Syracuse community leaders bridge the gap between hip-hop and STEM

The Community Folk Art Center partnered with the Hip Hop Education Center and National Grid last week for a professional development event in Syracuse. The event featured multiple interactive workshops, including a live DJ set. The goal was to show families and educators how hip-hop can help students become more engaged in the classroom and even lead to a career in STEM.

Tanisha Jackson, the executive director of the Community Folk Art Center, said that hip-hop and STEM are gateways to opportunities for underrepresented communities in STEM.

“This is a way to really create more accessibility, more equity, and for people to see they belong in STEM,” said Jackson.

Justis Lopez is the senior director of teaching and learning at the Hip Hop Education Center. He emphasized the importance of using hip-hop to meet students where they are.

“Hip-hop has the voice of the youth; hip-hop is the voice of youth, and hip-hop is youth culture,” Lopez said. “If we really want to be intentional about supporting our young people, we need to follow their lead, and we need to follow what they’re already doing.”

Some students are already putting their skills to the test, including a 10-year-old DJ known as DJ Pop Pop. He said that being a DJ has helped build his confidence.

“Just being in front of an audience has made me confident and helped my self-esteem,” DJ Pop Pop said.

Overall, industry leaders want people to understand that hip-hop is more than a genre; it’s a community.

“It’s a genre of music that has really had an impact globally, it’s intergenerational, it really is a form of expression that really allows people to see something that is achievable, reachable in ways that connect with STEM,” Jackson said.