William "Will" Maurice Patterson (1965-2024) was a professor, community activist, and entrepreneur devoted to Hip Hop education. The son of Fannie Mae James and Willivry Patterson, he was born in Urbana, Illinois on December 16, 1965. Patterson grew up in Urbana and was baptised at Pilgrim Church, a community he would continue to contribute to throughout his life. At 12, he met his future wife Lori Gold and fell in love at first sight. At the age of 17, he spent three years in prison for a misdemenor, and eventually graduated from Urbana High School in 1984. Throughout the 1980s, Patterson performed as a DJ under the title "Magic Maurice." Following this, Patterson earned his BA in Radio Broadcast Communication at Columbia College (Chicago) in 1990. Two years later, he earned his MS is Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois State University. Between 1994 and 2000, he served as the Director of Education and Youth Development at the Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club in Champaign. In 2000, he graduated with his PHD in Education Policy from the University of Illinois.
From 2005 until 2009, Patterson served as the Associate Director of the University of Illinois African American Cultural Center. He received the Campus Award for Excellence in Public Engagement in 2006, through his work with the Youth Media Workshop (in collaboration with WILL-TV, College of Education, and the College of Media). The project resulted in a series of courses designed to teach area high school and middle school students how to produce documentaries about their communities. Following this, Patterson developed a program called IPOWERED, which provided African American college students to bring their knowledge to marginalized communities. In 2008 he was named a fellow with the University of Illinois Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership. In 2009, he became an adjunct lecturer within the School of Information Sciences, pioneering a course called "I-Powered: Hip Hop and Information Science." Following this he joined the Grainger College of Engineering as an adjunct, creating courses in Hip Hop Informatics.
In 2010, Patterson created the Hip Hop XPress, a mobile school outfitted with turntables, microphones, headsets, and mixers, presenting in communities throughout the Midwest and earning him an award for Excellence in Public Engagement in 2021 from the Office of the Provost. Patterson joined the faculty of the School of Music as an adjunct lecturer in 2019. During this year he co-founded the ISYM Hip Hop Camp with Lamont Holden and Adam Kruse. In 2022, he was promoted to Clinical Associate Professor in the School of Music. Patterson died unexpectedly on April 2, 2024.
Sources:William Patterson Bio on Street College, 2024, online at: https://sites.google.com/view/steamgenius/about/dr-will-patterson.
William Patterson Bio on Champaign County African American Heritage Trail, online at: https://ccafricanamericanheritage.org/dr-william-will-m-patterson/.
Sharon Irish timeline of Patterson Communications, control file.
William Patterson, Autobiography, Obituary, online at https://linktr.ee/ghettogenius.
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