Randy Mason

Giving is Contagious

“There is a reciprocity to generosity. … Giving is contagious.” – Randy Mason Join Randy Mason and the Thrive Collective community of artists, students, mentors and educators who create hope and opportunity through arts, sports, and mentoring in public schools everyday. Give on #GivingTuesday and beyond.

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Thrive’s RHYME Director Collaborates with Ice-T at Songwriting Workshop

Ice-T was impressed. He had never witnessed anything quite like Randy Mason and his cajón. The legendary rapper, actor, and producer was a guest speaker and facilitator at an Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) songwriting workshop for teens hosted by Microsoft and The Universal Hip-Hop Museum at the Microsoft Garage in New York City on August 10.…

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Students Dance, Paint and Rap at HeART Beat 2023

The Annual Queens Art a Catalyst for Change Culminating Event—the HeART Beat Festival—returns for the sixth time. The 6th annual Heartbeat Festival was held on May 25th, 2023 at Black Spectrum Theater in Roy Wilkins Park, Queens, NYC. The Festival is produced by Thrive Collective in partnership with The Museum of The Moving Image and…

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Thrive Collective X Queens Public Library

In celebration of Hip Hop’s 50th anniversary Thrive Collective partners with the NYC Queens Public Library to facilitate a series of Hip Hop and creative writing workshops at three branches throughout the borough. This week we kicked off the series at the Jamaica Central branch where participants and staff read and discussed poems and lyrics…

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Thrive Collective Partners With NY Public Library

Hip Hop Cajon (percussion) workshop for children at NYPL Bronx Eastchester branch. Our city’s libraries are engines of opportunity! Cultural institutions contributing to the vitality of our city. We’re absolutely thrilled to partner with the NYPL to serve our neighbors through the arts. Recently, Randy Mason, our NY Director (and R.H.Y.M.E Director) facilitated a Hip…

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Local Newspaper Reflects on the Importance of R.H.Y.M.E

Happy New Year! Here at Thrive, we are starting 2023 on a good note.  Last week, Bronx newspaper The Hunts Point Express published an article highlighting R.H.Y.M.E’s recent work with students from the Bronx Charter School of the Arts in Hunts Point.  The article, posted online on December 3o, 2022, went far beyond giving a…

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Thrive Collective x The Brooklyn Nets

Our #GivingTuesday 300 for 300 campaign launched with an assist from the Brooklyn Nets. #ThriveCollective interactive arts experience in the lobby of the Barclays Center prior to the @BrooklynNets – @OrlandoMagic game. Fans painted side-by-side with Thrive teaching artists and graffiti legend @dazeworldnyc. And the Nets pledged four more Thrive mural collars this year, becoming…

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Books Beats & Bars The Pura Belpré Song

R.H.Y.M.E x Bronx Arts Elementary x The Point CDC For this edition of Books Beats & Bars, Bronx Arts Elementary scholars learned about the life of Pura Belpré, a Puerto Rican pioneer who helped to change the landscape of literacy in NYC in the 1920s. Scholars wrote bars inspired by the book “Planting Stories” The…

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The Turtle Ship

R.H.Y.M.E x The Point CDC x Bronx Arts Elementary This edition of Books Beats & Bars features Bronx Arts Elementary students rapping their version of the Turtle Ship story inspired by the book “The Turtle Ship” written by Helena Ku Rhee and illustrated by Colleen Kong Savage. A Geobukseon, also known as turtle ship, was a…

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