CHAPTER THREE

(Re)building the cypher

Fulfilling the promise of hip hop for liberation

Paul J. Kuttner and Mariama White-Hammond1

Editors’ note

At the core of the concept of the organic globalizer is the notion that hip hop may hold liberating potential by connecting cultural and social awareness to social change and political participation. By no means does hip hop have to be a vessel for liberation. Neither does it have to connect cultural or social awareness to social transformation. On the other hand, the conceptual framework we’ve presented here focuses on how that process has taken place in the political development of hip hop in the past—and how it might take place in the future. The organic globalizer, in other words, focuses on one (and, we argue, an important) quality of hip hop that is both descriptive and normative. Paul Kuttner and Mariama White-Hammond’s work fits squarely in that framework. Their chapter picks up on the pedagogical potential for hip hop outlined by Albert in Chapter 2 and carries it one step further. Kuttner and White-Hammond introduce us to Project HIP-HOP—an organization which

1 Authors’ names are ordered alphabetically.

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trains black and Latino/a hip hop artists to use their art as a catalyzing force for social change in their communities. “(Re)building the cypher” makes the important connection between what we have described as phase 1 and phase 2 of hip hop’s development—between cultural awareness and social creation/institution building. They argue that Project HIP-HOP looks to build social and aspirational capital through the organization’s mission, a vital building block in creating durable institutions in civil society geared toward social justice.

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Introduction

As Tricia Rose (2008) demonstrates in her book The Hip Hop Wars, discourse about hip hop—especially its most popular art form, rap music—is highly polarized. On one side are those who dismiss the art form entirely, blaming it for the destruction of American values while using it as evidence of the deficits of black youth culture. These single-minded attacks serve as vehicles for blaming poor communities of color for the very oppressive conditions with which they struggle. Attacking hip hop as a source of, rather than a response to, poverty and violence ignores the structural racism and classism that maintain the urban ghetto, and, even more absurdly, frames the perennial cultural issues of sexism, violence, and homophobia as if they emerged whole cloth in the 1970s. At the same time, those who love hip hop can become equally extreme, celebrating hip hop music and related art forms uncritically. Hip hop aficionados present a united front by denying or ignoring the ways that hip hop culture intersects with sexism, homophobia, racism, and other forms of oppression. Any negative aspect of hip hop music, for example, can be explained away by stating that artists are simply “keeping it real”—as if rap were the unadulterated voice of youth of color, rather than an art form fundamentally shaped by an increasingly small number of major media companies and the amoral processes of capitalism. Individuals may hold more nuanced views of hip hop, and there have long been internal debates about the future of the culture, yet there is little space in public dialogue for loving but critical views. To admit publicly to systemic flaws in hip hop, many fear, is to leave hip hop open to the same old overblown attacks that the culture has been bombarded with for years (Rose 2008). Those of us committed to hip hop as a process of political and cultural liberation must not fall into this trap. We have every right to celebrate the ways that hip hop has served as a form of protest, voice, and counterstory-telling for marginalized and oppressed communities. Today we have ample

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evidence of the potential of using the hip hop arts to support activism (Clay 2012; Flores-Gonzáles et al. 2006; Ginwright 2007), education (Akom 2009; Hill 2009; Hill and Petchauer 2013; Low 2011; Seidel 2011), political participation (Ards 2004; Malone and Martinez 2010), and even revolution (Hebblethwaite 2011). But we cannot simply avoid the more uncomfortable aspects of hip hop. In fact, it is through engaging directly and critically with the complexities and contradictions of hip hop that learning and transformation can take place (Low 2011). The integration of hip hop and social change work requires more than simply taking hip hop as it is and turning it toward political ends. It is about creating the hip hop artists and communities we need. As Rose (2008: 27) explains, for hip hop to fulfill its potential as a political force we must re-imagine it according to “community-inspired standards marked by a balanced, loving, socially and politically progressive vision.” In this chapter, we respond to Rose’s call to re-imagine hip hop not just by giving examples of how hip hop has been used as a progressive force, but also by exploring how to go about creating the kind of hip hop commu-nities we need. The process we describe is based on the work of Project HIP-HOP (Highways Into the Past, History, Organizing, and Power), a Boston-based youth organization that trains young black and Latino/a hip hop artists as cultural organizers (Benavente and Richardson 2011) who can use their art to catalyze social change in their communities. We are: (1) a researcher and educator who spent a year with Project HIP-HOP (PHH) conducting an in-depth ethnographic study of the organization’s cultural organizing model; and (2) a one-time youth member and now Executive Director of PHH who has shepherded the organization through 12 years of growth and evolution. The ideas presented here have emerged from a dialogue between empirical research and practical experience. To envision the kind of hip hop communities we need in order to realize hip hop’s liberatory potential, we offer the metaphor of the cypher. The hip hop cypher, in which individual artists take turns performing and supporting one another in friendly competition, embodies hip hop’s roots as a form of individual and communal expression. Hip hop today, at least in its most widely disseminated forms, is out of balance. Building—and in some ways, rebuilding—the cypher means balancing hip hop’s tendencies toward individuality, competition, and boastfulness with the increasingly marginalized values of community, collaboration, and representing. It means supporting individual artists, while rebuilding the circle around him or her. (Re)building the cypher requires a process of (re)connection. Through engagement with history, political education, ritual, activism, and collective artistic practice, PHH connects young artists to their past, their peers, and their purpose. These three processes involve critical engagement with hip hop culture and art as a starting point for addressing pressing social

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issues. Underlying these processes is an asset-based approach to youth empowerment based in the multiple sources of cultural wealth available in communities of color (Yosso 2005). First and foremost, PHH relies on the linguistic capital young people bring with them—their communicative skills, storytelling traditions, and “ability to communicate via visual art, music or poetry” (Yosso 2005: 79). At the same time, PHH works to connect youth with forms of cultural wealth that they may not have full awareness of or access to. These include: (1) resistant capital, the “know ledges and skills fostered through oppositional behavior that challenges inequality” as well as “cultural knowledge of the structures of racism and motivation to transform such oppressive structures” (Yosso 2005: 81); (2) social capital, networks of relationships that can serve as resources for individual benefit and collective action (Saegert et al. 2001); and (3) aspirational capital, or “the ability to maintain hopes and dreams for the future, even in the face of real and perceived barriers” (Yosso 2005: 77).

The cypher

So stay in your orbit, maintain safe and soundLike the planets each cypher remains perfectly round.

(RAKIM, MYSTERY (WHO IS GOD?))

A hip hop cypher consists of a circle of people who take turns performing—rapping, dancing, singing, etc. Some participants beat out a rhythm with mouths, hands, or feet, while others perform or shout words of support. Cyphers are often treated as a friendly competition, and a space for artists to enhance their artistic reputations. The cypher harkens back to a time before wide access to recording technology. Although the cypher is still practiced today, emerging hip hop artists now have many other outlets for their skills, such as recording and distributing songs on the internet, and may have never taken part in an actual cypher. The cypher, then, carries the DNA of hip hop’s origins on the street corners and in the house parties of the 1970s Bronx. As a low-tech form of performance that requires nothing but people, it embodies what Seidel (2011) calls “hip hop genius”—the ability to make something from almost nothing. The cypher is as a useful metaphor for the kind of hip hop—and the kind of communities—that progressive cultural organizations like PHH are working to build. The culture of the cypher challenges the dominant image of hip hop today: the lone, superstar MC boasting of his or her individual exploits, be they commercial, sexual, or criminal. This dominant image reflects a capitalist cultural model, promoting individuality and competi-tiveness above all else. Individuality and competitiveness, often in the form

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of over-the-top braggadocio, have always been a part of hip hop. However, for much of hip hop’s history, these tendencies were embedded in a more complex array of values, practices, and approaches. Such approaches still exist in many hip hop spaces, but mainstream hip hop has been simplified and pared down through decades of commodification and industry consoli-dation to the point where its most popular cultural products—commercial rap in particular—offer little raw material for envisioning and fighting for a different future (Rose 1994, 2008). The cypher offers an alternative vision of hip hop that incorporates individuality, competitiveness, and braggadocio while balancing them with their opposites.

MM A cypher offers space for each individual artist to shine, but it does so in the context of a collective. At any moment, one artist holds the spotlight, but the cypher as a whole is built on turn taking—“passing the mic” so that all have a chance to speak. Artists often respond to one another in their performances. As hip hop educator Emdin (2013: 22) explains, “During cyphers, the multifaceted nature of the cultural and verbal exchanges among participants leads to the building of communality among members of the cypher.”

MM The cypher is often treated as a competition—a chance for artists to demonstrate their superiority. At the same time, it relies on collaboration. Those who are not rapping or dancing join in the beat-making and cheering. The battle itself offers a chance for all artists to improve through their efforts to one-up others. From outside, a cypher can have the appearance of a well-choreographed collaborative performance (Emdin 2013).

MM Finally, the cypher is a space for each artist to boast of his or her own skill and creatively insult others—the foundational practice of rap battling. But it can also be a space in which artists can represent for their crews, streets, and neighborhoods.

At PHH, the cypher is being both literally and metaphorically rebuilt. This process, which embeds individual artistry in a collective, collaborative circle, is necessarily one of connection.

(Re)building the cypher at Project HIP-HOP

PHH is a non-profit organization that engages mostly young black and Latino/a artists, ages 14 to 21, from across Boston’s communities of color. Blending artistic practice, leadership development, and community

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organizing, PHH trains youth as “cultural organizers” who can use their art to catalyze individual and collective action toward social justice. PHH was founded in 1993 to connect Boston youth to the history of the Civil Rights Movement beginning with an annual tour, or “rolling classroom,” through the South (Murray and Garrido 1995). Over the years the organization has used magazines, radio programs, street theater, open mics, political education, public performances, and direct action to develop the critical analyses of young people and engage them in addressing the root causes of societal injustice. While most of the young artists who join PHH have significant passion for hip hop arts, they arrive at many different stages in their understanding of hip hop’s relationship to systems of power and oppression. Some have already begun to develop complex views of hip hop with critiques, for instance, of the misogynist tendencies of many songs. But for most, hip hop is largely taken at face value, and “negative” aspects of the music are explained as simply “keeping it real,” or as a form of release for artists. And for the vast majority of youth members, their understanding of hip hop is based on its current form, with little knowledge of its evolution over the decades. At the same time, youth arrive at PHH with a wide variety of understandings of oppression, power, and resistance. All have visceral, personal experience with racism and other forms of oppression, but many do not yet have the language to describe them as more than individual struggles. Some have a more developed sense of systemic injustice, but do not have the tools to begin addressing it, or cannot see roles for themselves in creating change. Therefore, in order to prepare these young artists to be cultural leaders, using hip hop as part of collective action for justice, PHH must help them re-imagine their place within hip hop and within the wider world. This process of rebuilding the cypher involves connecting youth to their past, their peers, and their purpose.

Connecting youth to their past

Rebuilding the cypher is about looking backward in order to move forward. Young hip hop artists are heirs to rich legacies of struggle and resistance, including a multitude of efforts to use art and cultural work toward justice. Through these past struggles, communities of color have learned much about the workings of power, and about how to push back against domination. This “resistant capital” (Yosso 2005) can inform and fuel hip hop activism. However, young artists may know very little of this inherited past—even as it relates to the relatively recent history of hip hop. Therefore the foundational strategy of rebuilding the cypher is connecting youth to their past. Youth at PHH are supported in understanding the historical roots of

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existing community issues such as poverty, violence, and mass-incarceration. PHH practices a form of critical pedagogy (Freire 1970; hooks 1994; McLaren 2003) that helps youth see the ways that their everyday experiences of racism and oppression are the result of long-running historical processes and systems built over time. Given its focus on cultural transformation, PHH spends significant time exploring how ideologies such as white supremacy and patriarchy have evolved over time, and how these ideologies uphold systems of power. In the summer of 2011, for instance, youth took on the issue of violence in communities of color. Through lectures, discussions, writing exercises, films, improvisation, and arts practices like Theater of the Oppressed (Boal 1979), youth traced root causes back all the way to the ideologies of the European slave trade, and the trauma that slavery and its legacy have left on communities in the African Diaspora. As part of this process, youth analyzed the ways that they may have internalized oppressive ideologies, leading to feelings of self-doubt and self-hate—a process of individual and collective healing (Ginwright 2010). Ultimately, the youth created an original piece of hip hop street theater in which they presented this story to community members, working to spread resistant capital more broadly in the neighborhood. PHH also looks to the past in order to learn from the ways that people of color have resisted oppression, particularly through arts and culture. PHH’s longest-running program is an annual “rolling classroom” focused on the history of the African American Civil Rights Movement. Youth pile into vans and travel through the U.S. South meeting civil rights veterans, visiting historical landmarks, and talking to young organizers. Youth learn about how music, theater, and other black cultural forms were integral to the movement, alongside direct action and grassroots organizing. This experience makes history feel more immediate and relevant so that, as one youth put it, “life is breathed into history, and history is no longer history but life” (Murray and Garrido 1995: 48). It also puts hip hop activism in a historical context as the modern face of a long line of cultural movements linked to political struggle. Key to the process of connecting youth with their history is a close study of the history of hip hop itself. Most (though not all) youth come to PHH with a very narrow window onto the history of the culture to which they are heir. PHH focuses on broadening this understanding by studying the history of hip hop since the 1970s, as well as its links with earlier cultural movements. In fact, one of the first things that visitors to PHH see upon entering the space is a long, lime-green historical timeline of hip hop that youth created in the program years ago. The timeline informs all visitors that when PHH speaks of “hip hop” they refer not only to what hip hop is now, but everything it has been. Tools for studying hip hop history include the analysis of hip hop lyrics, group discussions, videos, timeline mapping, and group improvisation.

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Through the study of hip hop history, youth expand their knowledge of how hip hop artists have been involved in social change, from early efforts to give voice to the reality of ghetto life, up through more recent involvement of hip hop artists in advocating against injustice. These examples offer shoulders upon which young hip hop activists can stand. At the same time, PHH members study how hip hop has changed over the years, particularly how it has been shaped by the influence of corporate media. Though corporate interests have been present in hip hop since at least 1979 (Watkins 2005), the discovery of hip hop’s profitability among white audiences, along with massive media consolidation, has led mainstream hip hop to focus on an ever-narrowing slice of life in commu-nities of color (Rose 2008). It has also heightened the already existing strains of sexism, homophobia, and racist stereotyping. By looking closely at hip hop lyrics, and exploring their own relationships with hip hop music, youth develop a more critical lens regarding hip hop’s role in supporting oppressive ideologies. This critical eye serves as a jumping-off point for critiquing oppression more broadly in society, and opens up the possibility that youth do not have to accept hip hop as it is, but rather can help craft it into what it could be.

Connecting youth to their peers

Rebuilding the cypher is about connecting young hip hop artists with a wider community, particularly other young people of their generation. Hip hop for liberation is a collective endeavor, and therefore relies on social capital—networks of relationships that can serve as resources for individual benefit and collective action (Saegertet et al. 2001). PHH works to connect young artists to existing sources of social capital, while also building new social capital among youth participants. The building of social capital requires creating opportunities for the growth of authentic, collaborative relationships with others. But social capital also has a psychological aspect that must be fostered. It requires a “sense of community” (Perkins and Long 2002)—feelings of trust, belonging, responsibility, and accountability to others. It requires a sense of “shared fate” among members, a feeling that our issues are connected and our destinies tied together (Kuttner et al. 2011). Building such a sense of community can conflict, at times, with the dominant hip hop culture of individual success and solo performance. PHH builds relationships among youth through collaborative artistic creation and performance. The organization creates public group perfor-mances, often in the form of street theater, flash mobs, or staged plays. In past years these performances have addressed mass incarceration, racial profiling, and environmental justice, among other themes. The theatrical structure serves as a frame in which individuals or small groups can

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perform their particular art forms—raps, poems, songs, dances—linked together like mosaic tiles with central themes or narratives. Like the cypher, these plays make space for individuals to shine, while at the same time ensuring that all youth are dependent on one another for the success of the entire piece. Individuals must be accountable to the rest of the ensemble, and one person’s failure to attend or to commit fully to the performance affects everybody. These plays are usually created through an extended devising process, in which youth collaboratively create scenes through improvisations, writing exercises, and group discussion. This process gives all youth ownership over the piece, and a stake in the entire work—after all, one artist’s writing may become another artist’s line. Similarly, the PHH dance team has a practice called “the win-win circle.” This practice takes the strongest dancers and pairs them with some of the weaker dancers in order to elevate the group. The idea is that the stronger dancers elevate their leadership through teaching and the weaker dancers enhance their perfor-mance through learning. As a result both parties win and the performance is stronger. The strongest dancers are honored based on their ability to elevate their entire team and not just themselves. The social capital of youth is also expanded through alliances with other youth and adult community-based organizations in Boston. In 2012, for example, PHH joined a coalition of youth organizations called the Youth Affordabili(T) Coalition (YAC), which at the time was fighting to stop fare hikes and service cuts on Boston’s public transportation system. PHH’s contribution to the alliance was largely artistic—creating public performances linked to the campaign, including a piece of guerilla theater performed at a major rally. This alliance offered multiple opportunities for youth at PHH to build relationships with other youth working for social change in the city, including rallies, retreats, meetings, and other educa-tional opportunities. At these events, youth have the chance to share their individual stories, and the reasons that they have come to this work. Engaging with history, as described above, plays a role in building a psychological sense of community among youth, a sense that extends beyond the walls of PHH to include wider communities. Whether traveling through the U.S. South, studying up on hip hop history, or exploring the experience of the slave trade through theater, youth are encouraged to see themselves in the faces of the past. It is not just “a” history, or even “my” history—it is “our” history. It serves as what organizer and scholar Marshall Ganz (2010) calls a “story of us”—a narrative that can serve as a basis for a collective identity. A sense of shared past—and an empowering past at that—suggests a shared present and thus a shared future. As one young person put it, “our people got here together, we actually have to stay here together.” In addition to learning about history, youth participate in rituals derived from African, African American, and Native American cultures. These rituals offer simple, yet profound ways to practice a culture of collectivity.

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One such ritual uses the chant “pamoja tutashinda,” which is a Swahili phrase meaning “together we win.” Each young person puts one hand into the circle and grasps his or her neighbor’s thumb, forming a seamless ring. The group chants “pamoja tutashinda” seven times while stomping in a circle. Through this ritual the youth, most of whom are from the African Diaspora but may have never learned a phrase in an African language, are linked to their own history while taking part in a distinctly PHH tradition. Other rituals, also based on the form of a circle, include the Native American tradition of the talking stick, and the hip hop cypher itself. These rituals are important to making youth feel connected to the collective, promoting what PHH affectionately calls “the way we be.” This phrase gives a hip hop vernacular edge to the more common term “way of being,” and invites each young person to own the organization’s culture as their collective way of being with each other. PHH practices a pedagogy of love (Darder 2002), which often manifests in family-like relationships. Many PHH members describe the organi-zation as a type of “family,” and the PHH space as a “home.” Of course, PHH youth bring many different notions of family into the space, as well as diverse family dynamics, often complicated by challenges related to intergenerational tension, poverty, incarceration, etc. The kind of family promoted by PHH involves a blend of acceptance and accountability. Youth speak of PHH as a space where they can “be themselves” and not be judged, where they are accepted for who they are. At the same time, they are challenged to grow and learn in new ways as they navigate the PHH community and balance their needs with the needs of others. Ultimately, youth come to expect others to “have their back” and to “ride or die” for one another. This practice of being a family extends to the way that disputes are settled in the group. Project HIP-HOP relies on the indigenous practice of meeting in circles, which can be formed to offer thanks to each other, to evaluate a project or performance, or to deal with a conflict. For example, in 2012 a young man was brought into the circle because his language and behavior were oppressive to the young women and they wanted to confront him. At the time he was unwilling to change because he felt the need to “keep it real” and not change who he was. As a result he was asked to leave the group until he could come back in a way that would honor what the young women were saying to him—something he was later able to do. This was a challenging moment for the group because this young man brought much talent and passion to the work, but the youth understood that the swagger he added was outweighed by the tension that he engendered. This kind of accountability, embedded in love and acceptance rather than rejection, is a form of love that is key to rebuilding the cypher.

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Connecting youth to their purpose

Connecting youth to their purpose is about challenging young artists to think beyond themselves and those close to them—to assess their respon-sibility and role in society as cultural workers. PHH posits that an artist’s development is not complete until he or she has a sense of personal mission relating to a broader community or audience. In doing so, PHH challenges traditional Western notions of the artist as separate from everyday life, as well as the trend in mainstream hip hop to privilege individual expression and “keeping it real” above a sense of community responsibility. Instead, PHH looks to African concepts of the artist as intimately tied to tribal governance and civic life (Hale 1997). At the same time, connecting youth to their purpose is about fostering hope and the ability to envision change. Yosso (2005) writes about the value of “aspirational capital” in commu-nities of color—the ability to hope and dream despite real and perceived barriers. Finding your purpose, in this sense, involves both believing that change is possible for you and those around you, and believing that you have some power to bring that change about. At PHH, youth begin the artistic process by identifying key messages, audiences, and potential impacts of their work. These artistic and political goals emerge in part from the sharing of personal struggles, through which youth discover common issues and concerns. These goals also come from the lessons learned through the political education described above, as youth take on the responsibility of spreading newly gained knowledge. By focusing on the impact of art, PHH asks young people to see their art as powerful. This imbues the artistic process with a sense of responsibility, which is often considered limiting to personal expression. At PHH, thinking about impact is framed as a way to elevate creativity rather than limiting it—to challenge artists toward new forms and heights of expression. It can be challenging to some young artists, for whom art has served primarily as an expression of personal experiences, to think about how their work is received by others and the ways in which it might contribute to the very problems they oppose. But it can also be empowering. Youth begin to understand the power they already possess, and begin to see that they can have an impact on the direction of their communities. This is supported by the study of how artists of the past have acted as social critics, and as keepers of a people’s stories—from the use of Roman graffiti to challenge Julius Caesar, to the speaking drums that carried the story of African peoples even after being brought to the Americas. In order for young artists to develop a sense of purpose, they must first see themselves as competent and powerful. This means countering the low expectations that youth of color often face in media, schools, and other institutions, and helping them see that through practice they

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can grow and achieve mastery. As psychologists like Dweck (1996) have shown, a major hindrance to individual development is the assumption that skill or intelligence is inherited and fixed, rather than malleable. This is a very common idea in the arts, a field where people are often seen as being either “artistic” or “not artistic.” When young people see skills as changeable—something they can improve through practice—they are able to develop a “mastery-orientation” toward challenges and new learning. At PHH, youth receive a rubric within their first month that shows which skills they are expected to master. They are re-evaluated every three months to chart their growth. Those youth who work the hardest are rewarded with the biggest and most frequent performance opportunities. This rubric, and the discussions that it engenders between youth and staff, helps youth to see and critically analyze their own growth. However, while individual growth and empowerment are important, alone they can leave individualistic notions of success intact. In order to rebuild the cypher, youth must also grow as leaders, who can build relation-ships and take action with others. PHH frames young artists as “cultural leaders,” creating opportunities for them to practice leadership in their neighborhoods. Often in coalition with other youth organizations, PHH members create art meant to catalyze dialogue and action around social justice issues. In 2013, for example, youth created a rolling flash mob that moved through three Latino, Asian, and black communities where organ-izers were working to increase the voter turnout. The flash mob encouraged people to vote, and reminded them about some of the core issues that would be decided by the election. This action helped members to see the value of their art in terms of community impact, and to construct a role for themselves as part of a broader change effort.

Conclusion

Hip hop has served as a powerful tool for education, counterstorytelling, organizing, and social change around the globe. The question is not whether hip hop can promote justice, but whether it will promote justice. Hip hop is only as strong as the community that holds it together. Because of vociferous, and often blatantly racist condemnation of hip hop art forms by outsiders, the hip hop community has often reacted by defending all of its culture regardless of content. Project HIP-HOP is just one of many organizations and individuals who believe in the cultural power of hip hop, and who also believe that more space for critical dialogue and account-ability is needed in order for the culture to achieve its transformative potential.

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We are not arguing that all, or even most, hip hop art needs to be explicitly political. It should be as diverse, eclectic, and multi-vocal as the communities from which it emerges. Instead, we are suggesting that if we are looking to foster justice through hip hop culture and art, then there is often important groundwork to be done. We follow Tricia Rose’s (2008) call to re-imagine hip hop, and offer a process through which it can be done with young artists. The three processes we describe—connecting youth to their past, their peers, and their purpose—are presented separately for ease of analysis. However, in reality, they are inextricably linked. For example, through learning about shared history youth can come to feel a stronger sense of connection with their peers. This sense of connection, in turn, can drive feelings of purpose and responsibility to a broader group of people. At PHH we see this, metaphorically, as a process of rebuilding the cypher—embedding individual artistry in a collaborative, loving, critical, accountable, and ultimately justice-oriented community.

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Benavente, J. and R. L. Richardson. 2011. “Cultural Organizing: Experiences at the Intersection of Art and Activism.” Animating Democracy. http://animatingdemocracy.org/resource/cultural-organizaing-experiences-intersection-art-and-activism (accessed July 12, 2011).

Boal, Augusto. 1979. Theater of the Oppressed. London: Pluto Press.Clay, A. 2012. The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back: Youth, Activism, and

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Emdin, C. 2013. “The Rap Cypher, the Battle, and Reality Pedagogy: Developing Communication and Argumentation in Urban Science Education.” In M. L. Hill and E. Petchauer, eds, Schooling Hip-Hop: Expanding Hip-Hop Based Education Across the Curriculum, pp. 11–27. New York: Teachers College Press.

Flores-Gonzáles, N., M. Rodríguez, and M. Rodríguez-Muñiz. 2006. “From Hip-Hop to Humanization: Batey Urbano as a Space for Latino Youth Culture and Community Action.” In P. Noguera, S. A. Ginwright, and J. Cammarota,

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