THE BEAT GOES ON
by H. Jonathan Kitt
Idris Goodwin leads a workshop in person in prepandemic times.
I
Using Hip-Hop and Breakbeat Poetry to Boost Creativity and Inclusivity in the Classroom
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In addition to providing the Friday keynote at the 2021 SETC Convention, Idris Goodwin (he, him, his) led the 16th annual SETC Teachers Institute, which was held virtually on Saturday, March 6. Titled “Breakbeat Poetry Storytelling and Story Listening for an Anti-Racist Tomorrow,” the Virtual Teachers Institute focused on how teachers, teaching artists and others can use the breakbeat poetry that emerged from hip-hop to answer questions such as: How do we make our spaces more inclusive? How do we get to know one another better? How do we, as educators, bring our communities together and embrace diversity?
Extending that technique into the classroom, he said, “can be a useful tool in facilitating more inclu sive spaces, building community in a very swift way and also making art at the same time.” Hip-hop and storytelling exercises
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- Stacy Howell, Oral Communications and Theatre Instructor; Co-Coach, Speech and Debate Team, Northwest Rankin High Flowood,SchoolMS
W ithout instruments to play, students made the turntable into an instrument, Goodwin said, because “that force, that need to express, that need to make noise, that need to be in the jubilee cannot be quenched, it can’t be put out, it can’t be stopped.”Hip-hop allowed Goodwin to “tell my own story in my own way,” he said. “To discover the poetry of my family and friends and that that was worthy of being considered song. Meaning that I did not have to join a choir and learn to sing like other people … I could sing in my own way, in the way that my generation chose to express.”
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A fter moving from his native Detroit to Chicago for college, he began performing his works on stage. One of the most important things he noticed was how diverse the gatherings were for hip-hop. He traces that diversity to a shared obsession with the beat that brings a mix of individuals together.
SETC InstituteTeachers
As Goodwin moved into the interactive portion of the workshop, he noted that “breakbeat poetry” – a term describing the spoken word poems he began creating through the influence of hip-hop – continues to be the primary way he tells his story.
It was a wonderful opportunity to get to learn from someone with the caliber of Idris. His activities centered around diversity and inclusion and were applicable to taking directly into the classroom.”
through deeper levels of incorporating diversity into their original playwriting works. One takeaway is providing more opportunities for my students to showcase their works through community forums so they can be heard.”
Goodwin, born in 1977 at the dawn of the hip-hop era, shared with those attending the event how he grew up with this art form in his life and discovered his writing talents through the poetry he created to the beat of hip-hop.
“For everyone here, the way you express your own story could be different,” he said. “This is not neces
- Darell G. JohnTheatre/DramaRickmers,Teacher,W.BateMiddleSchoolDanville,KY
“The beat, just like Shakespeare’s iambic pentam eter, binds us,” he said. “The beat is similar in that we all can come from different places in the world and still can be connected through this very human, biological thing.”
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storytelling and interact with him in a small group setting was a joy. Our hands-on writing activities were eyeopening and readily replicable in a classroom or community setting.And getting to do it all with other teachers from around the Southeast was simply lovely.”
T hrough hip-hop, Goodwin said, “I found my writing voice. Because, quite literally, in order to write a 3-minute rap song, you are doing at least two times as many lyrics as your average non-rap song, probably even more, just the density of language.”
TEACHER T akeaways
- Maranda DeBusk, Guest Lecturer, University ofKnoxville,TennesseeTN
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Later, as Goodwin traveled and taught in hiphop and spoken word spaces, he had an epiphany. It became clear to him that “by inviting human beings to share their stories in their own voice, using the poetry of their communities, that what we are doing is, we’re telling and listening to stories.”
“Hip-hop is just a continuation of the art of the diaspora,” he said in his opening remarks. “It’s in the lineage of gospel and polyrhythms of the motherland, the blues, what later became rock’n’roll … and jazz… It’s essentially what happens when you take instru ments out of the schools.”
sarily intended to be about poetry per se … if you primarily are in a dance space, some of the same ideas can be reinterpreted for a dance space, or an improv comedy space … My objective is not necessarily to promote poetry. It’s really just to promote the use of it to get the story out.”
aunt. There is a way your inner voice talks. Try to find the poetry in that. Try to find the surprises in that. Try to find the style and specificity in that.”
In creating their pieces, he urged partici pants not to “try to sound like a ‘poet.’ There is a poetry in the way you talk to your friends, the way you talk to your sassy
By sharing stories through a prompt like this, Goodwin noted, students and teachers can learn more about each other and develop connections with one another while also creating works of art.
“ The idea of the cipher, the root of the word, is that it means nothing, zero,” Goodwin said. “There is no hierarchy; there are no boundaries. If you are standing in a circle, it means there is no end to it, there is no top or bottom. When the cipher
Goodwin started his first exercise by showing a video of a poem he created, “Say My Name,” which is about his first name. (Read more about the poem in the story about his keynote address, Page 26.) Next, he asked participants to create their own works about their names.
Exercise 1: Say my name
I n adapting this exercise for the class room, he said, teachers should first model the assignment by creating and sharing a piece about their own name and then have students create their own pieces. Use prompts and driving questions to encour age students to dig in further: What does your name mean? How do you say it? Each person has a different set of driving ques tions about their name that will be unique to them.Next, the teacher needs to make a creative space for sharing. In the hip-hop community, this space is called the cipher.
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By using this exercise with students, Goodwin said, teachers can learn what their students love, hold dear and hold sacred.“Obviously, most of it’s funny – it’s a good way to add some levity,” he said. “But it’s also a good way to learn [about the students] indirectly.”
The second exercise Goodwin presented was “Ode to an Object,” in which partici pants were asked to create odes to seem ingly ordinary objects in their lives that are, in fact, sacred to them. Throughout hip-hop music, there are many anthems to seem ingly ordinary objects. Examples include Run DMC’s “My Adidas” and Snoop Dog’s “Gin and Juice,” which essentially give praise and gratitude to items that play a
Exercise 2: Ode to an object
T he question they should strive to answer, he said, is: “Within that controlled space, how do we facilitate a space that is somewhat more uncontrolled and driven by student expression and their lived experiences, the stories they have in their bodies, the areas of expertise they have?”
I n explaining this exercise, Goodwin shared his ode to lotion, “Ashy to Classy: An Ode to Lotion,” published in 2019 in his book of poetry, Can I Kick It?. Odes, an ancient form of poetry, are popular in hip-hop because they are celebratory and typically intended to be spoken, Goodwin said. They usually address not just the role of the object in society, but also the role of the object in the writer’s life.
M ost educational environments are highly structured and tend to be somewhat rigid, so teachers must work to create a space that allows for this creativity, he said.
S howing students the value of selfreflection – and encouraging them to tell stories that matter to them – can help them create art that resonates. But it also can help them in life, Goodwin said, training them “to really take stock of everything that’s inside of them.” n
role and serve us in our daily lives.
Goodwin has used these exercises in workshops with middle and high school students to get participants writing, talk
H. Jonathan Kitt (he, him, his) is an assistant professor of theatre at the University of West Georgia. He has been an actor, director and writer for over 30 years. His solo show, Superman, Black Man, Me! A Stage Essay debuted at the Chicago International Fringe Festival in 2013.
Putting these ideas to work in the classroom
is broken, that means the moment is over. There is no time limit.”
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ing and listening to each other. They can also help to stimulate learning and inspire students to develop ideas, Goodwin said.
“Sometimes, particularly with writing students but really all artists, we think too externally … because we’re believing in the myth of originality, and we’re believing in the myth of, ‘I’ve got to say something important,’” he said.