ENGAGE, CREATE, CURATE: HipHop2020

When youth and youth influencers engage with hip hop culture in its most indigenous form, the goal is to engage, (re)create, and curate something. That “something” might be an idea, a concept, a skill or talent, or an artifact such as vinyl records or visual art. From this perspective, hip hop culture can be defined as an expressive artform with both educational and technological imperatives for sustaining itself as a tool or medium for teaching and learning.

HipHop2020 is the curriculum development arm of the Four Four Beat Project. For the last seven years, HipHop2020 has worked with a range of organizations, schools, and post-secondary institutions to create innovative programming that utilizes hip hop based aesthetic practices (such as DJing, MCing, graffiti art, and breakdancing), pop culture, and new technologies such as Facebook and Twitter as tools for teaching and learning in formal, informal, and non-formal learning environments. With the recent acquisition of hip hop based artifacts, our focus has grown from authentic leadership development and social justice awareness to exposure to STEM opportunities in K-12 and post-secondary learning environments. Our main collaborator on STEM-based programming is Science Genius B.A.T.T.L.E.S. We believe there is a science and art to hip hop-based pedagogies that – when used effectively – can make science, technology, engineering, and mathematics more accessible and applicable to the next generation of innovators, artists, and thought leaders.

From this perspective, the primary aim of HipHop2020 is to bring clarity (20/20) to the constructive elements of hip hop-based education through curriculum development and artifact preservation, conservation, and access. The educational principles that guide our curriculum work are rooted in truth, honesty, reciprocity, balance, order, justice, and righteousness. Working with teachers, educators, students, and other youth/youth influencers, we seek to create a capacity for change at the local community level, thereby growing our capacity to influence change at the national and global level.

OUR APPROACH

Our approach is simple. We use a specially-designed instructional tool called Hip-Pop Leadership Pedagogy (HPLP) that engages youth in innovative learning buildings their basic fundamental skills in reading, writing, language arts, and math. At the pre-college and college level, the goal is to enhance students’ depth of knowledge and offer entry to the pertinent issues of their generation through critical writing, service learning, and social marketing. Whether we are working with youth, their teachers, their parents, or other youth influencers, the HipHop2020 approach takes an indigenous theoretical perspective to understanding contemporary notions of ethical theory, social thought, and global leadership. Our goal is to execute innovative “lessons” that bring about better understandings of culture and promote the development of the authentic leadership capacities of youth ages 14 to 21 and their youth influencers, thereby making them better critics and consumers of culture and media.

THE HIPHOP2020 PRODUCT: MOVEMENT WITH A PURPOSE

The HipHop2020 Curriculum Program is in the business of designing and selling innovative and relevant programming for the benefit of developing the authentic capacities of youth leaders and youth influencers. Our programming services are framed around the use of rhyme, melody, popular culture, and new technologies to achieve our results. Our market includes colleges and universities, public and private schools, learning academies, charter schools, philanthropic organizations, and corporations. Our primary audience is students, teachers, parents, administrators, and all others who are in the business of leadership development.

HIPHOP2020 ED PRINCIPLES

Truth

We believe that education and schooling should provide students with the skills and facts to help them think critically about the knowledge they receive.

Balance

We believe that all children should receive an education that create opportunities for extracting, analyzing, interrogating, and and synthesizing central themes of the knowledge taught to them.

Love & Harmony

We believe that love has a place in schools. In fact, love is necessary for a harmonious environment where students and teachers can thrive together and work for the betterment of the educational environment that they share.

Justice

We believe that educational opportunities should be equal and fair. Equally, we believe that a well-rounded educational experience should equip students with a compassion and awareness for social justice issues. Schools are places where youth and youth influencers can problem-solve about ways to alleviate racial, economic, and gender inequities.

Order

We believe that a good education starts with students acquiring “knowledge of self” and a “sense of community”. As a students learns about their gifts and talents, they are better equipped with how to utilize those skills for their personal fulfillment within a contribution to civil society.

Reciprocity

We believe that the practice of schooling and education requires the co-generation of knowledge between the student and the teacher. Learning is not a one-dimensional action. Neither is teaching. We believe that teachers are not as effective if they are not also learning from their students. We also believe that students are not as engaged in the learning process if they are not able to communicate what is being taught. The ideal learning environment is one where the teacher and the student shift between their primary roles.

REAL VALUES. IN-DEPTH UNDERSTANDING. YOUR MUSIC.

Interested in HipHop2020?

Are you interested in learning more about hip hop based education? Want to integrate these innovative pedagogies in your classroom? Want to bring us in for professional development with teachers and administrators? Interested in becoming a HipHop2020 Delegate? Perhaps you just want to know what is hip hop culture and why is it in our schools. We can help. Just click the link below to contact us.