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.