April R. Silver is a nationally respected social entrepreneur, writer, and arts activist. She is also the editor of the critically acclaimed anthology Be a Father to Your Child: Real Talk from Black Men on Family, Love, and Fatherhood (Soft Skull Press). A former television talk show host of My Two Cents on BETJ, Silver channels most of her work under the banner of AKILA WORKSONGS, Inc. - a leading communications agency that services artists, activists, advocates, and various institutions.

Beginning with her student activist days at Howard University, Silver has worked closely with or represented some of today’s most brilliant artists and thought leaders, including Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Sister Souljah, Chuck D., Mos Def, Doug E. Fresh, Talib Kweli, KRS-One, Ras Baraka, Kevin Powell, William Jelani Cobb, Mo Beasley, Byron Hurt, Toni Blackman, Yvonne Bynoe, JLove Calderon, Nana Camille Yarbrough, Bill Cosby, and many others. Her corporate clients, sponsors, partners, and/or supporters have included The 21st Century Foundation, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Apollo Theater, Comedy Central, Field Museum, Ford Foundation, Jazz Foundation of America, Lincoln Center Theater, Microsoft, NJ Performing Arts Center, Romare Bearden Foundation, Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam, SESAC, the GRAMMY’s (NY Chapter), and The Public Theater, just to peek at the distinguished list.

The Howard Years
Silver received a Bachelor of Arts in English from Howard University. There, she helped lead the historic student protest of 1989. That role garnered her national and international recognition as a student activist. After the protest, Silver was elected as the second woman to head the student government (Educator and Poet Ras Baraka, son of Amiri and Amina Baraka, was the Vice President). During her term, Silver also doubled as the founding president of The Cultural Initiative, Inc. (CI) and co-produced the nation's first hip hop conference. In its inaugural year (1991), CI highlighted then newcomers Common, Busta Rhymes, and other hip hop artists. Many Howard and conference alumni, such as Sean Combs, credit CI as playing an essential role for their progress in the entertainment business. The groundbreaking annual event also ignited long-lasting changes in the positioning of hip hop within academia.

As Educator and Volunteer
Upon graduation, April worked as a Management Assistant for Doug E. Fresh Entertainment. She then went on to fulfill a childhood dream: to teach junior high school. As an English teacher in some of NYC's most neglected communities, April established extra-curriculum programs that focused on the literary arts, academic achievement, and personal development. She emerged as one the most effective teachers in her schools. Still in education, Silver is a Project Director for a high school-based literary arts program sponsored by the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College/CUNY.

An active volunteer, Silver has or continues to serve on many boards and honorary committees, including the International African Arts Festival and the historic Hip Hop Nation exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. She also founded the artist-activist organization Co-Motion (in response to NYPD’s brutal killing of Amadou Diallo) and co-founded HipHop Speaks! (townhall meetings and performance showcases conceived by Kevin Powell). Since 2001, Silver has also served as a funding panelist for the Brooklyn Arts Council. In keeping with her mission of helping others, April ensures that AKILA WORKSONGS annually donates thousands of dollars worth of service to artists and organizations.

In 1998, Ms. Silver became a member of the NY Chapterof the Recording Academy (aka The GRAMMYS). In 2000, she conceived of and chaired the chapter's first hip hop and R&B conference. In 2004, she did the same with PoetrySpeaks! (featuring Mos Def and Miguel Algarin). Since then, she has served intermittently on the Board of Governors and currently chairs the spoken word committee.

In September 2005, Ms. Silver turned much of her volunteer work toward the Hurricane Katrina/Rita relief movement. A month after “the storm” landed, she founded Artists For Life, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting Black artists in crisis.

As a Business Leader
In 1997, Silver founded the email marketing service now known as Put On BLAST! ™ It is highly regarded as a powerful tool for creating public awareness campaigns for arts and activism topics. A few years later, Silver was tapped to head the Nkiru Center for Education & Culture, Inc., a literary center and bookstore co-founded by Talib Kweli, Mos Def, and their parents. Her business leadership has bought her to the front cover of Network Journal and to the attention Essence, where she was profiled in 2002.

As Writer, Editor, Lecturer
Popular websites and local NY newspapers have published April’s essays. She also blogs at www.aprilsilver.com. Her first book, however, is the critically acclaimed “Be a Father to Your Child” which AOL Black Voices calls a “powerful, and groundbreaking anthology.”

Since the 1990’s, Ms. Silver has lectured, moderated, or facilitated workshops at over two hundred public schools, colleges, universities, and conferences across the country (University of Wisconsin, New York University, NAACP National Convention, etc.). Her core topics include culture vs. commerce in hip hop; women’s empowerment; social entrepreneurship; and communications as a tool for change. She recently gave her first college commencement keynote at SUNY, New Paltz (2008).

Media and Distinguished Awards
For her nearly 20 years of service as a communications specialist, both peers and media have honored April’s work. She is a proud recipient of the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium Founder’s Award, Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges, the PUSH Citizenship Award, LaGuardia Community College’s “Little Flower Award,” and many others. For her opinions, she has been featured, profiled, or quoted in or on CNN, BET News, Time Magazine, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Ebony, Ms., NY1 News, KISS FM (New York), and many other local and national outlets. Internationally, she has appeared in ADLIB and Black Music Review (Japan), Black Echoes (London), and on Radio Netherlands.