"Louder than a bomb"; Poetry and Hiphop throughout D.C.

The Poems and Hip Hop J-Term focuses on the history of street culture and lyrical patterns.The group typically writes poems about their lives and things they value. They’ve each written a poem on where they’re from and another poem on how their daily routine goes. They’ve also written about a family member in a poem called “Little man.” They create mixtapes, in which they put their favorite rap songs into it and tell the meaning this song has on them. We received a quote from a student in the J-Term, Raina Kuzemka, who had written the meaning of the song “Express Yourself” by NWA. She said “The song “Express Yourself” by NWA reminds me of my childhood when I used to listen to the song with my parents.” She also said “For my “Little Man” poem, I wrote about how much I look up to my sister and how how she’s a great role model.”

Another thing they’ve done is make their own graffiti after taking a tour of Philadelphia and observing the graffiti there. Another student in this J-Term, Andrew Alikakos, said “Graffiti comes from hip-hop and it was a way of expressing themselves. Although, in law it is vandalism, it has a creative meaning behind it.”

We were lucky enough to go on a trip with the Poems and Hip-Hop J-Term to Washington, D.C. where we went to the Holocaust Museum and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. On this trip we observed the many tragedies that happened during the Holocaust. At the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the group was read a poem by Mr. Herman. The poem was called “Facing It,” by Yusef Komunyakaa, a Vietnam War Veteran. Here is a verse from the poem: “My black face fades, hiding inside the black granite. I said I wouldn't dammit: No tears. I'm stone. I'm flesh. My clouded reflection eyes me like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning. I turn this way—the stone lets me go.” This poem was written from the perspective of a Veteran looking in at the memorial and seeing his name engraved in the smooth, polished black granite.

Based on our observation of the Jterm and the information we gathered, we can say that Poems and Hip-Hop is not just a street culture ora way of music using lyrical patterns. It is a way of expressing yourself.