Living Hip-Hop: The Community-Based Organization as a Space for Educational Liberation

• In Event: The Beauties, Tensions, and Power of Critical Hip-Hop Pedagogy: An Interactive Dialogue

Abstract

In this paper, the researchers discuss how three community-based organizations in Northern California leverage Hip Hop praxis to facilitate Hip Hop learning spaces. This study looks to substantiate Hip Hop as educational praxis and discusses how the three organizations incorporate the processes, values and orientations of the praxis into their work to create space for BIPOC youth to develop their own forms of cultural expression and critical resistance. To this extent, the paper questions our responsibility to Hip Hop in creating space for educational liberation if Hip Hop is at the heart of how BIPOC youth are identifying and engaging with the world. The paper ends by discussing whether traditional education has an appetite for Hip Hop as a viable praxis and how it can maintain its authenticity in traditional education spaces.

Authors

• Ijeoma E. Ononuju, Touro University California

• Shaun de Vera, California State University - Sacramento

• Vajra M. Watson, University of Redlands