Dr. Payne has organized a street ethnographic research program centered on exploring notions of resilience and resiliency with the streets of Black America using an unconventional methodological framework entitled Street Participatory Action Research (Street PAR). Street PAR is the process of doing research and activism with street-identified populations. Challenging the dominant arguments in the literature, Dr. Payne asserts that all members of the streets are in fact, resilient. His research program further focuses on Black racial identity, street identity, physical violence, as well as “gangster rap” music and culture.