world's a stage
Post on 15-Mar-2016
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By Cristoforo A. Magliozzi
“Hoping that there’s a God who’s truly there to listen, that he’s risen, and that his blood can truly christen...Where I’m from, I write in books where page becomes sky and my words are flight. I. am. free.”
-‐Debonair Don
1ST Annual Community Hip Hop Bash Harriet Tubman House Boston
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What does it mean to have a listener? In one sense it is to realize the potential of the freedom inherent in freedom in speech—to launch a solitary act to give it a chance to soar among peers. The Young People’s Project (YPP) is built on the principle that giving youth a voice in their community today can make a world of difference in fostering the leaders of tomorrow. As a non-‐profit organization, YPP engages in a plurality of approaches, but uniting them all is the aim to create a stage for young people to excel.
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My first exposure to YPP was in a flier for a performance event, a Hip Hop Bash to give an outlet for student spoken word and hip-‐hop artists, to be held at the Harriet Tubman House community center downtown. From the flier creation up to the performers, the students were given the floor and the initiative was theirs. Those on the mic would prove the loudest at the venue, but they would not be the only ones speaking up. The audience made their way onto the floor to dance, but also to acknowledge and address community problems prompted by posts around the building. With both the mic and the markers in their own hands there was also the power for the students to craft their own futures.
Students at the Hip Hop Bash teach each other “How to Dougie,” dancing to the popular song by Cali Swag District among others.
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Though the rhythm and rhymes of the event were dictated by the students, the Harriet Tubman House space was also punctuated with a presence of local community program directors, like Chelsea Revelle of the Children’s Art Centre program which operates under the larger umbrella of the United South End Settlements (USES) which, similar to YPP, seeks, “to build a strong community by improving the education, health, safety and economic security of low-‐income individuals and families in Boston’s historic South End/Lower Roxbury and to serve as a national model of successful neighborhood engagement.” (www.uses.org) Chelsea was promoting a program called Art Remark, which in the spirit of the Hip Hop Bash itself, aims at using creative expression to build communication skills—communication skills that also help build the kind of critical thinking and problem solving skills that can empower kids to have agency in their lives moving forward.
Left: Speaking with Chelsea Revelle of Children’s Art Centre Above: Flier for Art Remark
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There was more to the bash than Hip Hop, and looking around there could be no doubt as to the potential of such visual art programs for young people. A similar program targeted at developing the talents of teen artists, Artists for Humanity, had set up an exhibition at the Harriet Tubman house bringing an outstanding array visual talent—remarkable work which YPP program coordinator Dylan Lazerow indicated was the product of students seventeen and younger. Their stated mission, “to bridge economic, racial and social divisions by providing undeserved youth with the keys to self-‐sufficiency through paid employment in the arts,” illustrated another channel for youth empowerment. (http://www.afhboston.com/)
The canvas, like the stage, was another tool. What then, was YPP’s specialty among this coalition of community groups? Though overlapping with the operations of other groups throughout Boston, YPP centers its focus on peer-‐to-‐peer math literacy programming afterschool. The stage for YPP’s high school workers is the classroom—where they use their communication skills to bring comprehension of math concepts to elementary school kids in places where resources are limited and traditional methods of education appear to lack effectiveness.
A small sampling of the student paintings from the Artists for Humanity exhibition at the Harriet Tubman House.
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To learn more about shortcomings in today’s education and gain additional immersion in the YPP philosophy, I travelled to YPP headquarters on Bishop Allen Drive just a short walk from Central Square to sit down and chat with YPP Program Coordinator, Dylan Lazerow.
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Why YPP? Lazerow was quick to point out that the agrarian lifestyle upon which the structures of American schooldays and hours were founded need not and cannot be the path to bettering education today. Those hours before dinner and the summer months offer an opportunity for a modern society to continue engaging students with learning both day and year-‐round. Alternative education was at the
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heart of the precursors to the Young People’s Project, which stemmed off The Algebra Project, founded in 1982 by civil rights activist and former Field Secretary of the Student Non-‐violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Bob Moses. Drawing from his spirit of community organizing and youth cooperation, a group of students from Cambridge opened the first chapter of the Young People’s Project in Jackson, Mississippi in 1995. Lazerow framed their thought process: “We can learn and relate better to each other, why don’t we set up an organization where we have youth to youth teaching, youth to youth empowerment, leading, and organizing.” More than alternative math education, it is alternative education delivered by students to whom younger students might better relate. And in the spirit of cooperation, the Young People’s Project is partner to various non-‐profits and part of various coalitions, including one with Teens Leading the Way, which in recent months took aim at pushing a bill through the Massachusetts legislature to mandate civics classes in public schools. Student members of YPP and the coalition sat down with representatives at the Massachusetts State House to further the cause. Whether through mic, canvas, classroom, or even lobbying for legislation, the work of YPP always comes back to student leadership. So I met up with several of YPP’s student leaders from the Hip Hop Bash as they carried out their work in the classroom at the Cambridge Community Center.
The immediate area around the Cambridge Community Center was bustling with kids from the school right down the street.
The exterior of the building itself presented what appeared to be a new playground against a backdrop of ailing shingles.
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As I walked into the Cambridge Community Center for the first time, I came upon a mural with an unattributed quote, “To youth who can dream dreams and with courage turn its dream into action.” It seemed everywhere I went in the scope of operations for YPP there were messages of calling students to action and showing them the power and potential each one of us possess. The students I was to be meeting, Trinidad and Smucker, I had already seen in action at the Hip Hop Bash, but now would see them in a math literacy session with elementary school children. When I finally saw them, their words from several weeks prior came tumbling back to me from the hours I had spent reviewing the event footage:
“Sorry for my obscurity and twisted comedy, but this is sincerity and the severity of the epiphany that just came to me doesn’t compare to the hypothetical reality that you think you see with me.”
-‐Trinidad, on relationships
“Leadership is the carving out of a path by one of the nation. It stirs in them not just any temptation, but the inner sharp-‐willed determination to stand up in indignation as if there were the obligation to object to unseen dictation that warps our understanding of society. I believe leadership will be the next generation to embark on a mission to get society’s attention so that it may finally listen, to the truth, reality, and the calling...of leadership.
-‐Smucker, on leadership
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As I saw Trinidad and Smucker work in the classroom, I finally began to see the seam between the stage and canvas that Lazerow and others had been advocating and the application of those skills to empower teaching and learning. Harkening back to Shakespeare’s As You Like It, “All the World’s a Stage,” is a maxim reflected in the reality of the organization I was observing. Smucker, “like the jelly,” Trinidad, who handed me his business card, and the rest of their team set to work. They did not draw upon worksheets and the sedentary aspects
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that the kids had come to expect from much of their class day. Instead, they were on their feet and playing a game. Rather than being told what a Venn diagram was, the kids were performing one. On their feet they were told to separate into two groups, those who “were wearing jeans” versus those who “were wearing black.” This prompted one little girl to ask, “What if we’re wearing both?” and I began to see the magic. More than performing the Venn diagram, the kids were placed in a scenario that made them generate the rationale behind it. Only then, would the white board become live and terms like “intersecting” and “mutually exclusive “ be thrown at them. First the kids were led to a scenario that needed to be diagrammed and presented with ideas that could use terms to describe them better. With a need presented, only then was the concept fleshed out in the more abstract terms. Like hiding the veggies under the tasty bits of a dinner plate, the math was being hid inside play and the kids were having no objections. What was striking to observe was how this alternative education approach coupled with the peer-‐to-‐peer relationship. Trinidad would steer one of the stray Venn diagram sheep by coaxing, “You got to make sure you’re separate, you’re in my group, you dig?” The high school students exuded that sense of cool that the young kids wanted to be a part of and they were partaking in the activities right with them in a 2 to 1, almost 1 to 1 ratio. Then, when the examples turned abstract to categorizing singers versus rappers, I could see that the older and younger students were pooling from a similar field of options. The singers and rappers were current or timeless African American figures. It was evident that the lesser age margin and shared cultural environment was an asset to educating the youngsters.
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Afterwards, the high school math literacy workers, as they are called, met to discuss what worked and what did not in the day’s events. One of the team members, Princess, was upset because two of the older high school students who typically handle training, had intervened in the day’s session. They had gone a bit astray in explaining a concept in a prior class, and the trainers were there that day to get them back on track. The situation was tense, as
The Workshop Leaders
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Princess saw the intervention as a personal affront to their competence and seemed embarrassed by what had unfolded. But, being the orator he is, Trinidad spoke up to defuse the situation: “we had the whole knife set...we just didn’t know which knife was best to cut this type of bread with.” A few metaphors later and calm had set in again.
Trinidad defuses the tension.
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As I filed out of the building with the students, I was forming Venn diagrams of my own. I could see that the empowerment of the stage and the canvas intersected with the communication skills that made these high school students able teachers to the younger kids. These same communication skills gave Trinidad the power to defuse a tense situation afterwards. If the world had a lot more “defusers,” we might have more leaders and fewer conflicts than we do today. Though there is certainly room for improvement, as a self-‐aware program with truly passionate people, the Young People’s Project seems to have a lot of promise that I hope it realizes in the years to come.
Princess (center) does not like how the trainers have interfered in the session. Lazaro (right) is present but does not intervene. He waits for the students to work things out.
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