One of the things I love about New York City’s underground hip-hop scene is that it extends beyond music and into community. In fact, most of the local hip-hop artists I know are teachers, educators, mentors or involved in the community in some form or fashion. This is best illustrated through Urban Art Beat, a music and art based workshop directed at under-served youth in NYC. Above is a video about Urban Art Beat.

I really love what Wise Intelligent is doing with his Intelligent Seedz – a Trenton, NJ based organization that focuses on helping at-risk youth express themselves through art and film. Get The Lead Out is a song from Intelligent Seedz’ upcoming documentary, “Dying to Learn,” which examines the effects of lead on inner city children.

Greenbrier, AR – High energy. Dancing. Hip-hop music. Teachers getting cream pie in the face. Students driving dragster race cars. Not the usual way to learn science by any stretch of the imagination but certainly a very effective way.

Sixth-grade science teachers Paul VanEvera and Debbie Moreland brought a hip-hop science concert to Greenbrier High School for a unique learning experience for sixth- through ninth-grade students. In two 45 minute programs, Middle School children traveled to the high school to be a part of and learn from an award winning hip hop science education concert. About 700 students attended both concerts.

Eric Olson of Orlando, Katie Adler of Philadelphia and JJ Hopson of New York were the three young, professional actors on-stage who directed the learning in this program called FMA Live. Hip-hop music was so loud with words that only a young ear could understand that it turned on both audiences and had them cheering at every new thing learned.

High energy dancing that would have left one breathless was no problem for these young people. They were selected from thousands of auditions, nationwide, to do two 12-week tours of the United States, reaching about 17,000 students on each tour, and have been doing this for the past three years. Each tour covers about 20 cities. Greenbrier was added to the list because of the perseverance of VanEvera and Moreland. Teachers and children from each audience were selected to help the stars on-stage who certainly knew their subject and how to get it across.

Olson said, “If our show was in every school classroom every day, it would be every kid’s best subject.”

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Honeywell partnered in 2003 to create FMA Live! and address key learning objectives identified by the National Science Education Standards. They recognized the need for future engineers and scientists and wanted to increase student interest and participation in the sciences. Designed to make science relevant to kids’ everyday lives, the program brings an authentic, live, hip-hop concert experience of unprecedented size and proportion to middle schools across the country. So far, the 10-person cast and crew has already traveled more than 63,263 miles covering 43 states and Canada, reaching more than 200,060 students at over 593 middle schools. This is fully funded by Honeywell with absolutely no cost to the schools.

FMA Live! was named for Sir Isaac Newton’s second law of motion (force + mass x acceleration). Newton’s three laws of motion and universal law of gravity were taught with music videos on a huge screen interspersed with live interactive science demonstrations to prove the points. Students Grant Webb, Ryan McKnight, Nick Baker and James Ward helped demonstrate inertia by opening the program stuck to a giant sticky wall. They took running leaps at the wall to see how high they could stick to the wall with their giant Velcro suits.

Go-carts were raced across the stage by Anna Cone, Marissa Hollenbaugh, Courtney Phillips and Sarah Thompson to illustrate action and reaction. The audience was divided into two sections to cheer on their favorite go-cart.

“Extreme” wrestling was one of the most fun events because it featured two teachers at each show dressed up in huge overstuffed “bumping” suits and they tried to knock each other down until one fell. The teachers were cheered on by their respective sides of the auditorium as they rushed at each other in great fun. Tami Burcham, sixth-grade math teacher, and Melissa Baker, para-professional teacher, were from the Middle School and Tommy Hunt, math teacher, and Johnny Passmore, student teacher, competed for the higher grades show.

A soccer ball that grew from regulation size to a six foot round ball showed force determined by mass multiplied by acceleration. Kenzie Wiedower and Kelly Gamelin were coached to kick the various size balls to illustrate the point as the audience cheered them on.

All three of Newton’s laws were demonstrated simultaneously when a futuristic hover chair collided with a gigantic cream pie in the face one for each Coach Tim McKelvey and Coach Blake Benton. Although the kids cheered and screamed loudly, the point of the scientific law of gravity was made really memorable.

Moreland’s sixth-grade science class was very enthusiastic afterward saying things like, “…deafening, but exciting. I thought the go-karts were really cool. I loved the dancing and singing.” They “loved how the pie-in-the-face showed action/reaction.” VanEvera said, “The kids learned a lot more than we could teach them in the classroom by just talking about it.”

Moreland and VanEvera said the program was perfect timing because they had just finished studying force in motion the past couple weeks. They commented, “Not only is this a great introduction for our sixth-graders; but it is wonderful reinforcement for seventh- and eighth-grade students.” Moreland said, “It’s great that this was a free program and will reinforce what they learn. The next time they see someone kick a soccer ball or something fun like this, they will remember Newton’s laws better.” The two teachers had been collaborating on bringing this program to Greenbrier since last Christmas when they found them online at www.fmalive.com.

Source:
Log Cabin Democrat

Tacoma, WA – From an open doorway on Tacoma’s Pacific Avenue comes an insistent hip-hop beat. In the darkened interior of the club, a circle of teenagers watches as each takes a breakdancing solo. In other rooms kids are sketching, spinning turntables and listening to headphones with a fierce focus. It’s all part of a Saturday morning L.I.F.E. class, run by local hip-hop organization Fab-5 – and for some of these teenagers, it’s turning their lives around.

With the L.I.F.E. classes, “we realized we could create a movement. Hip-hop has the power to move people into one positive direction,” says Jason Hulen, 30. Along with some friends from Pacific Lutheran University, Hulen started Fab-5 back in 2000 as an organization committed to holding positive drug- and alcohol-free hip-hop events for Tacoma youth. Realizing Fab-5 needed to give more attention to education, members began teaching in Metro Parks’ SPARX after-school program – and then Hulen got the idea for the L.I.F.E. classes.

Starting with just four weeks in spring 2005, the L.I.F.E. classes aimed at helping youth achieve skills and self-expression through all hip-hop art forms: breakdancing, legal graffiti, DJing and music recording, with lunch provided. Since then, the program has expanded with funding from major local foundations to its present 10-week format running April through June. Executive director Eddie Sumlin, 23, would like to see it run year-round.

“It’s more than just us being here doing music and art,” says Sumlin, who has worked at L.I.F.E. since the beginning. “It’s about mentoring, helping kids make healthy life decisions.” Sumlin also works as a college prep associate for the Northwest Leadership Foundation, and steers the L.I.F.E. students toward that goal.

And the evidence is that the classes work. Of the 15 paid instructors, some are former students, now professionals in their art form. Many are college-bound. Others credit L.I.F.E. for turning their lives around.

“I think it’s great,” says Mangley Ben, 18, a Bellevue College student who was introduced to the classes through a Fab-5 instructor while he attended McIlveigh Middle School. He now helps out in the breakdance classes. “If I didn’t go to this program I’d be in a really bad place now. It’s more than just dancing, it’s a life saver.”

The L.I.F.E. classes happen every Saturday at downtown dance venue Brick City. Youth from 8 to 24 years are grouped according to age and ability. Around 30 attend per day, so the teacher-student ratio is high. In separate rooms, each art form is taught with all equipment provided – this in itself is a huge opportunity. In the sound production room, the basics of layering on drum beats, turntable scratchings and vocals are seen through to a final CD product – skills that can lead to professional jobs. In the art room, students learn typography, design and drawing skills, and eventually get to practice with paint on an outside wall.

They’re also taught the legalities and ethical issues surrounding graffiti.

“This isn’t for the streets,” says Sumlin. “You’re not going to be out there tagging. We teach that if you’re focused, you can bring this into a gallery or get a mural commissioned, like our instructors have done. Or you can get into graphic design.”

And at L.I.F.E. classes, kids can also get some life skills.

“Students that have skill in dancing can compete,” says instructor Ash Cornette, 25. “There’s opportunity for travel, for networking, for social skills. That’s something that a lot of kids don’t have these days, with all the passive online talking they do.”

It’s a rare chance for youth from all backgrounds, ethnicities and localities to interact: Students come from all over the city and even Seattle’s Eastside, saying there’s nothing like it anywhere else.

And it’s just plain fun. Emahni Lavergne, 14, is one of three girls in the breakdance class on a recent day, and as she finishes up a solo, she’s smiling shyly. “I like it, I’m soaking it in. It’s friendly, they encourage you and help you out,” Emahni says.\

The final component, says Sumlin, is teaching the students how to plan a community event through an end-of-session performance that gives students skills in identifying local needs, booking venues and event organization.

“We try to teach them that it’s not just about them and art,” Sumlin explains. “It’s about serving the community.”

Source:
The Olympian

Northfield, MN – St. Olaf student Andrew Wilson ‘11 has been named a Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation Scholar for 2009-10 and 2010-11. Wilson was one of only six private college students selected this year to receive the $15,650 scholarship that he will use to launch a community outreach project titled “Hip-Hop Anonymous.”  

Celebrating its 15th year, the Phillips Scholars Program recognizes and rewards outstanding Minnesota private college students who strive to make life better for Minnesotans with unmet needs through community service efforts. The program supports potential leaders with outstanding academic credentials who intend to dedicate a portion of their lives to community service. St. Olaf is one of 16 private colleges and universities whose students are eligible for the annual award, which is administered through the Minnesota Private College Council.

Wilson, a Northfield native, plans to create a new branch of the Northfield Union of Youth, known locally as The Key, that will use four elements of hip-hop culture — MCs, DJs, breakdancing and graffiti art — to provide Northfield youth with a chance to demonstrate their individuality in a community-approved way. “Hip-Hop Anonymous” will build on The Key’s mission to “provide power and voice to area youth and create a caring community,” says Wilson, who currently is studying in Australia.

Wilson hopes that his new program will help bolster positive opinions of Northfield youth. “We are as assertive and creative as ever and are just striving for a way to express it. Hip-Hop Anonymous will be that expression.” Wilson is planning to host free, public events at the Key once his project starts next academic year, including a “large-scale” event at the end of summer 2010 that he hopes will feature breakdancing demonstrations, graffiti art displays and spoken word/slam poetry/rap performances.

Source:
St. Olaf College News

Through his fun lyrics and energetic dance moves, Holland was able to incorporate preschool state standards into his program.

“Some stuff doesn’t change, but I’m always adding new material,” he said. “Over the years, I’ve added math and character education to the show. Hip hop has really taken over the music industry, and it’s a great way to get some of educational information into their heads.”

Holland said the beat and rhythm of rap music is great for learning.

“I had kids coming into school who didn’t know their addition and subtraction, but they’d hear a rap song once and know every word,” he said. “I hope this will help them see that learning can be fun.”

Holland started right in with a song.

“I’m askin’ you to wave your hands in the air like you just don’t care,” he said. “We’re gonna learn our ABC’s and practice our 123’s! Throw your hands in the air and open your mouth and say, ‘Oh yeah!’ ”

“Oh yeah!” students and teachers shouted back.

“Are you smart out there?” he asked them. “Do you know your ABC’s? I want you to sing it for me.”

After a round of the traditional version, Holland kicked it up a notch by having them add stomps and an edgier tone to the song.

Students laughed as Holland, who held a deck of ABC cards in his hand, tossed the appropriate card in the air as he called it out.

When the song was through, Holland taught them a song they would use after each new lesson.

“I want you to, ‘Pat, pat, pat on your back, back, back, for a job well done. Toot! Toot!’ ” he said.

School Director Yvette Givand said special programs like Thursday’s are brought to the school every month.

“We like to have live performances to teach readiness skills,” she said. “We want to expand on their classroom knowledge, and these are fun ways to help them remember what they’ve been taught. This is neat because everyone here can participate, and (they) don’t have to worry about feeling like they didn’t do it right.”

Givand said Holland has been recognized on the state and national level for his unique approach to education.

“I think he’s awesome,” she said. “He understands kids and how they develop. They seem to be able to retain more when their lessons are presented through hip hop. In today’s world, we’ve always got to be thinking outside the box — especially when it comes to education.”

Holland also taught the children about the four seasons.

“It’s so cool,” said Makenzee Webb, 5. “I like rap music. I like to sing and stuff.”

“It’s cool,” said Edwin White, 5.

“He just loves it,” Webb said. “He was dancing. I saw him.”

Parent Amanda Hudson smiled from the sidelines as she watched the program.

“This looks awesome, and he’s really got the attention of the kids,” she said. “I never thought of rap with kids, but you can never rule anything out when it deals with education.”

Teacher Bricia Huckleberry said she appreciated the program on a number of levels.

“First I think it’s neat that the kids are being exposed to a difficult type of music,” she said. “Also, this is a great way for them to learn their numbers and shapes. It’s good for them to get up and moving, too. I’d say it’s probably one of the best programs that’s been brought into our school.”

A second music culture was exposed at the conclusion of the program.

“Can you say, ‘Ah, ah, ah, ah, I did a good job. I did a good job,’ ” Holland sang to the tune of the Bee Gees’ song, “Stayin’ Alive.”

“It was fun,” said Nakyriah Williams, 4. “I like his singing.”

Source:
Mansfield News Journal

He said that the True North Music Mentors program was a natural fit for him. “I’ve been changing my style and what I write about,” Brown said. “I feel like this program can spread that message.” Several dozen students from high schools in Olympia, North Thurston and Tumwater districts collaborated on hip-hop tracks in a music academy last week.

An Olympia-based group called Gear Up With Music and True North Student Assistance, a substance-abuse-prevention and education service out of the public agency Educational Service District 113, sponsored the music workshop.

The groups brought the students together with local professional musicians as mentors, who let the students lead with their ideas, said mentor Jose Gutierrez Jr., who works in audio production and is a DJ at the radio station KAOS.

The tracks focus on avoiding violence and substance abuse. The lyrics emerged out of short workshops and hourlong pass-the-mic freestyle sessions, in which students and the workshop facilitators communicated with each other about everything from the day’s agenda to what they did that day to what they hoped would come out of the program.

“It’s an incredibly empowering experience to hear your voice recorded for the first time,” said local hip-hop artist Asliani, who recently moved to Olympia from Boston and who released an album this month.

She said that the long workshops helped the students learn to trust one another, open up and collaborate.

“All these kids have amazing talent,” she added. “Some of the kids, some of the girls especially, they say they’re not rappers. But a little while later, they’ll have half a verse written.”

The students also will perform at a live music showcase at the Capitol on Jan. 19, which is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The students applied for the workshops, and their commitment to spreading the positive message was more important than past musical experiences, said Gear Up With Music founder Todd Denny. Still, many of the students already were experienced musicians, and several brought guitars or demos of their own music.

John Thompson, clinical supervisor at True North, said he hopes that the music reaches schools and in the community and that the students mentor other students.

“It’s not an opportunity to make a song,” he said. “It’s about helping them to become a part of a positive movement.”

Source:
The Olympian

Hip-hop as a musical genre is generally defined as vocalization over mixed music and beats. But hip-hop also describes a culture that branches out to include rapping, DJ skills, art, fashion and break dancing. It’s a collaborative culture that evolves as new generations add their interpretations to the lifestyle and the music, which is said to have had its roots in the Bronx.  

The Urban Arts Academy started four years ago as a Saturday program to give young people in the Benning Park community opportunities to express themselves creatively through hip-hop. As interest grew, the program grew into an after-school and weekend activity, said Mazi Mutafa, executive director of Words, Beats & Life, the organization that sponsors the Urban Arts Academy.

The academy has four sites, with the largest in the Benning Park Recreation Center.

“People live in this same neighborhood for multiple generations,” Mutafa said. “One of the common things parents said was that there was nothing like this when they were children. We realized it was a golden opportunity because the parents were so connected to the recreation center.”

Along with providing students a safe environment after school and on weekends, instructors focus on teaching “transferable life skills” that can help students with jobs or education, he said.

“Rather than waiting until young people are in trouble, we do what we can to help them understand by giving them opportunities and helping them to think about their futures in ways that are concrete,” Mutafa said.

For example, a course called Hustlenomics helps students learn about financial responsibility, independence and entrepreneurship by putting a positive spin on the term “hustle.” Students are taught how to manage their finances and use their creativity to “hustle,” or make money.

“You can hustle and sell T-shirts,” Deane said. “You can hustle and have your own business.”

The academy is working on a program that will target older youths and their parents with a focus on cooking and event planning. Mutafa said the participants will help organize a farmers market near the recreation center. Although produce from a farmers market is not considered a touchstone of hip-hop culture, it addresses a community need, which is another part of the academy’s mission, Mutafa said.

“The idea is for us not to just be the people bringing resources to the community,” he said. “We’re empowering entire families to make changes in the community.”

In other programs, the academy’s 20 instructors guide students in skills such as videography, jewelry making, dance, chess and being a disc jockey, activities that are part of the hip-hop culture and that instructors use to help students grow.

Poetry workshops drive students to put into words what they think and feel and the ways they relate to the world, similar to hip-hop lyrics. Jewelry-making workshops encourage students to see jewelry, whether they are making or wearing it, less as “bling,” the flashy jewelry referenced in hip-hop culture, and more about communicating to the world who they are.

“It’s important to subtly remind kids that they define hip-hop,” Deane said. “They create it. They define it.”

A sense of ownership and independence is key to having students learn through hip-hop, Deane said.

Alexis Martin, 11, said that she particularly enjoys chess and that it calms her. But she is also trying her hand at making jewelry and writing poetry.

“You can always find something to rhyme,” Alexis said. “You wrote it. You understand it. It’s your poetry.”

Traditional academics are not ignored. The academy recently launched the College Material campaign to emphasize the importance of continuing formal education. The program includes T-shirts that label students as “college material.” Students can receive help with filling out applications and deciding what kind of postsecondary education is best for them, whether it’s a four-year college, a community college or a trade school.

“We engage people as young as elementary school and try to get them to start thinking about their futures,” Mutafa said.

The Urban Arts Academy requires students and families to submit applications, but its programs are free. The academy is funded mainly through grants and foundations that work to help communities, Mutafa said.

Many students who have taken part in the program for some time are now in college.

More than 150 students are enrolled at the Urban Arts Academy’s four sites. Besides the Benning Road site, two are in Northwest Washington and a fourth opened in Northeast in early August.

Source:
The Washington Post

According to news sources, proceeds will benefit the Purple Rose Campaign against the sex trafficking of Filipina women and children, an international project of GABRIELA Network ( GABNet ), a U.S.-Philippines women’s solidarity organization.

“Organizers of the concert hope to reach out to young audiences and bring awareness of the ways in which young women and children are lured, tricked, or coerced into a life of sexual exploitation,” says UCSD Women’s Center director Emelyn A. dela Pena. She reports that members of GABNet Los Angeles will lead a caravan from Los Angeles to San Diego with five stops serving as “teach-ins” on the issue of trafficking.

“Sex trafficking has achieved global attention as a human rights issue,” says dela Pena. “For many, Hip Hop has become a tool to critique the oppression of the marginalized.”

Headlining acts include, Mystic, Bambu, and OffWhyte of the Galapogos4, all from Los Angeles, and DJ Kuttin’ Kandi and The Heart from New York City. San Diego Hip Hop artists and spoken word poets also will perform.

Hip Hop is a musical genre that emerged in the late 1970s from the urban African American community. The term rap is sometimes used synonymously with hip hop music. Rapping, also referred to as MCing or emceeing, is a vocal style in which the performer speaks rhythmically and in rhyme, generally to a beat. One facet of Hip Hop, or rap, is as a tool for young people to reach their communities about social justice and taking action.

Concert admission also may be covered by the donation of a working, used cell phone. For further information on the concert contact the UCSD Women’s Center at ( 858 ) 822-0074.

Source:
Media News Wire

“Get Your House Right!” is a homeownership tour that kicks off in New York City and is supported by corporate sponsor Genworth Financial. It works with professionals from the financial, mortgage and homeownership arena to educate Blacks and Latinos on the long-term benefits of homeownership in America.

“This stuff is not being taught in schools,” says Simmons.

Blacks have lost more than $92 billion because of foreclosures, and traditionally underrepresented groups are projected to lose more than $200 billion overall. HSAN understands the seriousness of this crisis and is using hip hop as a way to educate the younger generation.

“Russell’s at the cutting edge of using our hip-hop culture to implement social change,” says Chavis.

“Homeownership cultivates and upholds the viability of urban communities and provides a legacy of wealth creation that can be passed on from one generation to the next,” says Lori Jones Gibbs, vice president of affordable housing and industry affairs at Genworth Mortgage Insurance.

The tour will make stops in Houston; Chicago; Charlotte, N.C.; Cleveland; Baltimore; Richmond, Va.; St. Louis; and Atlanta. However, HSAN notes that “Get Your House Right!” is a national effort and is not just focused on the tour cities.

Simmons says the initiative’s main objective is to answer the question “How do we build a better relationship with the financial world so that we can achieve our goals and live out the American dream?”