Before becoming one of the most influential popular cultures in the world and, probably, the most prominent of the last thirty years – having in fact supplanted rock in his hegemony on pop cultures -, hip-hop has gone through several years of ferment right here, in New York, precisely in the Bronx. At first it was not an industry, nor a genre to celebrate in the official anniversaries: it was a way to occupy spaces left empty, build membership and transform neighborhood parties, turntables, walls, bodies and words into a common language. It was also an answer to the rampant violence of gangs that, in the 1980s, controlled the poorest neighborhoods, such as the Bronx. From there came rap, djing, breaking, graffiti, and then records, fashion, cinema, advertising, museums and universities. Now there is a new chapter in all this, and New York always has something to do with the Bronx, and especially the public school.
The city of New York will open in September The Bronx School of Hip-Hop, a public high school in the neighborhood of Claremont, in the Bronx. He will start with the first class of students of the ninth year, the equivalent of the first year of Italian high school, and in the following years he will cover the entire cycle of high school, from the ninth to the twelfth degree. According to the municipality, it will be one of the five new public schools open in the school year 2026-2027 between Bronx and Queens, also to increase the available places in areas where the school system is under pressure.
The idea is not to open a school of rap: the project foresees that hip-hop culture becomes a key to teaching even ordinary subjects. Students will study emceeing (the art of rap), djing, graffiti, breaking and “knowledge of self”, but next to the standard school curriculum. The point is to use a familiar language to many Bronx boys to get them into texts, concepts and tools that otherwise risk being distant.
The founder principal will be Jason Reyes, educator of the Bronx, who explained how hip-hop will not be treated as a separate matter. In an English lesson, for example, you can relate a novel with a rap song, working on language, rhetorical figures and building speech. It is a choice that makes sense if the school will be able to hold together cultural recognition and school rigour, avoiding that the school is told only as a symbolic finding.
Next to the theory there will also be a practical part, with students who will be able to follow courses of audio production, digital media, graphics and financial literacy, with the possibility of obtaining certifications spent outside the school. The goal is to bring out students with skills ranging from audio production to beat, video and graphic design. Today the music industry does not concern, in fact, only those who sing or produce music, but also those who record, mount, promote, distribute and build content around artists.
L’articolo In the Bronx will open a high school dedicated to hip-hop proviene da IlNewyorkese.
