Poetry, Rap, Spoken Word infuse into curriculum = A form of literacy

This past week in two of my courses, we were discussing poetry, spoken words, and rap as a form of literacy. In my Adolescent literature class, we read a book entitled, Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes, who is a famous African-American poet. The book is about a class in a school in the Bronx, who has "Open Mike", which is a forum where students are given the space to present their poems. Topics range from identity, teen pregnancy, domestic abuse, gender expectations, and more. In between the poems, are short vignettes spoken in the tense of the students themselves, that give an insight to the student. I absolutely LOVE the book, and would recommend it to everyone! For more information visit the website:http://www.nikkigrimes.com/tour.html
In another class, Teaching English/Literacy, a group of kids from a charter school, Young Scholars, located in Philadelphia, came to speak about their "Hip-Hop class" and the cd they had created, of which my classmate and I were given the previous week. The Hip Hop class was a club/after-school program in which students came to create poems and raps about things that were important to them. Five of the students, which came to visit our class, described their work as, "positive hip-hop". There work was, as one described, "poetry to beats..all rap is, is poetry". They revealed the fun the have "freestyling" and listening to the beats. These very articulate students were very conscious and serious about the issues discussed in their work, and mentioned how they wanted their words to be more than just "heard" but genuinely digested by the listeners, especially their peers. The issues they touch on ranged from, stereotypes of Black teens, awareness of African-American culture,violence in thier communities, but it also was a very comical and funny, creatively done cd. I truly was impressed and proud of the "young scholars" group. Visit the groups charter school website:http://www.phillyscholars.org/ and http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=15312