RAP Odyssey is a communication program designed for, and in collaboration with, young hip-hop artists growing up in inner city communities.
Skill-building activities are inspired by the timeless stories of Homer’s Odyssey, hip-hop history and culture, and current events of urban importance. The outcome is truth communicated through rap by youth made wise through life-changing urban experiences. Their eagerness to be heard is the cornerstone of the RAP Odyssey program.
THE RAP ODYSSEY STORY
Joy Marie Sever, Ph.D.
It was April 8 2014. I was in a Greenwich Village coffee shop when I heard the barista say “Nas, that’s my man.” The reverence was striking. “Who is Nas?” I asked. The response was immediate. Nas is a hip-hop artist. One of the very best. His album Illmatic was playing in the background. Time is Illmatic, a documentary about Nas' life and the making of Illmatic (released 20 years earlier), was about to premiere at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. And then someone said: “Rap is poetry.”
That same day I watched Bill Maher’s interview with Nas. I was struck by what Nas said. And how he said it. I listened to Nas’ music. I read about the Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellowship (2013) at the Hiphop Archive and Research Institute at Harvard University (established in 2002). And I watched more interviews – including Nas' April 24th interview on the Tavis Smiley show. That's when I heard Nas say:
“It’s the same way in the streets …If you feel like you’re onto something that’s going to be big, there’s a lot of distractions, there’s a lot of people that’s not going to want to see you get there. You have to navigate yourself around that. …When you know there’s a higher goal in your life … there should be nothing that holds you back from reaching your goal. You have to be …steadfast. You can’t break away … stay on your course, that’s the only way.”
Nas’ street story was Odysseus’ epic story. I didn’t know if Nas had read the Odyssey, but I knew that Jay-Z had. In 2009, he told Oprah that the Odyssey was a book that had "made a difference in his life." In the months to follow I read Wu Tang Clan’s RZA talking about the hubris of the Greeks in his book The Tao of Wu. And in The Wu Tang Manual, RZA said he had read Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
Three of the most revered hip-hop artists were connected to Homer’s 3,000-year old epic song.
This is why the hustler’s story–through hip-hop–has connected with a global audience. The deeper we get into those sidewalk cracks and into the mind of the young hustler trying to find his fortune there, the closer we get to the ultimate human story, the story of struggle, which is what defines us all.
Jay-Z, Decoded, 2010.
In 2009, Jay-Z told Oprah that reading about Odysseus’ struggle in Homer’s Odyssey made a difference in his life. This is what he said:
This epic poem was kind of difficult for me to get through, but it has a beautiful rhythm. I got lost in reading about Odysseus' struggle to get home and his longing for someone so strong, as his wife was, waiting for him. That's like a dream—that kind of strength, love, loyalty.
As a child, I soaked up all kinds of historical tales. I’m a reader, so I just soaked up everything. I read the Iliad, the Odyssey–I read school versions for kids–and I got deep into the story of Perseus. He was a son of Zeus, a hero that went and cut off the head of Medusa. I felt the fantasy part, the whole power of something beyond what i knew. It was deep to me.
The RZA The Wu-Tang Manual, 2004
This was hubris–an overdose of pride, the fatal flaw that gets heroes in Greek epics killed. Which is almost what happened to us. We ran.
RZA writing about Greeks and hubris in The Tao of Wu, 2009.
Homer’s Odyssey is the epic song about Odysseus’ journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War.
Held in high esteem for 3,000 years, it remains one of the greatest stories ever told.
The story of Odysseus’ journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War takes place in and around the Mediterranean Sea — ancient Ithaca, Troy (coast of Turkey), Tunisia in N. Africa (between Algeria and Libya), Egypt, Sicily, Italy, and the Strait of Messina. The earliest origins stretch even further.
"The Greeks borrowed generously from their eastern and southern neighbors in all spheres of life …Homer’s epics show many traces of such influences."
Kurt Raafluab, 1998, historian and Emeritus Professor of Classics and History at Brown University
Bold hero, wise goddess, immortals ruling the universe. Clever, faithful, patient wife, son searching for his father, loyal dog waiting twenty years for his master. Magic potions, a bag of winds, witch goddess turning men into pigs. Cave monster with one eye, sweet-singing deadly sirens, sun god with sacred cattle. Water monster with six heads and twelve legs, another sucking up water, belching it out—three times a day. Trip to the underworld, advice from a blind prophet, moments with ghosts of those long gone. Love war, aggression restraint, loyalty betrayal. Homer. Hip-Hip. Struggle Hustle Persevere.
RAP ODYSSEY MATERIALS
BOOKS: Homer’s Odyssey, dictionary, Classical Gods and Heroes, and books about Hip-Hop's history and culture. NEWS ARTICLES about current events important to inner city communities. TOOLS: notebooks, pens, pencils, and USB flash drives.
SUPPORT FOR HIP-HOP EDUCATION
According to sociologist, Dr. Pedro Nogeura, professor of education at the University of California, Los Angeles.
"... hip-hop can be used as a vehicle for developing other kinds of skills, like skills in literacy, the ability to present yourself in oral argument, or the ability to perform. Those are skills we know that carry over into other areas of life. ... "
"Youth today need to develop critical literacy skills toward [hip-hop] so that they’re not passive consumers of it. Not all the messages in hip-hop are positive, some are very negative. And we need them to be able to critique it … to see that they can also be involved in producing knowledge, be involved in producing poetry and music. This empowers young people. Literacy is about the ability to express oneself, to name the world, to participate as a creator, and not merely as a consumer. It involves increasing the critical awareness to the fact that we are being bombarded with messages … The more critically-aware we are the less likely we are to be controlled and manipulated. And the more likely we are to have an appreciation for the things that affirm life, the things that that contribute toward making the world a better place."
"Despite the misperceptions that continue to result in the persecution of rap, many people have begun to see its profound capacity to improve lives. Educators use rap lyrics to develop critical thinking skills and foster a sense of civic responsibility.
In the classroom, hip-hop provides an accessible language for teaching about the social problems facing disadvantaged youth. The writing and analysis of rap lyrics—including those with violent themes—is used in peer mediation to preempt and decrease actual violence in urban schools. In addition to improving student-teacher relationships and defusing tensions between students, using rap music can even boost academic achievement."
Christopher Emdin, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology at Teachers College, Columbia University
On August 27th, 2014, I met with Suzanne B. Hanser at the Muse Cafe in Brooklyn. Suzanne is Chair of the Music Therapy Department, Berklee College of Music. She emphasized the socio-emotional components of our work and the importance of talking to community leaders. These were wise words early in my exploration, and would soon be followed as the work continued.
THE NEXT GENERATION CENTER (NGC), South Bronx, NYC
RAP Odyssey Workshops
On August 18, 2015 I walked into the Next Generation Center (NGC) in the South Bronx. The next day we held RAP Odyssey Workshops at NGC lead by Rob Scotlan, an English teacher at Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma, WA. Rob spent a month in NYC in 2015 to help develop the RAP Odyssey workshop materials, and to conduct the workshops. Rob teaches the Odyssey (using Tell me ODYSSEUS), including literary techniques, and has recorded rap albums with songs about the Odyssey and the Greek Gods and Goddesses.
Rob Scotlan conducting a RAP Odyssey Workshop at NGC, August 19, 2015.
NGC Recording Studio
After our RAP Odyssey workshops in August, I continued to visit NGC in the South Bronx. I spent much of my time in the Center's recording studio, and I listened closely to young rappers recording their rhymes, telling their stories.
In October 2015, RAP Odyssey was added to the NGC program schedule. Homeric verses from the Odyssey inspired NGC youth to expand their vocabulary -- and their rhymes.
NGC’s recording studio, South Bronx.
RAP ODYSSEY OPEN MIC
With support from NGC staff Mama Jackie and Ms Jackie (back row, 2nd from left), the RAP Odyssey Crew grew. On December 14th, 2016, we held our first RAP Odyssey Open Mic at NGC. Performers included Joshua, Ms Jackie, Larry, and Angel. Guest performers included Kalie and Wills from Exiled Dynamic.
The RAP Odyssey Crew and Friends, Open Mic night at NGC, December 14, 2016
RAP ODYSSEY + TELL ME ODYSSEUS
Read more about Tell me ODYSSEUS, including Testimonials from teachers, parents, home-schoolers, and literacy experts.
Tell me ODYSSEUS presents the 24 books of Homer’s Odyssey in 30 Stories, with a lesson plan for each story. Each lesson plan contains the story background, a 150-word story summary, story-relevant details, text-dependent assessment materials (from quick descriptive questions to in-depth, essay-style questions), thought-provoking Journey Journal questions to help students apply the story to their own life, useful tables and charts, the Odysseus at Sea Mediterranean Journey Map, and a Ship Count Crew Count. Tell me ODYSSEUS helps pace the Odyssey according class schedules and students’ individual needs and interests (300 pages).
Most importantly, Tell me ODYSSEUS provides the back stories to the Odyssey to help youth connect with Homer's epic. Those stories begin with the Greek myths and the events leading up to the Trojan War.
Using the story summary of The Cyclops from the Tell me ODYSSEUS teaching program, we watched RAP Odyssey crew member Larry take out his iPhone, find a beat, and turn the prose summary of The Cyclops story into flowing rhymes. He not only rapped the story, he enthusiastically said he “got it” and wanted to get back into the book. And he wanted us to read the Odyssey together, out loud.
In the weeks to follow other RAP Odyssey members did the same using story summaries from Tell me ODYSSEUS to connect with the complete stories in the book, and to use the vocabulary from the book in their rhymes. When we went into NGC's recording studio to begin recording, it was epic -- with a hip-hop twist.
New York City is home to the largest and one of the most segregated public school systems in the country.
Education experts continue to sound alarms.
“…the reading crisis is essentially an achievement gap issue. Large numbers of students living in poverty and from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds experience much poorer reading outcomes. Without essential literacy skills to master academic course work students lose the motivation and confidence vital to maintaining their investment in learning. Furthermore, students who do not read well are more likely to be retained in school, drop out of high school, become teen parents, or enter the juvenile justice system.” NAEP … Alliance For Excellent Education, 2015 Report.
During the writing Tell me ODYSSEUS I became aware of the education achievement gap and the critical role that literacy plays in that gap. I also became familiar with Richard Rothstein's work. With RAP Odyssey, his research became even more important. I looked deeper into education, segregation, race, and poverty. I learned more about the history of government public housing policies and discriminatory mortgage lending practices, and their central role in creating racially segregated, underserved, inner city communities.
According to Rothstein, today’s inner city story, as told by historians, economists, and sociologists, is a story of the government's public housing policies with discriminatory covenants, blockbusting, redlining, and subprime loans (Economic Policy Institute 2012, 2015). Overall, these policies and practices amount to a century of:
“...federal, state and local governments [that] purposely created racial boundaries in these cities, … which “helped create, and since has perpetuated, racially segregated, impoverished neighborhoods. This history of “law-sanctioned” racial segregation has had many damaging effects, including poor educational outcomes for minority children.”
The consequences, says Rothstein, are seen in the social and economic disadvantages across housing, health, and employment, as well as the lack of enriching out-of-school activities for today’s inner-city youth.
Talking about RAP Odyssey
RAP Odyssey Discussion: Manny Faces (founder of Birthplace Magazine, the New York Hip-Hop Report, and the Center for Hip-Hop Advocacy) with Jackie Carmona (Youth Education Specialist) and Chris Zacarias (Filmmaker), March 2017.
Many of life's most important stories are never heard. Among them are the stories rhymed to a beat, fueled by street wisdom.
Evidence of this powerful and life-changing communication is seen and heard every day in New York City when young rappers share their unvarnished truths in parks, on subway platforms, in subway cars, and on street corners. These are public performances of songs, telling stories --as it has always been.
And that's why "RAP Odyssey is reading the book, about the song about Odysseus, hearing lines from Homer that sound like lines from Hip-Hop, and taking wisdom from both times into today’s time because it is now time to tell the tale once more in our time."
Kalie Kamara reading out loud from the Stanley Lombardo translation of Homer's Odyssey, Thompkins Square Park, NYC, May 2017.