Preemptive Education: Language, Identity & Power

On the weekend of October 2nd, I attended Urban Word NYC's Annual Mentor, Teacher, Educator & Community Activist Training entitled Preemptive Education: Language, Identity and Power. It was a weekend workshop that examined issues that affect today's youth, while providing creative and practical resources to address them. The conference used spoken word and hip-hop as a lens to explore language and privilege, in order to educate the participants on various practices in student-centered pedagogy by providing performances, panel discussions, and professional development. The event was held right here at NYU, in the Silver Center. Although Urban Word sponsored the event, there was a suggested donation for the weekend training of $100. As an NYU student, I was able to attend for free.



On Friday, there was an open panel and youth performance that was free to the public. The performance consisted of four youth spoken word performers: Jamilla Lyscott, Carvens Lissaint, Ceez, and Thiahera Nurse. They were all between the ages of 16-19. Using their performances as launch point for the panel discussions, both the artists and panelist engaged in discussions analyzing and addressing issues around language privilege, youth voice, and social justice. After watching the performances and listening to the panel, I experienced first hand the transformative power of spoken word and how it functions to reclaim identities and challenge inequities. Although all the performances were startlingly inspiring, Thiahera Nurse's performance of a piece entitled Queens was so powerful that it actual brought me to tears. Queens confronts the hierarchy of women "beneath kings". Nurse's opening line, "I gave my womb back to my mother last night" pretty much says it all (mind you she's 17). As a teacher, I could not help but think about the values we place on language and how it inhibits expression. It made me think about the tension of language in American society. In Jamilla performance of I Be Diaspora, she states, "I am my language". In terms of our coursework on social justice and educational equality, I think the connection is obvious: the values we place on language corresponds to the value we place on our students. If we truly value our students, we have to rethink the way in which we value their use of language and make room for these "languages" in our classrooms.



The second day of the conference consisted of two lectures, two breakout sessions, a panel discussion and a keynote speaker. During each breakout session, participants had the choice of three workshops. I attended Between the Beats: Finding and Creating Stories in Hip-Hop Music lead by author, educator, and artist Crystal Belle and Educator as Actvist: Because the Struggle for Justice Does Not End When the School Bell Rings presented by NYcoRE's Bree Picower and Rosie Frascella.

During the Between the Beats workshop, Belle introduced methods of teaching storytelling techniques using hip-hop music as a model. She explored three songs with us; All That I Got is You by Ghostface, Juicy by Biggie Smalls, and Lost Ones by Lauren Hill. For each song she had a prompt which forces us to explore an element of storytelling. For Juicy, she asked us to listen to the song and think, "Does this story have a resolution?" First we listened to the song and made annotations in the lyrics and then we exercises a turn-n-talk, followed by a class discussion. As a class we concluded that the resolution was in conflict; that although Biggie speaks of his success, he also glorifies violence and struggles to stay true to his roots. The results of the lesson made the question of "Should hip-hip be used in the classroom?" unquestionable. The answer is yes. It has value, and Belle showed me how. In relation to our class, I think it teaches us that in order to be social just in the classroom, we have to reconsider text and use what our students value to teach them what they need to learn.

At the NYCoRe workshop, we discussed and brainstormed the problems we face as public school teachers and worked together to think about possible solutions. Various topics arose such as standards, budgets, and special education. After attending this workshop, I learned that teachers need to organize and become active advocates for their students, schools, communities, and themselves in order to initiate change for social justice. NYCoRe is an organization that is doing just that and serves as a model for teachers who have a passion for and emphasize social justice in their classrooms.

Overall, the conference was an amazing experience. I regret not being able to attend the last day. Urban Word NYC did an amazing job orgranizing and bringing together people on the cutting edge of education. Two thumb way way up! I would check out their website for furture events and more information: www.urbanwordnyc.org

*Number of hours: 10 (October 2nd 7-9 & October 3rd 9-5)