(ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University will present Hip Hop in the Round at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Monmouth County on Saturday, June 17, from 2:00pm to 4:00pm, as part of the statewide North to Shore festival.

With this year being the 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop, the Springsteen Archives, in association with the Lakehouse Music Academy and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Monmouth County, will present an afternoon of conversation and music featuring Hip Hop performers from the Asbury Park area, including students from the Hip Hop Institute located within the Boys and Girls Club, and two professional Hip Hop artists, Mike “8dayz Str8” Savage and Chill Smith.

The Boys and Girls Club of Monmouth County is located at 1201 Monroe Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ.  Admission for Hip Hop in the Round is free and open to the public.

Host Bob Santelli, Executive Director of the Springsteen Archives, will moderate the conversation with the artists as they share insight into their creative processes, their roots and influences, and their forms of inspiration. Each artist will perform selective tracks from their body of work.

“The fact that hip-hop is fifty years old is proof that the music form has had a profound impact on American culture and two generations of American youth,” said Santelli.  “The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music is honored to celebrate this great American music tradition with local hip hop artists.”

The team at Lakehouse Recording Studios retrofitted an existing space at the Asbury Park location of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Monmouth County into a Hip-Hop/R&B and Electronic Dance Music recording studio. Leveraging young people’s passion for music and demonstrating that those passions can lead to meaningful life and career opportunities is at the heart of the Hip Hop Institute.

This program is presented through a grant from North to Shore, New Jersey’s first-ever statewide arts extravaganza of music, comedy, poetry, theater, film and technology. This epic, multi-faceted event will showcase some of the world’s most spectacular performers in Atlantic City, Asbury Park, and Newark over the course of three consecutive weeks in June. The event takes place in Asbury Park June 14-18, 2023.

The Bruce Springsteen Archives serves as the official repository for Bruce Springsteen’s songs and other written works, plus photographs, periodicals, oral histories, recordings, films, and artifacts related to Springsteen and the E Street Band.  The Center for American Music produces museum exhibitions, seminars and educational workshops, concerts, and various other public programs to promote and celebrate the many forms of American music and its impact on our culture and national identity.