Camille Sledge
Camille Sledge is a prominent figure in Phoenix's music and education scene, serving as a co-founder and leader of the School of Hip Hop PHX (SOHH), a nonprofit organization established in 2014 with her husband, William Feggins. Since 2014, the School of Hip-Hop (SOHH) has been working to increase minority engagement in creative arts through the five elements of hip-hop culture and instrumentation. With a mission to break down barriers that block pathways to creative arts education, cultural enrichment, and upward mobility for minority youth, SOHH provides innovative and cutting-edge performing arts opportunities for disadvantaged youth throughout Maricopa County.
SOHH is based in the low-income and underserved southern region of Phoenix, Arizona, within the fourth largest county in the nation. Today, more than twelve percent of Maricopa County residents are living below the Federal Poverty Level, including nearly 28 percent of children below the age of eighteen. As a result, thousands of impoverished youth are unable to access culturally relevant and affordable creative arts education.
To address this issue, SOHH offers engaging hip-hop culture and performing arts education to minority and underserved youth between the ages of six and nineteen. On an annual basis, nearly 1,000 youth benefit from SOHH’s creative arts education and instrumentation programs through after school and weekend sessions. By using a low- to zero-cost structure, dependent on the student’s socioeconomic status, SOHH is able to provide marginalized youth a non-replicated opportunity in Maricopa County.
