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March break this year was very successful on many levels. A lot of great work has been coming out of the Jane and Finch community. Sabrina ‘Butterfly’ GoPaul along with others have held a week long conference from March 16-20 at Yorkgate mall Community Engagement Centre (CEC).

This conference continued the conversation of urban planning in the community and how it relates to residents lived experience i.e Line 9, TTC, gentrification etc. SBL has forwarded two names to participate in the project. Matthew Alay and Natonia Laing were able to contribute, share their thoughts, and learn from others involved. Below is art work from Matthew who has never painted before. During the week, individuals were allowed to paint as part of the workshop process. Matthew felt he could think more clearly after finishing a painting and it greatly helped his input on daily topics that week.

The classroom has long been the exclusive domain of the traditional teacher. Educators, in this traditional sense, have been cast as human repositories of all essential knowledge: as sole experts in the classroom. Outdated teaching methods have been inherited, recycled and modeled by mentor teachers passing this model on to candidates about to begin their journey in the teaching profession. Textboxes and worksheets operate as the primary tools for teaching.

So what does Hip Hop have to do with education, and in particular STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)? Dr. Chris Emdin a tenured professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College, in the Department of Mathematics, Science, and Technology shared key characteristics he found in brilliant scientists to demonstrate links between hip hop, education and STEM. He notes brilliant scientists are skeptics, great at observation and analyzing by analogy. He argues the part of the brain that buzzes/lights up when scientists are problem solving in the laboratory is the same part of the brain that is hyperactive when rappers are freestyling (improvisational rhyming). A prime task of his research: to search for brilliant scientists, he shared that those who demonstrate the key characteristics cited above, he finds them in rappers while performing their craft.

Many of the workshops that were part of the Hip Hop STEMposium – put on by Toronto District School Board – made central the key characteristics, creativity, higher order analytical reasoning and critical thinking – to Grades 7-12 TDSB students from across Toronto. SBL staff and mentors facilitated a workshop called ‘Hip Hop Tech.’ The workshop laid out the historical context of the South Bronx in the 1970s and 1980s – a period hallmarked by post-industrialism, “urban renewal”, and de-investment in urban centres  – all of which are significant in the birthing of Hip Hop culture. The lack of resources available to young people during this time played an integral part in the creativity and ingenuity in the birthing of four of the elements of Hip Hop culture – DJing, MCing, Breakdancing, and Graffitti Art.

Highlighting the creative technical innovations ushered in by Hip Hop practitioners, students had the opportunity to learn first hand the basics of DJing, demonstrating the importance of timing and the measurements of beats. As students would look for breaks (moments of instrumentation) to mix, it blended into the next section of the workshop, which was sampling.

Sampling has been a cornerstone of Hip Hop music with prominent records like ‘Rapper’s Delight’ by The Sugar Hill Gang becoming a major hit. As Hip Hop grew in the 1980s, Disco and Funk became part of the backdrop of the music ushering in new technology like the Sampler. This section of the workshop provided students with the opportunity to identify samples and the sampling tracks while analyzing and pinpointing similarities and differences between the two.

The third section of the workshop was focused on Graffiti Art. During the 1980s, the canvas of many young artists were derelict buildings and subway trains. Subway trains traveled through various parts of a city making them the ideal canvas for young people who may not have access to a museum or gallery space to exhibit their art. They had the city and the trains and they made use of them. Students were narrated a time period and setting then presented with the words Hip Hop Tech – creating visual art pieces and signing them with their own graffiti tag.

As our workshop wrapped up and staff and students headed to lunch, a student approached me, she asked, “Does this happen every year?” By this she was referring to the Hip Hop STEMposium. My immediate thought was to say it should, but rather I elected to utter, “This is the first one.” The next words out of her mouth were “I hope these teachers are taking notes and listening. Using music in the classroom makes things more interesting and fun.”  Before heading downstairs for lunch, she was in the hallway teaching her friends Hip Hop dance steps. As I was watching, my colleague approached me and whispered, “She’s a trained classical ballet dancer.” The excitement and enthusiasm the student spoke with, I have witnessed over the years when bringing Hip Hop into the classroom. Young people who are part of SBL have championed for the Hip Hop Literacy Program that has been operating as a core component of our after-school program for the last four years.

The Hip Hop STEMposium was a conference that robustly acknowledged and expanded the ways we define the term educator by inviting Hip Hop practitioners, social activists, teachers, and community workers to demonstrate non-traditional pedagogical methods of engaging young people in their learning. If what we are doing as educators is not working for all students, why continue to do it? Hip Hop based education is not the end all be all answer, but it’s a piece of the puzzle.

On Wednesday, March 25, as a partner with the TDSB and the Hip Hop STEMposium, we were afforded the opportunity to host Elliot Gann and his team from Today’s Future Sound from Oakland, California who ran a 2 hour beat-making workshop with us.

Over the years we have worked with countless facilitators, but few operated on the level of Elliot Gann and his team.

The students we engaged for the workshop have been students that are always in our space, but rarely interested in any of the programming.  What happened in those two and a half hours was exceptional. The ten students that were a part of the workshop were so immersed and engaged that when our time was up they attempted to negotiate an extension or a second workshop this week. In fact, this negotiation began in the first 20 minutes of the workshop, as it was immediately evident that this experience was on another level. From experience, the youth we had in the space would have been a challenge for anyone who is new to us, as they were definitely feeling him out.  His knowledge of the music and ability to turn their challenges into engagement was remarkable.

“If you are going to teach us how to make beats, we want to see what you’ve done” was one of the challenges presented, and their team quickly got the students respect by sharing their produced work. By the end of the workshop, anyone just walking by would think that this is a group that has been working together for months based on the level of comfort in the room.

A part of what made the experience so powerful was that the students had a lot of room to incorporate their ideas, and really owned the music they were creating.  The facilitators were amazing at supporting the students in fleshing out the type of beat they were looking for even when given vague suggestions.  That could be attributed to deep listening and their extensive knowledge of the music.

One of the dynamics was that youth came in with assumptions that the workshop would be far less engaging based their past experience of “beat making workshops” – and that got blown out of the water.  Despite the initial cynicism, the environment was very supportive and conducive for everyone to learn and produce something they could call their own and walk home with.

By the end of the session, everyone created a beat that they were truly proud of, and the highlight was seeing everyone feeling each beat and showing so much love to their peers.

The true testament to the value of this experience, was in the words of Olando who made it clear that he wants to bump the music he made on his phone because it’s not just a beat he made for the workshop, but something he’d like to hear again on his headphones this time.

The introduction to this approach and the quality of the experience is something we should collaboratively explore on bringing to Toronto.  We have worked with countless organizations that do good work, but not on a level that engages youth that are disinterested in a lot of what’s out there.  This is a model we need to develop here and scale.

Check out the beats they made by clicking the links below:

Westview – Jauvan, Olando (Nino), Sam, Steven – Y’uzieet

Team DMS – Day 3 – Westview

TFS – XD Pro Music – Westview CI

Mohamed Ibrahim is an African Canadian Somali who moved to Toronto about a year and half ago from Calgary to the North west end of the city’s own Jane – Finch. This was where he crossed paths with the Success beyond Limits family through a friend of his who was already an SBL member; invited Mohamed to workout with him through SBL’s after school fitness program where he began attending frequently after-school. Mohamed admits that he initially did not see the immediate benefits of SBL initially. However this changed when he participated in his first 2014 March break Employment and /job readiness program last year getting his chance to interact with SBL staff more, Mohamed came to the conclusion that he could benefit from being around such positive and productive staff, leading to the increasing of his interests in the organization and how he could benefit from it. Since that experience, Mohamed has been a loyal affiliate to SBL, who continues to interact with staff about issues affecting the global community.

Last year he was also connected to the TIFF Next Wave committee through SBL’s vast network of partnerships where he is able to continually grow while increasing his social wealth. As a member of the TIFF Next Wave committee, Mohamed along with eleven other high school students work towards the making of the TIFF Next Wave Festival; a festival geared towards High School students allowing them to immerse themselves with film and their fellow films buffs. This year’s festival was a great success! Mohamed has continued to be present in the space regularly where he enjoys having in depth conversations, tutoring fellow peers, and overall just being someone who is always helpful and willing to support Success Beyond Limits any way he can. Mohamed Ibrahim is also a natural academic who has proven to be a hard worker that is willing to go the extra mile for success as he thrives on venturing new tasks and completing old endeavours.

Challenges around dealing with the negative Westernized perception of Islam are persistent realities that motivate Mohammed to break down barriers created by Western powers as he aspires to attend post-secondary pending in the fall with the hopes of entering Law school after obtaining his Bachelor’s degree. Success beyond Limits respects his ambition to want more for himself and commend his courage to make big dreams.