Read, Write, Rhyme Institute

Crystal LaVoulle

Read, Write, Rhyme Institute

Educators, Entertainers, and Entrepreneurs
Engaging in Hip-Hop Discourse

PETER LANG

New York • Bern • Berlin

Brussels • Vienna • Oxford • Warsaw

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: LaVoulle, Crystal, author.

Title: Read, write, rhyme institute: educators, entertainers, and entrepreneurs engaging in hip-hop discourse / Crystal LaVoulle.

Description: New York: Peter Lang, 2019.

Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018035860 | ISBN 978-1-4331-6113-1 (hardback: alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4331-6114-8 (ebook pdf) | ISBN 978-1-4331-6115-5 (epub) ISBN 978-1-4331-6116-2 (mobi)

Subjects: LCSH: Rap (Music)—Social aspects—United States.

Hip-hop—Social aspects—United States.

Culturally relevant pedagogy—United States.

Classification: LCC ML3918.R37 L38 2018 | DDC 306.4/84249—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018035860

DOI 10.3726/b14611

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

© 2019 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York

29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006

www.peterlang.com

All rights reserved.

Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm, xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.

About the author

Crystal LaVoulle, Ph.D., earned her doctorate in teaching and learning from Georgia State University and is Executive Director of the LaVoulle Group, an international educational consulting group. Dr. LaVoulle provides teachers with tools to bridge the gap between students’ current performance and their academic potential.

About the book

Read, Write, Rhyme Institute describes how individuals participating in the Read, Write, Rhyme Institute examine today’s youth, hip-hop, and social responsibility. The institute provides a forum to engage in hip-hop Discourse (with a capital D) that includes a worldview and ways of doing, being, and knowing that are used in rap music, graffiti, spoken word poetry, and daily conversation. This book seeks to capitalize on the diversity within the hip-hop community by including successful individuals that grew up not only listening to hip-hop but also living it. Participants include educators, entertainers, and entrepreneurs.

Advance Praise for Read, Write, Rhyme Institute

“Some of the most productive intellectual spaces are carved when two or more seeming disparate intellectual fields intersect. What happens when Discourse analysis, pedagogy, digital literacies, critical entrepreneurship, and critical youth studies meet by the grace of hip-hop? The answer is Read, Write, Rhyme Institute. It is methodologically innovative, scholarly grounded, and poetically hopeful. For those who are interested in language hip-hop pedagogy, this is a must-read, especially for those invested in that critical intersection of race, class, and public education. Hip-hop studies is a growing field, and Read, Write, Rhyme Institute is a beautiful addition to it.”

Awad Ibrahim, Professor at the University of Ottawa

“Crystal LaVoulle facilitates authentic conversation between hip-hop artists and hip-hop scholars. Multiple generations of hip-hop lovers can relate to the adversity, joy, pain, commercialism and authenticity that this book attempts to address. The Read, Write, Rhyme Institute addresses uncomfortable issues within hip-hop and the African American community as well as celebrating the value of hip-hop culture.”

Joel Roper, a.k.a. Rapper Joe Ski Love

"Crystal LaVoulle has produced an incredibly thoughtful, sophisticated, and well-crafted exploration of the intersection of hip-hop, education, and cultural studies. The scope and depth of this study will impress scholars of hip-hop, as well as aficionados of the art. It is a welcome addition to a robust body of hip-hop scholarship."

Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar, Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Study of Popular Music, University of Connecticut

“In Read, Write, Rhyme Institute, diverse members of the hip-hop community share candid and reflective opinions about the public school system and treatment of children of the current hip-hop generation. Crystal LaVoulle offers educators practical suggestions for teaching critical thinking and educating for social justice.”

Eleanor Renée Rodríguez, author of What Is It About Me That You Can’t Teach?