FIFTH ELEMENT is a crew of women throughout San José. We are involved in hip hop in various capacities. We are cultural producers, MC’s, DJ’s, break dancers, visual and spoken word artists, students, and community activists who come from different backgrounds. We are all united in our desire to empower women and youth through hip-hop culture, and challenge misogyny and sexism within hip hop. We do this by hosting a hip hop summer school and a series of workshops for skill and technique development in music, spoken expression and visual art, which also contain mentorship and community resource components. Instructors are women knowledgeable in these areas. Participants experience hands on training in various mediums of urban art which nurture their creativity and self expression.

SOUND SESSIONS: Sound Sessions is a space for practitioners of the craft of hip hop to build their skills in a fresh and inspiring environment. This is the place to be for anyone who wants to build skills in an all elements open cipher!

Four workshops run concurrently to develop ability and understanding of each element of hip hop: DJ'ing, MC'ing, Breaking, and Graffiti Art. Each group is lead by a veteran artist, on hand to train and guide participants by offering one-on-one and group coaching. Session hosts will present an oral history of the evolution of hip hop as an art form. All skill levels are welcome; dancers will be grouped from beginner to intermediate. Sound Sessions takes place at MACLA the first Sunday of every month.