SNCC

• As a researcher who specializes in hip-hop culture, I know that one of hip-hop’s greatest gifts is a certain mindset that focuses on freedom of thought, flexibility and truth-telling.
• It also includes creativity, authenticity, confidence, braggadocio, uninhibited voice and integrity as those things relate to one’s community and culture.

1. Claim your space

• And when I say ‘Who’s house?’ I want y'all to say ‘Run’s house.’” Through this call-and-response routine, the group claimed every arena in which they performed.
• Hip-hop’s longevity is due in large part to this boldness – artists standing firm and fighting back even when they were under attack.

2. Form a squad or a crew

• Educators can lean on their squad to help strategize and stay sane.
• A squad or crew need not be confined to just one school.
• Just as hip-hop artists are often part of larger groups, educators can similarly build a larger community of support.

3. Remix

• One of the most popular strategies of creating hip-hop music is the remix – where a song’s producer will create a new version of a song, sometimes by borrowing or sampling beats from other songs, changing up the pace, or even introducing new lyrics that weren’t part of the original.
• A classic example would be KRS-One’s 1988 song “Still #1.” Whereas the original version was laid back, the “Numero Uno” remix featured a sample of an upbeat Latin jazz song and even opened in Spanish.
• A remix may also be helpful with school funding.

4. Go crate digging

• Crate digging is a critical part of the remix.
• After desegregation, for instance, a new struggle emerged in the 1960s and 1970s to make school lessons more culturally and racially inclusive.
• Communities around the country partner with the Children’s Defense Fund to offer local Freedom Schools.

5. Still keep it real

• At the time, it felt like intense pressure to keep it real and to represent your community.
• I now look back and appreciate that it actually wasn’t pressure, but rather permission to be authentic.
• But there’s no restriction against “keeping it real” and discussing the new laws and policies as a civics lesson.

• The provocative exhibition examines the intersections of racism, Confederate monuments, and the complex relationship between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, its students, and the surrounding Black community.
• “We first learned of Watson’s story through national media,” said Dr. Noelle Trent, the museum’s Director of Interpretation, Collections, and Education.
• Despite continued obstruction by whiteness, we will heal, even if it is tarred.”
  Having the exhibition at the National Civil Rights Museum has a distinct meaning for Watson.
• “So many of the stories highlighted in Tarred Healing mirror the ones we see in the National Civil Rights Museum,” said Watson.