The Columbus Hip Hop | Theatre Project

After that (and after a warm-up exercise with the first group) we started discussing hip-hop and what it means to our lives. This is a long-term discussion that will return again and again throughout the course of the project. For today, we started by making a list of anything we think "is hip-hop". This list combines everything the two groups came up with.

dance
rhyming
freestyle
punchlines
props
crumping
a way of life
words
16 bars
expression
rapping from you head
microphones
movement
having fun
singing
exercise
Adidas
settings
joking
riffing
rep
being with friends
family
fighting hard
beefing
rapping uncontrolably
ideas
clothes
fashion
being fearless
614 fighting
rapping
use of your own words
the Bronx
being afraid
tune
groups
acting
getting dirt
being yourself
being a character
handlement
violence
R+B
reggae
crunk
latino
jazz
ballet
half-dressed girls
afro-carribbean
jamaican dancehall
old school
bluegrass
breakdancing
love
life
choreography
drama
negative alk
ghetto French
looking good
history
ghetto
cussing
graffiti
music
on point
getting shot
drugs
booties
DJs
beats

It's important to note that this was a brainstorm, so we didn't judge the rightness or wrongness of any of the answers given.

Our last interactivity involved a poem by Leolonni Blake called "I Am from Soul Food and Harriet Tubman". It goes like this.

I am from get-togethers
and Bar-B-Ques
K-Mart special with matching shoes.
Baseball bats and BB guns,
a violent family is where I'm from.

I am from "get it girl"
and "shake it to the ground."
From a strict dad named Lumb
sayin' "sit yo' fass self down."

I am from the smell of soul food
cooking in Lelinna's kitchen.
From my Pappa's war stories
to my granny's cotton pickin'.

I am from Kunta Kinte's strength,
Harriet Tubman's escapes.
Phyllis Wheatley's poems,
and Sojourner Truth's faith.

If you did family research,
and dug deep into my genes,
You'll find Sylvester and Ora, Geneva, and Doc,
My African Kings and Queens.
That's where I'm from.

Having read the poem aloud, we wrote a group poem. Each person in the room was asked to contribute one item to the list. This is the AIMS version of Blake's poem.

We are from cartoons and comic books,
watching BET and eating. Sometimes
Sunday dinner at Granny's house.

We are from the mountains and the ghetto,
Eastland Mall and the AIMS school,
and we are from the water.

We are from videogames and more videogames,
shopping and getting our nails done,
but we are also from working hard.

We are from football, basketball,
Cheerleading and all kinds of sports,
Singing and dancing with rhythms,
And we are from beats and music.

Lastly, each group listened to a recording of a poem by Okechuku, a 13-year old poet from Washington, DC. The recording is from a CD that comes with the book My Words Consume Me, published by Youth Speaks.