Words Beats & Life
WISH LIST: $135: 500 blank CD's for recording and distributing student music; $299: Sony 8.1 MP Super zoom camera for photography students; $1500: 2 turntables and a mixer to help build a DJ learning lab
Words Beats & Life meets kids on their own ground, gets their attention, and really gets them involved. Working with young people who have unique obstacles to overcome, WBL offers hip-hop inspired arts activities at its DC Urban Arts Academy: interactive workshops in "mixing" (DJ'ing), graphic arts and design, creative writing, and fashion design. A graffiti mural course and a class in "rocking" (break dancing) get young people excited about learning. Academic classes connect students' interests in hip hop culture with more traditional subjects. A study of geographical regions becomes an opportunity to investigate their record labels, radio stations, and distribution companies. A study of rap lyrics compares the words of artists like Tupac with literary giants like Langston Hughes. Music and video production software require computer literacy, so technology becomes a tool that students want to master. Validating their passions is a way of valuing the students themselves, and then of mentoring them on a path to success. Innovation is the hallmark of this program: you can get in on the ground floor.
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