Trap Civics as Black Liberatory Praxis

• In Event: Beyond Respectability: Centering Trap Music and Epistemologies on the Road to Educational Remedy and Repair

Abstract

This project investigates the relationship between joy, critical consciousness, and critical civic learning that exist in critical hip hop pedagogy. In order to discover pedagogical models for centering joy while studying topics students may find difficult to process like intersectional racism. This study looks at how Trap Civics, a critical hip hop curriculum designed to facilitate both joy and critical consciousness, adds to our overall understanding of liberatory social studies education.
Whether it is slave songs, gospel, blues, or hip hop Black music throughout the years has alchemized narratives of pain into joy. This alchemic quality in Black music can be a pedagogical tool within the larger project of Critical Hip Hop Pedagogy, that can aid teachers in developing critical civic reasoning capacities in their students while prioritizing both an honest understanding of history and the emotional wellbeing of students. Jim Crow, slavery, and eugenics are topics that can be difficult for both teachers and students and as a result of the difficulty are often ignored. However Trap Civics leans into the dark corners of history and uses rap as a tool for students to process these concepts in ways that allow for joy. The questions that guide this study are: 1)How are students developing critical conciousness through joy in the Trap Civics pedagogical model? 2)What implications does this have for social justice social studies learning models?
Findings demonstrate that when students write their own rap songs as opposed to merely analyzing existing ones, it demonstrates new forms of civic literacy that positions students and knowledge producers as opposed to knowledge consumers. Through an exploration of over one hundred student-created rap songs via Blackout Rap Transcription, findings from this study put forth three key considerations for educators interested in designing educational experiences that center liberatory joy and critical civic learning: 1) create space for young people to process and express their lived experiences, 2) allow for ratchet styles of behavior and rap lyrics, and 3) be fully student-centered and creating space for students to articulate their ruminations on joy.

Author

• Jonathan Tunstall, Bowdoin College