HIP HOP SCHOLASTICS

HipHop Scholastics (HHS) mission is to enhance education through love inclusion and HipHop.  Originally founded in 2001 it is the brainchild of acclaimed Oakland HipHop Artist, Writer, Producer, and Director Corey Johnson and Itoco Garcia Ed.D. Bay Area educator, Civil Rights Leader and HipHop artist. 

 

Conceived of as one of the first, if not the first, HipHop Education curricula HHS was originally founded to meet the needs of Black and Brown Oakland students who were not engaged with school or learning. The original curriculum created for Kindergarten students at Prescott Elementary School in West Oakland has blossomed into a comprehensive PreK-5 standards based curriculum. HipHop Scholastics has also grown into several spaces necessary for schools to effectively integrate HipHop into their curriculum including technical assistance and school staff professional learning in the areas of school culture and climate, community schools implementation, student engagement and anti bias work. 

 

We are curriculum agnostic, what we offer is an approach that develops the headsets and mindsets necessary for teachers, principals, and other school staff to successfully integrate key aspects of HipHop and HipHop culture to create school and classroom environments that are affirming and validating to students and families. In short, we walk with schools to help determine what their communities need, to identify the shifts in culture and practice necessary to meet those needs, and to support the adults in the community responsible for the education of students to successfully make those shifts. We know that context matters, and we work to customize the aspects of our approach to support your community. 

 

We have been honored to work as a TurnAround Arts National and TurnAround Arts California provider and have worked all over the state and the country bringing our approach to schools, districts, conferences, and communities, including work at the Kennedy Center in DC and the Getty in Los Angeles, we work with rural communities like Hoopa, Karuk, and Yurok in far Northern California and with small and medium school districts in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. Our curriculum, our experience, and our approach as both Artists and educators make us a unique partner in helping schools and local governments create better outcomes for all their stakeholders. HipHop Scholastics is a California 501 (c) (3) educational not for profit corporation.