for what comes next.
What Hip Hop Teaches Us About Resilience, Imagination, and Change
REMIX THE FUTURE
RECLAIM
OVERLOOKED
VALUE
See potential where others see problems
EVOLVE
SYSTEMS
Adapt, iterate, and push culture forward.
MEET PEOPLE WHERE THEY ARE
Build trust first.
Solutions will follow.
IGNITE
COLLABORATION
Different voices.
Stronger outcomes.
EXPAND
POSSIBILITIES
Turn limitation
into innovation.
"Manny uses lessons from Hip Hop culture to inspire innovation across so many disciplines and industries! He's on another level!"
Sommer McCoy
Director, The Mixtape Museum
🕐 45-60 MINUTES | CUSTOMIZABLE | KEYNOTE OR FEATURED TALK
THE AUDIENCE EXPERIENCE
A different way of seeing Hip Hop,
and a different way of seeing possibility.
REFRAME THE FAMILIAR
See Hip Hop as a culture of knowledge, innovation, community-building, and problem-solving, not merely entertainment.
LEAVE
ENERGIZED
Walk away more capable, optimistic, and ready to respond to uncertainty, complexity, and change with greater confidence.
PUT IT INTO PRACTICE
Apply principles of remixing, resourcefulness, collaboration, and cultural intelligence to real challenges in work, leadership, and life.
THE FRAMEWORK
A Culture-Driven Blueprint for Remixing Innovation
Manny’s REMIX framework translates Hip Hop’s history and practices into five principles for recognizing overlooked value, navigating change, and creating new possibilities.
Evolve Existing Systems
Adapt what already exists instead of waiting for perfect conditions, entirely new tools, or permission to begin.
Meet People Where They Are
Build trust and relevance by understanding the cultural realities, language, and experiences of the people you hope to reach.
Ignite Collaboration
Create stronger outcomes by combining different voices, disciplines, and perspectives without flattening their differences.
Expand Possibilities
Use constraint, experimentation, and imaginative repurposing to turn what seems fixed into material for something new.
The framework is introduced in Manny’s keynotes and explored more deeply through customized workshops, professional development, and advisory engagements.
Reclaim Overlooked Value
Recognize possibility in people, ideas, spaces, and resources that conventional systems have ignored or underestimated.
APPLIED ACROSS SECTORS
One framework. Many frontlines.
Manny’s signature keynote introduces the core ideas behind his work, but for education, civic, nonprofit, cultural, workplace, health, and leadership audiences, those ideas can also be adapted into sector-specific keynotes, workshops, professional development, strategy sessions, panels, and advisory engagements.
EDUCATION
Reimagine teaching, learning, and school
culture to drive engagement, belonging, creativity, and
stronger outcomes.
GOVERNMENT &
CIVIC LEADERSHIP
Build trust, strengthen community connection, and design more responsive solutions that reflect the people you serve.
BUSINESS &
WORKPLACE
Spark innovation, improve organizational culture, and develop adaptable leaders who can thrive in a changing world.
NONPROFITS &
SOCIAL IMPACT
Deepen impact by centering community voice, creativity, cultural relevance, and overlooked sources
of value.
HEALTH &
WELLNESS
Improve outreach, trust, equity & wellness outcomes by meeting people where they are: literally, culturally, and emotionally.
ARTS,
CULTURE & MEDIA
Use Hip Hop’s creative power to tell authentic stories, shift narratives, strengthen connection,
and inspire change.
TRUSTED BY LEADING INSTITUTIONS
Big ideas.
Serious rooms.
Audiences across sectors.
TEDx SPEAKER. AUTHOR. CULTURAL INNOVATION STRATEGIST.
TEDX · MICROSOFT · GOOGLE-SPONSORED EVENTS · SPOTIFY-SPONSORED EVENTS · HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION · CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY · THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY · RUTGERS UNIVERSITY · UMASS AMHERST · UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK · HOWARD UNIVERSITY · LA PLACE HIP-HOP CULTURE CENTER, PARIS · NATIONAL STEM ARTS INTEGRATION CONFERENCE · THAT CONFERENCE · H.O.P.E. CONFERENCE
KEYNOTES AND TALKS ACROSS SECTORS
Global companies and
national conferences
Global companies and
national conferences
Presented for Microsoft and keynoted hackathons supported by Google and Spotify. Spoke at the 2026 Arts Integration and STEAM conference and other national business and tech gatherings.
Universities and
education leaders
Invited to speak at Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia University, Rutgers University, Howard University, The Ohio State University, UMass Amherst, and international institutions including The Netherlands, France, Ireland and more.
Culture, public ideas,
and civic impact
Featured by national and international cultural institutions and public forums. Collaborated with members of the U.S. House of Representatives on the 2023 resolution honoring Hip Hop’s 50th anniversary.
![[CITYPNG.COM]White HD Google Logo - 2000x2000.png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/1945ef_f81e7f42d8b248499490748a60270de2~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_106,h_104,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/1945ef_f81e7f42d8b248499490748a60270de2~mv2.png)
The ideas extend beyond the stage
Manny’s commentary on Hip Hop, education, culture, and American life has appeared in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he has argued for a broader understanding of Hip Hop’s value, influence, and potential.
WHAT AUDIENCES AND ORGANIZERS SAY
Ideas that land and stay with people.
I could listen to this a thousand times and love it more each time. Such an awesome way to kick off our events!
RICHARD ACHEE
“You opened my eyes to entirely new perspectives of what Hip Hop means. You gave us a lot of great food for thought that I trust will spur action to look for new ways to tap into Hip Hop going forward.”
KESHAV PUTTASWAMY
Microsoft
Manny uses lessons from Hip Hop culture to inspire innovation across so many disciplines and industries. He's on a different level!
SOMMER McCOY
The Mixtape Museum
Your session added real value to our community and we appreciate the thoughtfulness you brought to your work with us. It means a great deal to have presenters who care about this field as much as you do.
SUSAN RILEY
The Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM
BRING MANNY TO YOUR STAGE
Bring Manny Faces to your next event
Keynotes, featured talks, workshops, and advisory engagements designed to meet your audience where they are — and move them toward what’s possible.
INQUIRE ABOUT BOOKING MANNY
Customized for your audience, sector, event theme, and desired outcome.
