Quick Start Grants
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Cultural Heritage
Hip Hop May activities are framed by five distinct artistic and educational objectives. Firstly, the Hip Hop workshops will allow each participant the time, space, mentorship and resources to begin the lifelong process of exploring the edges of their artist identity. Secondly, engaging in the dynamic process of Hip-Hop artistry, participants will realize their ability to affect change in their environments. Thirdly, Hip-Hop is inseparable from knowledge and critical thought, and participants will grow in their curiosity to attain and practice both. Fourthly, participants will come to respect and appreciate a diverse range of honest perspectives, as witnessed in the creative truths expressed by those who share their artistry throughout the month. Finally, with the support of a positive Hip Hop community, participants will grow in their sense of self-esteem. Our first evaluation tool will utilize participant sign-in sheets. Participants must complete a sign-in sheet at both workshops. Additionally, a mandatory sign-up sheet will be provided for youth who want to perform during the Park Jam. Multiple conclusions will be drawn from this data. For one, the number count of participants will measure how well we connected with the interests of the local youth. Secondly, we will observe the overlap of participants who attended the workshops and those who perform at the Park Jam. This will provide us with the percentage of youth who attended the workshops and by the end of the month decide to perform. The number of overlap will reflect the success rate of four of our five learning objectives. In performance, the participant affirms their identity as an artist for both themselves and for those who witness and/or hear about their performance. Secondly, the performing participant will exhibit their realization of self-knowledge and embody the level of knowledge that they have attained in their particular artistic medium. Furthermore, in order to share oneself with members of an audience, the participant must feel a comfortable and confident sense of self. Lastly, during their performance the participant will affirm for him/herself that they affect change in their environment. Success of all five objectives will also be determined by a questionnaire completed by teaching artists after their workshop (attached).
We had a cumulative total of 88 different youth participants who penned their names on the sign-in sheet throughout the course of the four workshops and final Hip-Hop jam. Of these 88 participants, 8 performed short emcee stints during the final Hip-Hop jam. The most frequently mentioned recommendation from the post-workshop teaching artist survey, was the need for more workshops on each element to provide youth participants with more mentored practice and more intentional time to dig deep into each element's particular form of artistry. Looking forward to next year, a more effective format may be to focus the entire month's workshops on one or two elements, so we focus our time and energy with the youth into a deeper exploration of the medium(s).
Other, local or private