The Kennedy Center announced the appointment of Simone Eccleston on Wednesday to become the first director of Hip-Hop culture at the Kennedy Center according to The Associated Press.
Currently the director of programming at Harlem Stage in New York, Simone Eccleston is heading to Washington to start her new position which starts March 13.
The move is part of a push by the Kennedy Center to incorporate more Hip-Hop into its programming. Last year, the center named Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest as its artistic director for Hip-Hop.
Eccleston will also oversee other contemporary music programming at the Kennedy Center in genres including rhythm and blues, folk, world music and Latin music.
In a statement, she calls the Kennedy Center’s commitment to Hip-Hop programming “deeply significant.”
Salute!
