The garden at St. Ethelburga, London.
Last year I was asked to perform at an inter-faith community centre in Queen's Park for an event run by the
St. Ethelburga's organisation.
Stories That Heal, Stories That Harm was a participatory day of talks and workshops for a range of educators, therapists, community practitioners, academics and others working with personal and community narratives. The aim was to explore different approaches and share experiences of working closely with people's personal stories and community narratives in various educational and therapeutic settings, in order to stimulate better practice and generate a greater understanding of the work being done in that field. I was asked to talk about the work I do with hiphop and education and how that contributes to this area of practice. I shared some examples from my practice of how hiphop culture has provided a starting point for developmental work with students in schools as well as my opinions about the culture's validity as a platform for engaging young people in story-telling that can contribute to their self-development. The day went well and there were some interesting talks and presentations. After the event I wrote some notes on my iPhone trying to sum up what I had said about my own work, as well as what I had learnt from the day. I later formatted these notes into a document that I share below. This was one of the first times I had spoken about my use of hiphop culture and music in my work to an audience, The response was very positive and it gave me more confidence to explore hiphop culture and it's contribution to my practice. This continues through the work I do with UkHipHopEd and within my role as a special needs teacher in a mainstream secondary school in North West London, where I use hiphop's content and principles to engage young people with behaviour and communication difficulties.
View and download
So, What's The Scenario? By Chris Beschi
No comments:
Post a Comment