Thug Life Army

The UCLA Center X Teacher Education Program Student-Teachers present a ‘Free-Hip Hop Education Conference’, open to the people: youth, parents, and educators on Saturday, May 6, 2006 from 8am until 3:30pm at the John Muir Middle School, 5929 South Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90044.

Amazing Hip-Hop Education Conference in East LA this Saturday.| This Generation and Education Called Hip-Hop is free to all.

The conference is being co-sponsored by The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Youth Arts Program, Assemblies in Motion, Axis of Justice Food Not Bombs, The Chrysalis Project, Divine Forces Radio, Hip-Hop Association, Hip Hop Congress, Hip Hop Education Project, Human Writes Project, ICU Art, J.U.I.C.E. a project of Community Partners, KAOS Network/Project Blowed, UCLA GSAE, and SOL Foundation.

Within the State of California, there are many districts where nearly fifty percent of students will not graduate from high school. Yet prior to this physical departure, many more students are checking out from school in their minds.  Students repeatedly complain of the school’s lack of relevance or ability to provide solutions to the complex issues they face daily. All this demonstrates the need to transform education from one that is cold and alienating to one more engaging and relevant to youth in culture, content, context, and teaching styles.  Recognizing the realities within which this generation is living and that there is a 55% LAUSD drop out/push out rate—a state of emergency—where do we go from here? How do we build more cohesive classrooms, schools, and educational communities?

Enter a generation of teachers and students with an education of Hip Hop: a cultural tool of expression, knowledge, understanding, learning, resistance, rebellion, and enlightenment.  On Saturday, May 6, 2006, over four hundred educators, students, youth, parents, and Hip Hop community members will gather in South Central Los Angeles at John Muir Middle School to discuss this transformation. This Generation and Education Called Hip-Hop is a conference that will examine the use of Hip Hop culture as a means of transforming the culture of our schools, streets, and communities from one of reproduction and regurgitation to equity, invention, and imagination. The conference will provide examples of how Hip Hop culture is being used inside and outside of the classroom, provide leads for educators interested in Hip Hop culture curriculum and its development, and create bridges between Hip Hop heads, community organizations, educators, and schools. Collectively we will examine and explore how Hip Hop culture cultivates knowledge and power within and among participants in a multitude of ways.

Presenters and performers include Invincible & DJ Suprema with Special Guest Stacy Epps, Olmeca, 2Mex, Mayda de Valle, World Famous LA Breakers, hip-hop culture mogul Davey D., HBO Def Poets, Cal Cutters-ZF, Kabasa West African Drum, Nuke, Petal, Duce, AIM Artist Educators, Mirza, Urban Word-NYC, HELP, Boys to Men After-School Program, Youth Justice Coalition & more. Workshops include The History of Los Angeles Graffiti Art, Freire the Hip-Hop Boy: Hip Hop as a Form of Critical Literacy, De-colonizing the Mind Thru Rap Music, Hip Hop Lock Down: The Criminalization of Youth Culture, and HELP: Hip-hop as an Educational Literacy, and Conectado Politica y Cultura atravez del Hip Hop.

Many people misunderstand the significance of Hip Hop. Hip Hop is more than just "Rap Music."  Historically, Hip Hop is a way of life that involves 8 different disciplines from the 5 elements of DJing, Graffiti Art, MCing, Beat Boxing and B-Boying to Street Fashion, Street Business, and Street Lingo.

Lunch will be available for a donation; no one turned away for lack of funds.  There will be t-shirts and The History of Los Angeles Graffiti Art books with DVDs available for purchase that will help fund the conference.

More info at - http://www.myspace.com/tgehh

Schedule

8:00AM – 9:00AM Registration and Breakfast & DJ unDfind (Lunch Area)

(Workshops Available Pre-Reg & Day of on a 1st come, 1st serve basis)

9:00AM – 9:10AM Welcome by Muir MS Students & Administrator (Auditorium)

Role Call & Overview & Key Questions by Host Mark Gonzalez

9:10AM – 9:30AM Keynote Hip Hop Academic Speaker

9:30AM – 10:00AM Introduction of Hip Hop Culture Montage of 5 Elements:

- Kabasa West African Drum Ensemble

- DJ Counterstirke of Cal Cutters, ZF and DFR

- B-Boys

- Beat Boxers

- Lyricist Mayda de Valle, First Female National Slam Champ

10:00AM – 11:30AM Workshop Session I (20 workshops concurrent)

12:00AM – 1:00PM Lunch Seating & DJ (Lunch Area)

- Street Poets

- AIM Youth Crew

- DJing Showcase Cal Cutters-ZF

- Open Mic (hosted by Mark Gonzalez)

1:00PM – 2:30PM Workshop Session II (20 workshops concurrent)

2:45PM – 3:30PM Closing Convention

Summation/Closing Comments/Thank You to Youth & Educators

Grand Final Performances by:

- LA Breakers & DJ

- Olmeca

- 2Mex & Busdriver

- Invincible and DJ Suprema

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Example of Workshops Included

Father Amde of Watts Prophets

Workshop Title: Creating A Hip-Hop Poetry Choir

Workshop Synopsis:

Amde of the Watts Prophets will demonstrate techniques that the Watts Prophets have been utilizing for the past 35 years to educate and expose young people to the art of poetry, writing and performance. Participants will be introduced to various techniques including but not limited to: 1) Analyzing current Hip-Hop music to be utilized in a classroom setting. 2) Making relationships with local organizations and theatres. 3) Keeping youth engaged and active in their education through Hip-Hop.

Matthew Bigevens

Workshop Title: Lyrics, Typography, Graffiti, Activism and Print

Workshop Synopsis:

Lyrics, Typography, Graffiti, Activism and Print all have a large roll in the educational value that can be learned from hip hop and used as tools of empowerment for the youth and all generations. This is a unit of standards of the visual arts based lessons that is taught in a high school 3 Dimensional Design course that may be adapted to any grade level or subject. Each lesson can be taken separately as it is, combined with another or used as the cohesive unit that it is a part of. This workshop will demonstrate an exercise from each lesson in the unit: Capturing Meaning Through Words, Quoting Lyrics in Print and Activism, Issues and Advertisement. All attendees will receive a handout with unit overview and lesson outline example and the opportunity to sign up to receive an email with lesson plans, student handouts and other information relevant to the unit.

Carla Estes

Workshop Title: “Using Hip Hop Lyrics as Language Arts tools”

Workshop Synopsis:

The unit uses hip hop lyrics that best fit a common theme (pain, love, struggle). Some artists used are: T.I., Tupac, Common, Eminem, Talib Kweli, Kanye West, and Jay-Z just to name a few. These lyrics are used two-fold: to discern figurative language such as metaphors, puns, assonance, similes, personification, & so forth. Also the lyrics are analyzed using S.O.A.P. ST (or more commonly referred to as S.O.A.P Stone) and research methods to determine the cause of the lyrical piece and the effect of the lyrical piece. The lyrics are analyzed to show the connection between life and “entertainment.” All of this helps us answer the question “Does life imitate the lyrics or do the lyrics imitate life?”

Benji Chang- UCLA, Graduate School of Education

Workshop Title: “Concrete Schoolyard: Hip-Hop & Pedagogies of Liberation in Urban Public Schools”

Workshop Synopsis:

This workshop will discuss liberatory pedagogies employed by a B-Boy/DJ/Teacher of color in the inner-city, rooted in conscious hip-hop and grounded in revolutionary theory. Based on K-12 teaching experiences in Los Angeles and San Diego public schools, the intersections of hip-hop and critical education will be explored. The focus will be on teaching practices towards equity and social justice for immigrants, people of color, and working-class families in urban neighborhoods. Special implications for hip-hop arts & cultural work, grassroots community organizing, and Asian communities will also be explored.

Bisan Shehadeh

Workshop Title: Expression as the key to the handcuff: Alternative Education in the Camp System

Workshop Synopsis:

Learning with Hip Hop culture and the stigmatization of youth. Workshop will examine the Importance of using youth culture, students'' interests and identities in the classroom- redefining what we consider education and important culture, as well as different ways to integrate Hip-Hop spirit into a lesson: Literacy and language arts, Media Literacy, Acting , Garden, Art- Murals

Dr. Ajay Nair

Workshop Title: Hip-Hop and Black/Asian Relations

Workshop Synopsis:

This workshop introduces a service learning model at the University Pennsylvania that aims to foster structural community improvement in West Philadelphia by creating a space where students can develop community across racial/ethnic, language, socioeconomic, geographic, and intergenerational boundaries. The course was developed in response to 1) a movement for Philadelphia school reform and 2) a growing tension between racial/ethnic groups in Philadelphia public schools, and 3) a movement led by the University Pennsylvania to strengthen partnerships between higher education institutions and local communities.

This innovative course pays particular attention to how hip-hop is used as a mode of expression for 2nd generation South Asian American youth. In particular, we examine how South Asian Americans use hip-hop to establish and express solidarity with African Americans as people of color. The course culminates in an examination of the potential of hip hop for "crafting solidarities" between racial/ethnic groups in America.

Mirza:

Workshop Title: ROOTS OF THE BEAT

Workshop Synopsis:

This is an exciting, hands on workshop focusing on the relationship of Hip-Hop rhythmic elements and ancient traditional African music. Students will play a variety of different DRUMS and percussion instruments, learning ancient rhythms from Africa and banging out the Hip-Hop beats of today.

We will explore questions such as: Why Hip-Hop music has such a strong impact on the world today? How does African music relate? Where do those beats come from? What is a Griot? Why is the rhythm so important? Where is Hip-Hop headed?

Michael Cirelli- Urban Word NYC

Workshop Title: UTILIZING HIP-HOP TO ENGAGE LITERACY, CREATIVE WRITING & CRITICAL THINKING

Workshop Synopsis:

In this workshop, educators will learn to demystify rap lyrics, allign the elements, tools and devices in rap lyrics with California, Language Arts Standards, utilize rap lyrics to engage critical thinking, learn numerous writing exercises to encourage critical thing and creative writing.

Patrick Camangian- UCLA, Graduate School of Education

Workshop Title: "Rethinking Rap, Rewriting Reality and Reframing Literacy: Ideological and Performative Analysis by Crenshaw High School Youth"

Workshop Synopsis:

Seizing control of Hip-hop representation from once "underground" vehicles (Dyson, 1997; Perkins, 1996;

Perry, 2005), commercial media too often foreground narratives that privilege dominant constructs of reality and marginalize ideologies that seek to undermine the oppressive conditions against which much of rap's voice emerged against. This corporate silencing of the most pressing issues facing urban communities further intensifies the oppressive conditions and challenges facing urban youth of color as they seek transformative strategies to better navigate their social conditions. Teaching in and against a corporate media climate that heavily influences the identities of urban youth, educators must look more closely at how commercial rap targets and further indoctrinates youth with individualistic and capitalistic ideologies and desires.

Ora Wise- Rethinking Schools- Palestinian Educational Project

Workshop Title: Slingshot Hip Hop: Learning about the Palestinian Struggle and Connecting It to Our Own

Workshop Synopsis:

The Palestine Education Project develops and facilitates interactive workshops in high schools and youth groups using hip hop video, role playing, discussion, reading lyrics, and letters to raise awareness about the Palestinian struggle and its connections to the experiences of oppressed communities in the U.S. An important part of our work is supporting youth in thinking critically about criminalization of Arabs within U.S. society and reflecting on how their own communities are criminalized.

Guerilla Arts Ink, & Rock Creek Academy- Washington, DC.

Workshop Title: H.E.L.P. Hip-hop as an Educational Literacy

Workshop Synopsis:

Teachers frequently worry about how to keep their students interested in learning and struggle to compete against the world outside school and popular culture. Many students feel that they cannot relate to their teachers, or even fully understand or know about the world in which they live. H.E.L.P. is designed to bridge the communication gap between students and teachers by using popular hip-hop music to teach literacy. Hip-hop music has a wide-reach that expands across all boundaries of culture, race, language, and socio-economic background. In essence, H.E.L.P. uses the language of the youth with authentic literacy activities to teach reading and writing skills and foster a culturally responsive dialogue between students and teachers.

H.E.L.P. is designed for students from ages 13-18 and provides activities that address their unique literacy needs. The H.E.L.P. activities range from Beginner (K-3), Elementary (3-5), Intermediate (6- , and Advanced (9-12). Students listen to each hip-hop song while reading the lyrics and then complete an activity. Each activity is aligned to standards, reinforces your instruction, and motivates students to read and write. H.E.L.P. address different learning styles as students are encouraged to demonstrate their learning through authentic writing opportunities, music, discussion, poetry, and dramatic performance. The goal of H.E.L.P. is to enable students to make a connection from their interests and experiences to their reading and writing through hip-hop music. Teachers can use H.E.L.P. to reach students through cultural relevancy with confidence that they are addressing the five essential components effective reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Fresh City

Workshop Title: From youth to elder- Hip Hop Growing Pains

Workshop Synopsis:

The Fresh City Crew will present a workshop to teachers that highlights the impact that hip-hop had had on us as youth. We will teach strategies and tools that teachers can use hip-hop to effectively break down barriers between teacher and student. We are a group of 4 emcees, 2 male and 2 female, that combine both live and electronic elements to create a new genre of positive and enlightening hip-hop. Our music engages the audience with our tales of Fresh City (Los Angeles) and the experiences we have had as young people who live to turn our dreams into reality. With over 10 years experience as educators and artists we serve as a dynamic bridge between the academic and the artistic. We will alternate between discussion and performance.

John Lynch

Workshop Title: Understanding Jay-Z as a Writer, MC, and Son: A Hip Hop Lyrical Analysis Workshop

Workshop Synopsis:

Students will be able to analyze Jay-Z’s lyrics in order to gain a better understanding of his family life. Students will also be able to use imagery and make inferences using hip hop as text.

Carmelita Sanchez - The Wake Up Show

Workshop Title: Gender Rhymes, Movements, and Words

Workshop Synopsis:

This workshops will help young women learn ways to educate, empower and free themselves from the negativity that may surround them. I would like to bring Dj Suprema and Asia One into the first part of the session to use lyrics and images to allow the young women to see how they are portrayed and how the can turn those negatives into positives.

Shiv Desai

Workshop Title: Freire the Hip-Hop B-boy: Hip-Hop as a Form of Critical Literacy

Workshop Synopsis:

For Freire, reading the word and the world pursued the idea of conscientization, which is learning to gain critical consciousness of the world through reflection and action. Once this last concept understood, then oppressed groups can engage in „cultural action‰ as a way to challenge established social practices and systemic inequality. Thus, literacy means liberation from poverty, oppression and suppression. In this paper, I examine how hip-hop can be considered a form of critical literacy as well as a form of cultural action. More specifically, I describe hip-hop as a grassroots, community-based movement that contests established social practices and provides an avenue to practice reading the word and the world.

Youth Justice Coalition

Workshop Title: Hip Hop Lock Down – The Criminalization of Youth Culture

Workshop Synopsis:

Hip Hop rose out of struggle, but it wasn''t long before it spread worldwide, was interpreted in a thousand different ways by a billion different voices, and was exploited commercially. Throughout this journey, Hip Hop, its cultural components and both its most famous and most unknown/underground players have been on trial – in the media, in court and in community. This workshop will look at the history of youth images, public policies and practices in the U.S., including the attacks on the Hip Hop generation 1975 - 2005, and explore ways in which Hip Hop is used as a tool in building powerful youth movements in response.

Fidel Rodriguez – KPFK’s Divine Forces Radio

Workshop Title: De-Colonizing the Mind Thru Rap Music: Utilizing dignified rap music to reflect, discuss and organize creative solutions to social problems on the subjects of identity, history, education, poverty, incarceration, culture and racism.

Workshop Synopsis:

This workshop will focus on discussion of current personal and social problems, so-called racial and gang conflict, dignified vs. undignified communities and the reality of Americas public education system. Facilitators and participants will reflect upon the public education system and its relevance to European-Americans perceptions of African-Americans, Xicanas, “Latinos”, and other marginalized people of color, but more importantly how people of color perceive themselves (self-hate). This discussion with be lead with a reflection and dialogue based upon listening to a selection of dignified rap songs. Participants will conclude workshop by collectively identifying a community problem, their reflection upon it, thus culminating an active solution and their commitment to implementing the idea.

Sean Slusser and Monica Delgado - J.U.I.C.E.

Workshop Title: J.U.I.C.E. (y) Organizing: The use of hip-hop culture for community organizing in Los Angeles

Workshop Synopsis:

This workshop will look at the organization: Justice by Uniting In Creative Energy (J.U.I.C.E.). The presenters, Sean Slusser and Monica Delgado, will blend experiential data and ethnographic observation with interviews of the founder, director, staff members and participants in an attempt to understand how J.U.I.C.E. uses hip-hop culture as a tool for community organizing and youth empowerment in the Los Angeles community of MacArthur Park. J.U.I.C.E. is contextualized within the histories of both hip-hop culture and the blending of culture and politics in the years following the Watts rebellion. While both traditions are important to understanding J.U.I.C.E., Slusser argues that the organizations’ strengths and weakness are most characteristic of the hip-hop culture is promotes.

Olmeca

Workshop Title: Conectando Politica y Culturas atravez del Hip Hop/ Bridging Culture and Politics through Hip Hop

Workshop Synopsis:

The workshop will discuss the relationships between black and brown, the need to bring our efforts together to bring social change in the United States. Furthermore we will discuss the importance of youth’s participation and how Hip Hop (the music of the youth generation) can be a vehicle to bring black and blown together.

El taller hablara sobre relación entre la comunidad Afro Americana y la comunidad Latina (morenos y cafeses). Hablaremos sobre la necesidad de juntar nuestras luchas para llegar a un punto de cambio en los Estados Unidos. Al igual, hablaremos sobre la importancia de la juventud y como Hip Hop (la música de la generación juvenil) puede ser un vehículo para juntar las relaciones entre los dos grupos de color.

Raphael Travis, Maurice Garner, JD, Kristin Yarris, MPH

Workshop Title: We’re Not Stupid, Stupid! - Understanding the Soundtracks of the Struggle

Workshop Synopsis:

GriotStarters believe that your ability to think about, reflect upon, and dialogue about your life and the lives of others can propel you toward positive actions for change. We believe that the discussions in these workshops are essentially mental exercises. We take real Hip-hop tracks and break them down to analyze important themes and messages, and try to understand how we can use this analysis and the collective wisdom of our peers to create change. These workshops can be a safe environment for you to discuss important life issues and explore positive and meaningful responses to them.

Asia One

Workshop Title: Learning Through the Official Cultural Dance of Hip-Hop, Bboying (Breaking)

Workshop Synopsis:

“Break Thru” - as in having a “breakthrough”, a pinnacle point where consciousness opens up; an advancing factor; a positive change. Building confidence - both in young men and women, but especially in young women. Competitive (sports related), discipline, self-awareness, social skills of interaction, major health benefits. I will bridge together healthy lifestyle in a total mind, body, soul connection. Bring out creativity, openness, challenge students minds with study about what they are learning, how they feel about it (almost like what the class did for them); I will challenge the students also in a physical way through learning the cultural dance of Hip-Hop, Bboying/Bgirling.

Leila Steinberg

Workshop Title: Rose From Concrete

Workshop Synopsis:

AIM’s most powerfully transformative program, “Rose from Concrete” is an innovative artistic workshop that dramatically rehabilitates youth in juvenile detention facilities and group homes. The program is so effective because of its unique design, which breaks out of the traditional educational format to create a more engaging, interpersonal experience in which transformation can occur.

Hodari B. Davis, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Jason Mateo

Workshop Title: Words as Weapons: Pedagogy of Empowerment

Workshop Synopsis:

Youth Speaks uses Spoken Word to teach literacy, critical thinking and social justice. We work directly with schools and districts to facilitate in school residencies, performances and workshops. We also facilitate workshops for youth, teachers and youth development organizations to support the long term development of strong curriculum, and to promote the further development of Hip Hop Education. We are an organization of artists, educators and activists who are committed to maintaining our role as pioneers and leaders in the field of Spoken Word Education. This particular workshop will introduce participants to our pedagogy, and provide a philosophical framework for our work.