The Disability Advocate & Co-Founder Of Krip-Hop Nation

In this episode Durell is joined by Emmy award winning, creative, activist, author and the Co-Founder of “Krip-Hop Nation” Leroy Moore. Durell and Leroy begin the episode discussing how they got connected through their mutual colleague and friend Roger Braithwaite. Durell shares that oftentimes the special needs community is forgotten about and he’s so glad to connect with Leroy who has made it his life’s work to make sure that people who live with disabilities have a voice and feel included. Leroy shares that he has an issue with the way that Hollywood tries to act like they care about disability and inclusion nowadays like it’s new when people with disabilities have been around since Moses. Durell and Leroy both share and in agreement that people with disabilities do need to be taken seriously because their voice does matter. Leroy shares that he and his partner Keith Jones started “Krip-Hop” which has become an internationally known organization on SSI dollars. Leroy says that he believes that if you want to see things happen just start shit. Leroy shares that he started 3 different organizations all on SSI dollars. Leroy shares that it’s very possible to make things happen if you are determined.

Durell shares that he attended Full Sail University and received a free education because of the fact that he has a disability by taking advantage of the options presented to him. After graduation he shares that he was picked up by a job advocacy agency but he knew they wouldn’t be able to assist him because they didn’t have the relationships within the entertainment industry. He shares that they proceeded to hire him for a few months but they didn’t ask him to come back after the holiday break and after that is when he made the decision to allow his disability to work for him and not against him. Durell and Leroy both agree that many organizations and companies don’t really care or want to employ people with disabilities. Leroy shares that the US government doesn’t truly follow the law when it comes to providing opportunities for jobs for people with disabilities.

Durell asks Leroy where he is originally from and he shares that he was born in New York City and grew up in Hartford, Connecticut. He shares that he moved to the Bay area in 1991 and now lives in Los Angeles. Durell asks Leroy about his earliest memories of music. He shares that he first loved hard rock with bands such as AC-DC and Ozzy Osbourne. He shares that he had a variety of musical taste because he grew up in the suburbs. He was definitely taken back by hip-hop when he first heard it in the late 70’s but began to really love it. Leroy also is a huge fan of Blues music and he said there is a lot of disabled representation within the blues genre.

Durell asks Leroy to define what exactly is “Krip-Hop Nation”. Krip-Hop is an international organization of disabled creatives that was started over 15+ years ago.. He shares that he and his co-founders started Krip-Hop because they didn’t see any representation of disabled people in hip-hop and they wanted to be able to see that. He shares that he is trying to start a Krip-Hop institute in Los Angeles so that disabled creatives can have a place to come and learn about hip-hop and how to find their place and be heard. Durell asks Leroy about his work with Poor Magazine which dates back to the 1990’s. He shares that he was doing open mics performing poetry and then was asked to become a writer for the magazine with a column called “Illin & Chillin’. Leroy shares that one of the first pieces he wrote was about a police shooting in LA that involved a disabled black woman named Margaret L. Mitchell. Leroy has founded organizations such as the National Black Disability Coalition, Disability Advocates Of Minorities Organization and Sins Invalid. He shares that he had the opportunity to travel to the UK and saw black disabled people organizing for the ability to be heard for various issues. He really wanted to focus on black and brown disabled people being able to have a voice and knew that after what he witnessed in his trip to London change had to take place.

Leroy and Durell talk about some of his cultural work. He created a film documentary entitled “Where Is Hope: Police Brutality Against People With Disabilities” , released spoken word CD’s, poetry books, and a children’s book called “Black Disabled Art History 101''. He had been an advocate for police brutality for black and brown disabled men and women dating back to the 1980’s. He shares that his documentary was done right around the time that the Black Lives Matter movement started and while he reached out to many of the activist groups he says no one wanted to get involved with the documentary. He shared that the documentary has been shown in several Universities around the nation. Leroy also did a CD around police brutality and people with disabilities. Leroy and Durell talk about the graphic novel that he published in 2019 entitled “Krip-Hop Graphic Novel Issue 1: Brown Disabled Young Woman Superhero Brings Disability Justice To Hip-Hop”. He shared that the novel was published by Poor Press. He shares that the lead character, who is a disabled woman, had low self-esteem until she discovered Krip-Hop.

Durell and Leroy end the episode talking about some of the amazing work that he did that featured some African disabled musicians from Uganda, Tanzania and The Democratic Republic Of Congo as part of The Bay area tour sponsored by Krip-Hop Nation. Leroy shares how in Africa there isn’t federal money to give people with disabilities money as there is in the USA. Leroy says that he didn’t have a grant to help with any funding and that the musicians all stayed in his apartment . He shares that all of the work that was done has been out of his pocket as well as his co-founders.

Durell and Leroy also talk about some of the awards that he received for his advocacy work. He received awards from The San Francisco Mayor’s Disability Council, Local Hero from KQED Public TV and he was named Champion Of Disabled Black People by The San Francisco Bayview Newspaper on Black Appreciation Media Night. He also talks about why he decided to pursue his Ph.D in Anthropology from UCLA and why he decided to write his upcoming book.

For more information on Leroy Moore, please visit his website below:

https://kriphopnation.com/