Chemist Tyraine Ragsdale, a.k.a. Grand Hank, is using one of his special talents to teach urban teenagers about the importance of science and education, reports the March 1993 issue of About ...Time magazine. Ragsdale, a scientist at R. W. J. Pharmaceutical Research Institute in New Brunswick, New Jersey, is a rapper-former member of the West Philadelphia’s Grand Master Hank and the Punk Funk Nation, now the leader for Grand Hank Productions, Inc. and creator of the Educational Rap Lecture.

Drawing upon his experience as a teenage DJ, Ragsdale combines rap, lecture, and audience interaction to get his message across. He has performed in schools, on television and radio stations, in concerts throughout Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Delaware, and at conventions.

Ragsdale’s rap lecture circuit is coordinated by Grand Hank Productions, a 19-member group of accountants, attorneys and marketing and technical personnel that he founded in 1989.

At R.W.J. Pharmaceutical Research Institute, a Johnson & Johnson company, Ragsdale isolates an purifies novel compounds for the manufacturing of new drugs. He has a degree in chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh.

For more information about Grand Hank Productions and its “Education of a Nation Tour,” contact Grand Hank Productions, P.O. Box 23488, Philadelphia, PA 19143: 
(215) 724-5260.