How One Library Teaches Through Hip-Hop

1. How One Library Teaches Through Hip-Hop Paris Penn is a fourteen-year-old girl who believes that there needs to be a change in the world – and most specifically, in the neighborhoods she must grow up in. Working with what she knew, she rapped about it. The lyrics she penned said: “There are people lying and crying, there are people shooting and dying.” Shinar Walton, another member of the camp where Paris wrote her lyrics, also wrote lyrics about gun violence. He also covered police brutality. These are two issues which these teens must face with what feels like little help from the outside world. Penn does not think this is okay. She claims that politicians are always stating they are going to do something about the problems in not just her neighborhood but those all over the United States, but nothing is ever done. Those empty promises never get any easier for those hoping to see some substantial changes in the world they are growing up in. Paris penned her rap as part of a Hip Hop Architecture Camp. She was one of 32 students who took part in the event, and her lyrics were met with loud applause and agreement in her peers. The camp is a program meant for students in middle school in or around the Toledo area. AIA Toledo co- sponsored the camp beside the library. The two co-founding businesses say that there are hopes are that the camp can help to inspire urban youths who, they feel, are vastly underrepresented in the modern school and extracurricular structure. Paris regularly visits relatives who live in Toledo but lives with her family in Atlanta. She told reporters that the class was uplifting and offered something for everyone – nobody was left out. The camp breaks down each song by talking about the meaning behind the lyrics and what can be built with architecture. Those skills can be used to solve the problems and issues facing the community. Among other lessons are rhyme scheme and lyrical analysis alongside architectural engineering. One activity has the group build a Lego model from the number of words I a line. The rhyming words are given extra blocks based off how many letters there are. After, the kids are asked to propose solutions to some of Toledo’s issues. These issues might include a local rec center, school, homeless shelter, or hospital. The next step in this process is to have the students digitally design the building they proposed with a 3D printer. Finally, the group records a song and films a music video. Mr. Hoffer, one of the camp’s teachers, says that minorities represent only 2% of all registered architects, and of those only 0.2% are women. He thinks it is important for all people to have a say in how their communities are designed. Hoffer believes the big reason behind this is that these children are never exposed to the potential career. You can not develop dreams of pursuing something if you are never exposed to it.