HipHopEdSoc: One of the
best yet.
The small room adjacent to the
student union bar was rammed with new and old faces alike. Over the past 3 years
HipHopEd UK has grown from a series of Twitter chats into an ever-expanding
network of artists, educators and academics. It was a great feeling to stand in
front of so many people who I have got to know well through this HipHopEd journey
as well as to speak to people I had never met before or who I had met outside
of HipHopEd. This was the biggest group I have seen at a HipHopEd meeting and
it is a testament to the strength of the work being undertaken as well as the
enthusiasm of those who get involved with this work that our numbers are
growing each time we meet.
This meeting was a little like returning
to the start of a loop. As we have been collaborating on this project for 3
years now, we had moved a long way from our start point of sharing good practice
and discussing its form, content and purpose. However, this meeting was a
chance to revisit some of the fundamental experiences and ideas that brought
many of us together in the first place.
Darren’s presentation on his
school-based Power To The Pupils project reminded me of our first meeting. Then,
as now, I was blown away by the depth and quality of this work, combining P4C
with a rap club; a space for young minds to wrangle with big ideas, through the
lens of Hip-hop. And as Hip-hop is older than many of these kids parents it is great
to see a new generation learning about and through this culture by
participating in the production of rich cultural artefacts.
Jeffrey’s presentation on his
current English practice stood as testimony to the impact that HipHopEd continues
to have on his teaching. Using Hip-hop as a frame, Jeff talked through the
process of taking his secondary aged, free school students through the journey
of writing an academic essay; taking their writing from the page to the stage
as he spoke about turning their written words into epic pieces of spoken word poetry.
This journey is sure to teach his students far more than how to write a good
essay, For some it will be a journey of empowerment; for some a chance to
exorcise some demons and for a few it will possibly be the start of a career in
writing, performing and creating. With Jeff’s integrity, skill and passion, I
am sure it will be a memorable learning experience for all involved.
I spoke rapidly about a less
practice-based aspect of HipHopEd and returned to some of the ideas I learnt
from attending David Kirkland’s lecture at the IoE (as it was then) 3 years
ago. It was at this lecture that I first met Darren and a number of other
teachers who would go on to form the core of HipHopEd UK. At the lecture
Kirkland rapped through a thoroughly edutaining presentation that focused on
the concept of multiple Englishes. This
was where I first became aware of the idea of code-switching and where I first
heard an academic speak in a form of English that seemed closer to the voices I
heard in Hip-hop records than it did to that of the lecturers and professors I
had met during my own education. It was here that I was given a tool with which
to investigate my own practice and where I first began to make sense of my
seemingly schizophrenic approach to language at school. I talked about the Hip-hop
club I ran (Spit Club) and my
experiences of working as a Behaviour Support Manager; two roles that required
very different approaches to language in order to be successful. I spoke about
battling and how I drew on that particularly competitive aspect of Hip-hop when
I was in the Head’s office or in pre-exclusion meetings for many of the SEN students
I taught, who faced exclusion from the mainstream school I work in; students
who often arrived at school from complicated and deprived families and for whom
school was just another institution that they didn’t feel comfortable in and
did not trust. For me, one of the greatest aspects of HipHopEd, is that it helped
me become aware of, and formalise, much of the implicit HipHopEd practice I was
already doing. It has helped me develop that practice; place it more clearly within
a cultural, historical and socio-political context, and to build my confidence
in challenging many of the hegemonic ideas and practices of mainstream
education, without anybody spitting bars or cutting a beat.
We then went in to the three
guest presentations from Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias Coleman (#whitecurriculum
campaign), Dr Illana Webster-Kogen (Global Hip-hop course at SOAS) and PhD
student Bharath Ganesh (Hip-hop, Difference and education).
Dr Nathaniel’s presented his work
on the Why is my curriculum white? campaign.
He talked about his own experience of leaving Oxford University and realising
that everything he had been taught was a lie; that the finest education this
country can offer did little more than perpetuate racist myths about the civilisation,
history and knowledge, under the moniker of a ‘classical’ education. Alongside
Nathaniel, Kwesi Shaddai spoke earnestly about his work in supplementary schools
and the space it gave to offer a broader and more nuanced education that could
speak to young people under the radar of Ofsted and its governmental taskmasters.
Dr Ilana gave insight into the
content and reasons behind SOAS developing its Global Hip-hop course. Again this
was a story of including something that had previously been conspicuous by its
absence; a decentring of western European cultural achievements as the pinnacle
of civilisation.
Bharath spoke about his research
and shared some insightful observation on the etiquette of the Hip-hop cypher.
He spoke of the energy and mutual respect that was shared in these instances as
well as the immediacy with which potentially harmful political and social views
were shared and challenged. Listening to Bharath I could imagine a world where
political debate could easily be conducted over a DJ Premier instrumental and
where all parties voices could be heard and responded to fairly and honestly, regardless
of gender, class or political affiliation; a far cry from anything you are
likely to see in a televised debate during the run up to the general election.
After the presentations, we
rearranged the room into a circle and began to share responses an observations
with people around us. There were probably 50 people in attendance and as such,
we started off sharing with the people we found ourselves sat next to. After
these initial discussions we formed questions, and then we tackled a couple of
them in the larger group. The debate was lively, as it always is at a HipHopEd
meeting. With such a wide range of people with such differing experiences of
both education and Hip-hop, there was plenty of disagreement around the role,
place and purpose of Hip-hop in education. The debate, rather like Bharath’s
description of the cypher, created its own boundaries. Mutual respect,
turn-taking, listening and honest heart-on-sleeve sharing led to a vibrant and
rich enquiry of the questions. A highlight of this was an exploration of the
spectrum of implicit and explicit HipHopEd practice in regard to getting more
good HipHopEd practice into schools. While some argued that HipHopEd was best
placed outside of the mainstream, away from the beady eyes of the policy makers
and Edu-shapers (my own term), others argued vehemently that the role of
HipHopEd should be to ultimately infiltrate and change the mainstream school
experience through a decentring of hegemonic British values; white/western
ideologies and the development of critical thinking and creative, student-centred
approaches to teaching, learning.
Attached to this debate was the
question of whether or not to call HipHopEd by such a name when trying to
infiltrate the mainstream. On this topic Iesha Small provided my favourite line
of the night:
“Free schools sell themselves on a classical curriculum; a Hip-hop school
sells itself on a critical thinking curriculum.”
As we approached the last 10
minutes, first time attendee and 3x UK Team beatbox champion The Human Radio sparked off the first
official HipHopEd UK cypher. This gave ample opportunity for the MCs in the
room to participate and add their voices to the evening. One after another,
participants left their chairs to prowl the inner circle spitting freestyles
and written bars. Reveal stepped up first and reminded us all just why he is so
highly rated as an MC as well as a developing academic machine-gunning through a
dense and lengthy verse. Jeffrey and Darren both added their voices to the
cypher showing that there is no dividing line between teacher and artist; it is
quite possible and indeed desirable to wear both those hats. Props to everyone
who gave their voice to the cypher. This was a perfect end to an inspiring and
energetic night that saw HipHopEd add another feather to its Kangol and a whole
new set of bright, enthusiastic and important voices join the HipHopEd family!
Many thanks to all who attended! Stay tuned for details of future HipHopEd events.
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| Debating in a cypher at HipHopEdSoc March 2015 |
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