A response to Bronwen E. Low’s article “What do hip-hop, spoken word, and slam poetry have in common and how might they be used in a secondary school English classroom?”

This article can be found in:

James, K., Dobson, T., Leggo, C., eds. English in Middle and Secondary Classrooms: Creative and Critical Advice from Canada’s Teacher Educators. Toronto: Pearson, 2012.

Low’s article quoted rapper and educator KRS-One as saying, “rap music is something we do, but hip hop is something we live.” This assertion underlines rap (and therefore spoken word) as a vehicle to convey a lifestyle choice. Dismissing rap or spoken word in the classroom as “not good enough”, therefore, can be tantamount to marginalizing the voices and expressions of a whole community (a community that many high school students are a part of!) I have always enjoyed and connected with spoken word, and although I am not a huge fan of rap, I appreciate the effort and extreme skill it takes to be a good rap artist, just as much as I appreciate the efforts and skills of writers who produce literary canons.

I did my undergraduate honours thesis on an art form that is seldom academically appreciated: stand-up comedy. In taking an active stance to bring stand-up comedy into the world of academia, I felt like I was supporting and validating an aspect of culture that needed more respect in academia.

Therefore, as a beginning to the journey of bringing academically-marginalized art forms into my classroom, I will attempt to give rap some validation in this response. How? Low’s article mentions that Morrell and Duncan-Andrade (2004) created a lesson plan where students were invited to match canonical poems with contemporary rap songs. I really liked this idea because it shows how humans today struggle with some of the same issues, or celebrate some of the same joys, that humans did hundreds of years ago. It unifies our shared human experiences and shows that human expression, regardless of form, should be equally appreciated and considered.

I decided to try this exercise myself and add an extra layer to it: I will match a rap song with a canonical poem and then write an original spoken-word poem that matches the theme of the other two. Asking students to do the same will allow them to learn crucial language skills: understanding how vocabulary and language changes depending on context, identifying important social or personal issues in poetry and other art forms, and creating original works that allow them to develop their own written ideas, style and personality.

I have chosen Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” (http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377) and Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” (http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/eminem/loseyourself.html). Although the two are very different, I found both to have a shared urgency about seizing the moment, or seizing the day (carpe diem).

Thomas’s poem tells the reader to “not go gentle into that good night” and to “rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Thomas’s subject matter revolves around aging and living life to its fullest potential while it lasts.

Eminem’s lyrics, on the other hand, are not about aging, but rather more about taking chances when you get them: “You better lose yourself in the music, the moment, you better never let it go, you only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow, this opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo.” Despite this difference, both works have a hopeful message of empowerment: take the chance, live your life, don’t let it pass you by.

Finally, here is my own contribution:

Jigsaw

I have met them, those people who

packed their lives into suitcases and

took off, feeling like their world would never

be big enough; and I’ve tried it,

racing against time as I realize that

I wish I had a time barrel that would store

every second as it fell from the clock

in order to breathe more, feel more, see more.

I’m always told “the time is NOW” and

that everything else, somehow,

will fall into place; I think it’s more like

how we find pieces to our jigsaws

along the way –

they might not necessarily fit together,

but you’ll keep them because

someday later you’ll find

that missing piece that goes between.

Sometimes you’ll pocket a piece of sunshine

and sometimes a little of rain,

and perhaps, unwillingly, that storm cloud

that washes the sunshine away.

I have had my share of all

and know that while the sun

has warmed me on my way,

it is lightning that has struck me,

loved me,

and left me changed;

believe me when I say storms

are sometimes the best things;

even as they leave you battered,

their spark tends to remind you

that yeah, you’re living,

and you’ve survived.

I know I’ll meet many on my travels,

others who have their suitcases

never fully unpacked, always ready –

Others who will have umbrellas

for the rain and

mugs of hot cocoa for the storms

and perhaps some others who

will be ready to

find how their missing jigsaw pieces

fit into my own.