News releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
7/1/09

CONTACT: Valeria Davis, 608-890-3079, vadavis2@wisc.edu; Katrina Flores, 608-890-1006, kbflores@wisc.edu

EDUCATORS TO LEARN ABOUT USING HIP HOP, SPOKEN WORD AS CLASSROOM TOOLS

MADISON - More than 40 educators from nine states will attend the fourth annual Hip Hop and Spoken Word Teacher/Educator Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison July 6-10.

Each summer the UW-Madison Office of Multicultural Initiatives (OMAI) teams with Urban Word NYC to offer this weeklong program for teachers, educators, community leaders and education students to learn the best practices in hip-hop and spoken word pedagogy.

Both hip hop and spoken word are gaining wide recognition as legitimate teaching tools, says OMAI Arts in Education director Katrina Flores.

"The Hip Hop and Spoken Word Community Educator and Teacher Training Institute is an incredibly important component to culturally relevant pedagogy development," Flores says. The institute provides community educators and teachers the opportunity to see into and experience the lives of their students through youth culture."

Teachers who have attended the institute agree that spoken word and hip hop provide new opportunities to formulate lessons and engage students.

"I'm developing a unit on corporations for an economics class using critical engagement of hip hop songs and research into corporate activity and accountability," says Casandra Tanenbaum, a 2008 institute participant. "Additionally, I have a stronger grasp on the potential for teaching hip hop as inspiration for writing."

Educators across the country are following UW-Madison's OMAI program and the emerging pedagogy as the art forms evolve and are studied by disciplines from linguistics to cultural anthropology.

"[Hip hop] addresses the flaws in our educational system that insist that the educational system is not flawed; it provides outlets and relevancy for the more marginalized student and awareness for those who unconsciously identify themselves in the 'norm,'" says Mary Swenson, a high school teacher from Madison. In fact, structure of the institute itself is a learning experience, she adds.

"The balance of instructors/speakers - each day brought about a new approach to content and pedagogy. Excellent balance with practical outcomes in the classroom," Swenson says. "Each instructor modeled his/her strategies, which proved much more valuable than lecturing about varying techniques."

Winner of the 2007 North American Association of Summer Sessions "Creative and Innovative Program Award," this institute brings together the leading educators, professors, emcees and activists who use the media of spoken word and hip-hop as relevant, dynamic and necessary educational tools to engage students across multi-disciplinary curricula.

This year marks the program's fourth year. It has grown with additional support from professors Carl Grant and Paula Wolfe of the UW-Madison School of Education's curriculum and instruction program.

"Last year was an important year as we reached nearly 40 teachers and community educators from across the country," Flores says.

The institute also serves to build a national network of teachers and community educators working in tandem to build capacities and strategies for improving the lives of our youth in educational and community program settings through spoken word and hip hop, she says.

"I don't think it is something that can be defined," says Shannon Sandrea, a community center director from Austin, Texas. "I think it means something a little different to each person. It is more than music, dance, etc. It is a cultural uprising and movement that is "living" (never static). I believe it is a support system that unifies youth culture."

OMAI and First Wave have served UW-Madison by expanding the cultural and artistic possibilities of UW-Madison students and the campus community, Flores adds.

"In turn, this institute is the dynamic synthesis of what happens when youth culture becomes our guiding core in producing educational tools and practices that flow directly from the art form itself."
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The following lectures, panel discussions and performances are free and open to the public:

- Monday, July 6: Lecture and performance: "From Griot to Grand Central: Institute Opening Ceremony with Bob Holman and Willie Perdomo." 6:30 p.m., Wisconsin Historical Society, 816 State St. Dubbed "Dean of the Scene," and "Ringmaster of the Spoken Word," poet, professor and proprietor of the Bowery Poetry Club, Holman will host a lecture and performance on the history of the spoken word and oral traditions.

Recently returned from Africa as part of "On the Griot Trail," an upcoming film documentary, with Gambian griot Papa Susso, Holman will share his work supporting endangered languages there, as well as illuminate the trip the spoken word has taken from the tongue of the griot to the voices of the Nuyorican, the poetry slam and beyond.

This lecture will be followed by a reading from award-winning poet and publisher Willie Perdomo. One of the most respected poets in the scene, Perdomo has inspired audiences from the Nuyorican to the academy. This is spoken word blasting the canon.

- Wednesday, July 8: "Boom Bap Meditations: A Hip Hop Theater Piece by Baba Israel with music by Yako 440." 7 p.m., Margaret H'Doubler Performance Space, Lathrop Hall, 1050 University Ave. Boom Bap Meditations follows the journey of Baba Israel from his native New York to his mother's homeland of Australia. Watch this white boy discover hip hop, earn his stripes as a street performer, hip-hop artist and arts educator as he physically morphs from character to character - lesbian emcees to stoned college hip-hop fans, Aussie hip hoppers to beat-boxing senior citizens.

Baba confronts a history of white appropriation of black music and culture while celebrating the tangible connections music makes across the color line. Boom Bap meditations, directed by Morganics, was developed as part of the Critical Breaks series and premiered to a sold-out crowd at the Hip Hop Theater Festival in New York. It has toured in excerpt in the United States to New World Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the University of California-Riverside, and the Hip Hop Theater festival in Washington, D.C., and internationally to Contact Theatre and Albany Theatre (UK), Pantheon (Czech Republic) and Podium Mozaiek (Amsterdam).

- Thursday, July 9: "Spit That! Open Mic and First Wave Performance Hosted by K-Swift." 6 p.m., The Mercury Caf� and Lounge, 117 E. Mifflin St. At this open mic, course participants and facilitators will perform work created during their workshops. Bring a poem, bring a friend.

At 8:30 p.m. also at The Mercury Caf� and Lounge, see the First Wave Jump Off Concert featuring Baba Israel, Baay Bia, K-Swift and Black Cracker.

- Friday, July 10: "An Evening of Youth Solo Performances." 6:30 p.m., Wisconsin Historical Society. Driven by spoken-word artistry, movement and hip-hop theater, this evening will showcase the work of two teen poets from NYC as they stage their solo shows "The Insides Aint Pink Enough" and "Loops." Incoming freshmen to the First Wave program Marne Bruckner and Jasmine Mans have featured their work across New York City and nationally, getting rave reviews from sold-out performances at Dance Theater Workshop, as well as the Hip-Hop Theater Festival.

"The Insides Ain't Pink Enough," written and performed by Bruckner, is a coming-of-age piece which draws on the past and present life of this inner-city young woman. The solo show paints a vivid picture of the troubles this young woman has faced while coming into self, juxtaposing the vulnerability of growing up without a real mother figure, while trying to discover what it means to be a woman.

"Loops," by Mans, represents the journey she is forced to take after reality shakes her sanity upside down. When the death of a friend attacks at the heart, a girl turns mourning into a full-blown battle with the God she thought she believed in.

Two current First Wave students will also present pieces this evening. Karl Iglesias will present "If a Tree Falls," and Cecilia Leon will present "Masking and Emerging."

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