This hands on workshop explores the cypher, hip hop’s circular way of gathering, creating and sharing knowledge through storytelling and creation. Together, we’ll connect this human sacred practice in contrast to the feedback loops of AI, discuss what these tools mean for music, and move through a collective cycle of input, creative contribution and community based composition.Lunch provide for participants.
Program Facilitator
ishKode is an Anishinaabe multidisciplinary artist of the Thunderbird Clan from Walpole Island First Nation. His name carries the story of “the fire in the heart of a woman” in Anishinaabemowin. Rooted in hip hop as an emcee and producer, his practice spans music, film, visual media, installation, education and cultural strategy. Through collective creativity, ishKode connects land, story, rhythm, image and community. His performances, workshops and immersive installations bring Indigenous storytelling into conversation with sonic experimentation and participatory media, inviting communities to imagine liberated futures while advancing environmental justice, Indigenous sovereignty and creative resurgence.
This workshop is part of the programming series for Reality Check, an exhibition exploring how artificial intelligence is shaping our future. Reality Check is on view at the MSU Museum September 3 – December 12 2026.