During Fall ‘19 and Spring ’20, I’ve had the distinct honor to study under one of the nation’s most esteemed hip hop scholars, Dr. Christopher Emdin, at Teacher’s College Columbia University (TC). I became aware of Dr. Emdin’s work from his many published theories on culturally responsive pedagogy or as he sometimes calls it reality pedagogy. Dr. Emdin is the best-selling author of the book Between the World and the Urban Classroom, Urban Science Education for the Hip Hop Generation, & For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood. In For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood, he expertly articulates his theory of reality pedagogy which, “[i]s an approach to teaching and learning that has a primary goal of meeting each student on his or her own cultural and emotional turf… there is a role reversal of sorts that positions the student as the expert in his or her own teaching and learning, and the teacher as the learner”(Emdin 27).
Before moving forward, I want to acknowledge the confusion some people may be experiencing reading this regarding me attending classes at TC while being a matriculated doctoral student at NYU. So, I’d like to clear that up for some and drop a gem for other doctoral students in the NYC area. There is a collective agreement among select colleges and universities in the NY/NJ area called the Inter-University Doctoral Consortium (IUDC) that allows for doctoral students who attend a participating IHL in the Consortium to take classes at another participating IHL and still earn course credits towards their doctoral degree through their home institution. Now, to navigate this system, it can be a bit of a maze, but ask your advisor or visit the website here: https://gsas.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/gsas/academics/inter-university-doctoral-consortium.html for more information. One last note on this, to take a class, the professor at the visiting institution whose course you wish to take must give her/his written approval. Thus, it was beyond humbling to think that I was able to get Dr. Emdin’s signature not just once but twice. I am so grateful that he saw something in me to allow me to peek behind the curtain of his genius.
But I digress.
During the Spring ’20 semester, we’ve spent a lot of time discussing the phenomena of the hip hop cipher. The cipher[1] is a unique happening in hip hop culture reminiscent of indigenous storytelling of a griot standing in a circle. Individuals stand in a circle almost equidistant from each other while displaying incredible verbal agility in an act that is equal parts defiance and collaboration. Call and response often plays an integral role in ciphers and requires the full attention of all members of the cipher, even those with a more passive role. Active listening is a crucial component in making a cipher successful. Indeed, the person speaking is looking to other members of the cipher for affirmation that the words he or she is saying are resonating with people both literally and figuratively.
The cipher, in many ways, is collaboration personified. As an educator, who wouldn’t want to see students as actively engaged in their lesson as participants are in a hip hop cipher? It is essential to understand the etymology of the word cipher which comes from, ”Middle French as cifre and Medieval Latin as cifra, from the Arabic صفر ṣifr = zero. ‘Cipher’ was later used for any decimal digit”[2]. Now, given what we know about binary code, it is all either a numerical “0” or a “1”.
Furthermore, cipher, as a noun, according to Webster’s dictionary, can also mean “a message in code” along with other possible meanings. Indeed, the cipher in which I speak of that takes place in where people stand equidistant in a perfect circle facing one another in an exchange of words, sounds, energy, and frequencies is clearly a code or at least a set of rules that may seem like chaos to an outsider not familiar with the phenomena: a code that allows for the interjection of words, sounds, or phrases by individual participants without rejection from the group. These interjections are known as adlibs. The adlib serves multiple purposes in a cipher: it can encourage the speaker with the spotlight to continue on with his/her rhyme scheme; it could call attention to the fact that the participant who is adding the adlib is actively listening to the main speaker; or, it could be used as an alarm alerting the other participants of the cipher that the person who is adding the adlib is now ready to join the cipher as the primary speaker. One popular contemporary hip-hop group that uses the adlib to add emphasis and color to their rhyme deliver is the Migos, who is probably best known for their 2018 single ‘Bad and Bougie.’ In it, many adlibs heard throughout the song used by various members of the group to give a distinguishing characteristic to their oratorical catalog.
As an actor and an educator, I can see direct parallels with the skills developed in a cipher to the skills developed during improvisational (improv) theatre games, many of which also take place in a circle. The first rule of improv is to say, ‘yes and’ which is the fundamental principle a hip hop cipher is built off of as well. Additionally, you see the similarities in the aspects such as ad-libs that appear in both forms of art as well. Also, you see mental dexterity with the brain making in the moment decisions in both types of artistic expression. My goal through this research will be to continually build connections between what is taught in traditional school settings, i.e., improv games and what we could be teaching, i.e., the cipher.
Additionally, I conducted a workshop at Columbia using educational theatre approaches to teaching culturally responsible science education. I conducted this workshop with graduate students at Teacher’s College in the Science Education department. The goal of this workshop was to interrogate the dangers of virtual and augmented reality without the presence of programmers and engineers of color in the development process of simulations. The lesson plan was created using a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) [3] approach and can are below:
Instructional Outline:
Time 1:45:00 mins or 105mins
Land acknowledgment (2 mins)
Teacher will pass around O=Ball (5 mins)
“Give one word to describe how you feel today or what today means to you.”
Introduction (10 mins):
-The teacher will go through Warm-up Ritual (Physical, Vocal, Focus, Energizer)
-lay down on the floor-breathe in/out
-When you are ready, slowly come out to your feet and begin to walk around the room at a normal pace.
Write an ode to science (5 mins)
Share with a partner (5 mins)
-Would anyone care to share their poem with the whole group?
Black Doll/White Doll Video (2 mins)
Open discussion (5mins)
Main Activity Moving Image Theater (30 mins):
- Students are broken into three groups containing 3-4 students each
- Each group will receive articles related to A.I lack programmers of color and/or narratives
- Each group will receive a fold with three different images of indigenous societies from the past.
- Each group will have three images to present. They choose the order.
- Each group presents their tableaus “slideshow” style.
- Ask the audience what they see after each image.
- Allow actors to explain their choices and reveal what they were trying to communicate after their three images.
Video (10 mins)
- https://youtu.be/M7T_u4hpiSE
Notecard reflections (5 mins)
Have students write or draw their reflections on a notecard and then post it up
Did any moment of class resonate with them?
-What do you think the future of A.I holds w/o programmers and engineers of color?
Gallery walk (5 mins)
Closure (5 mins):
-Have students stand in a circle.
-The teacher will pass around a ball
-Each student will say one word or phrase that comes to mind related to the lesson
Materials needed:
Colored Pencils, tape, post-its, note cards, O-ball, folders, pictures
[1] The CERCL Writing Collective. (2014). The Cipher. In Breaking Bread, Breaking Beats: Churches and Hip-Hop—A Basic Guide to Key Issues (pp. 197-216). Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress. doi:10.2307/j.ctt9m0s9h.13
[2] Cipher (n.). (n.d.). Retrieved July 6, 2019, from https://www.etymonline.com/word/cipher
[3] Katz, J. (2013). The Three Block Model of Universal Design for Learning (UDL): Engaging students in inclusive education. Canadian Journal of Education / Revue Canadienne De L'éducation, 36(1), 153-194. Retrieved March 3, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/canajeducrevucan.36.1.153