Jason Hamza Perez

Hamza Perez is an independent hip-hop artist, activist and educator. The founder of the S.H.E.H.U. Program (Services Helping to Empower and Heal Urban Communities) and co-founder of the Light of the Age Mosque in Pittsburgh, PA., his work as a youth and jail counselor focuses on drug dealing prevention and gang violence prevention. As an artist, he has worked with the interfaith poetry project Crossing Limits and performed across the country as one half of the hip-hop group M-Team (alongside his brother Juan Suliman Perez. Hamza Perez was ranked one of the top 500 most influential Muslims in the world in 2012 by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre for his work with youth. In 2009, PBS released an award winning film entitled "New Muslim Cool" about the life of Hamza Perez, his music and his community.