Hip Hop Music Changed the World

KingMan's B-Boy Pose

During the summer we return to our unschooling roots.  We explore whatever interests us at the time.  The Hip Hop Theatre Festival is in DC and what a perfect time to delve into the power of an art form that has changed the world. 

KingMan and I kicked off our own Hip Hop festival with the viewing of Planet B-Boy.  We PS3 stream all kinds of fascinating and educational films from Netflix, a homeschool investment that the entire family enjoys.  We learned that some of the most skilled B-boys (I call them break dancers) are in Korea of all places!  Heck there are B-boys in Germany, Japan and France.

We also watched The MC: Why We Do It  and learned the difference between a rapper and an MC. Greats like KRS1 and Rakim educated us.  Some of the foulest rappers today, like Little Wayne, get lots of attention from our young people who may not have a clue about what Hip Hop really represents.  I want my son to know that there is a difference between a rapper and an MC, just as there is a difference between rap music and Hip Hop music that reflects the positive culture of Hip Hop.  I learned all of this from KRS1, a Hip Hop genius.  Now KingMan knows that an MC is a storyteller and I urge KingMan to always listen for the message in the music.

Our morning camp commute is an opportunity for me to introduce my son to positive Hip Hop artists.  Right now we are listening to The Roots CD How I Got Over.  We are picking apart the songs Walk Alone and Dear God .  We've identified vocabulary that we need to define and historical films we need to see.  We also got a little education about the Lost Boys of Sierra Leone.  Initially I thought there was a mistake in the lyrics because the only Lost Boys I know of are from the Sudan.  But upon further digging we found that there is a history of child soldiers in Sierra Leone that are "lost" too.

There is so much to learn in Hip Hop music: geography, politics, poetry, and social studies.  Like Jazz, Hip Hop is an American art form created by African Americans that has swept the world.  Why shouldn't we know its history?  As parents I think it is our responsibility to stay "ahead" of our children. How can we lead, guide or direct if we can't hold an intelligent conversation with them about the things they love?

My pint-sized B-boy (I swear I didn't tell him to pose like that!)

We will culminate our week long examination of Hip Hop by attending the Freshest of All Time B-boy/B-Girl competition at Words Beats & Life, an afterschool Hip-Hop program for youth ages 5-23 that engages students interested in Hip-Hop culture.  All of the classes use a unique Hip-Hop curriculum that was developed by working artists.  This curriculum meets National Education Standards.





A perfect segue into a gem I found in the *free* bin at the library:  Hip Hop Poetry and the Classics.  Imagine learning about the power of alliteration with a line from LL Cool J's Ladis Love Cool J.  I hope to cultivate a healthy love for Old School Rap, empowering him with alternatives from so much of the materialistic, over-sexualized, often meaningless rap of today!

It's Time to Employ the Principle of Kujichagulia In Our Homeschool

 For the past several months I've been going back and forth between the Sonlight curriculum and Moving Beyond the Page curriculum.  As King Man approaches middle school I thought it time to take the leap into literature-based learning.  I really like Core F in Sonlight and I really like the 10-12 unit of Moving Beyond the Page, but neither is exactly what I want.  Core F does not include enough about Africa and Moving Beyond the page starts with slavery.  This has been a big pet peeve of mine about most curriculums.  But I didn't think I had the time to create my own curriculum until yesterday.  I was standing in Sankofa Bookstore with a friend and I saw  Haile Gerima, esteemed professor of film at Howard Universty and filmmaker of such classics as Sankofa and his recent work Teza, about his native homeland Ethiopia.  Who better to pose my question to? So I went up to him and explained that I was a homeschooler and wanted to create my own literature-based history curriculum for my son.  I told him that I did not want to start with the Underground Railroad, but I wanted to start with the glories of Africa.  He smiled knowingly and started leading me all over the bookstore pulling classic works off of the shelves.  I felt so honored.  Many of the books were above King Man's level or they were not narratives, stories in the tradition of Story of the World or the Sonlight booklist choices.  But at least I got a start.  Professor Gerima referred me to his wife who is more familiar with titles for younger children so I plan to return to Sankofa Bookstore to continue work on this project.  Why am I always creating more work for myself?! Why can't I just be satisfied with the packaged curriculums that are already out there? The first thing that comes to mind is the Kwanzaa principle of Kujichagulia:  to define ourselves, name ourselves and create for ourselves.  At that moment in the bookstore God said it was time for me to stop complaining and start doing.  So I'll be spending the rest of the summer contacting every scholar of African and African American history and literature that I can reach to create my own African/African American History based literature curriculum. The first book on our list is Desta and King Solomon's Coin of Magic and Fortune.  It was recommended by Professor Gerima.  It's the story of an Ethiopian Sheperd boy in search of his ancestral family's twin sister Solomonic gold coin.  I'm so excited for my son because we'll be learning together!