Most school classes don’t feature boom-bap beats and rap flows, but a Creighton Community School program has defied convention.
Since February, the school has played host to a class teaching students from Grades 7 to 10 the fundamentals of hip hop music, from writing raps to rhythm, cadence and social awareness. The program wrapped up with a performance at a Creighton school assembly on May 11, with students in the program performing original work to a gym full of their peers.
The course includes students of multiple ethnicities and preaches a message of reconciliation, self-worth and combating racism.
“I learn that people forget we’re the same kind – the human race,” said Dreyden Cook, one of the students that took part in the project.
“Everybody wants to separate us by colours when that really doesn’t matter. We’re all the same on the inside.”
The course is led by an indigenous Saskatchewan-based rapper and teacher. On the stage, he’s InfoRed, but once the mics are stashed away, he’s Brad Bellegarde, also a writer, journalist and Saskatchewan Arts Board juror.
It was through the Saskatchewan Arts Board that Creighton Community School teacher Catherine Joa – also a juror – met Bellegarde. After receiving a projects grant through the arts board, Joa and Bellegarde got to work.
“When I met him, I knew that there were kids here who would think he was pretty cool. I asked him if he would consider coming up north and being part of this and he said yes,” said Joa.
Bellegarde’s message takes rapping back to its purest form, back to the days where the music was used to convey stories and messages of everyday life and triumph – more Afrika Bambaataa than Drake.
“I see hip hop as an opportunity. It’s a culture. It’s accepting of all ethnicities. It’s not just one culture, whether it’s Nehiyaw or Lakota,” he said.
“Using rap, it’s about expressing yourself, it’s about poetry – it’s a cool way to do poetry. It’s a great way to open up that dialogue with the youth, to help them express serious social issues that they see every day, whether it be alcoholism or gangs, violence, substance abuse, or racism. That’s the overall big picture.”
The four traditional elements of hip hop culture – DJing, breakdancing or b-boying, graffiti and rapping – align with what are key tenets in most Aboriginal cultures – the drum, dance, art and oral storytelling.
“My main method is to take that idea, that rap is a culture that was found on rapping about social issues. That’s where it came from,” he said.
It’s a message that has resonated with the students.
“We learn about racism in class but we never really do anything about it,” said Cook. “When you’re out in front and spreading the message, you’re doing something about it – making people aware.”
“My dream is to become a rapper, like that dude over there,” said Gaige Ballantyne, pointing at Bellegarde.
Bellegarde first came to Creighton for a weeklong session in February, followed by a second week earlier this month.
The first thing he had students do was a deceptively difficult task – write a single rap. After that, they were challenged to apply what they wrote to a topic or experience in their own lives.
“That method is very, very effective,” he said, adding that getting the students to write what they know was a key point.
“KRS-One always says that the fifth element of hip hop is knowledge of self. That’s the most important thing, taking that idea of hip hop.”
Since the first session earlier this school year, Joa has seen the kids change, becoming more confident in themselves and their abilities.
“They’re confident. The way they carry themselves in the hallway, even,” she said, recalling one student who started carrying a speaker on him, playing background beats.
“At one point, they were going through the hallway, he had a bunch of kids walking behind him and they were all rapping together.”
Joa and Bellegarde both said the students have formed a close bond through the music and culture they have learned.
“There was no negativity at all with them while I was here, it was all positive reinforcement, being friends. I would think, just by looking at them now, you can see that they are all very proud students and proud youth,” said Bellegarde, adding, “These students knew each other before, but they didn’t really know each other.”
“They were kids who weren’t necessarily friends before. Now, they have this bond,” she said.
Joa is already hoping to continue and expand the program next year, applying for a residency grant that would bring Bellegarde to Creighton for a total of two months.
“It’s a bigger budget. If I receive the grant, we’ll bring him back for a month in October and again for a month in May and we’ll move the performance from out of the school and into the Denareplex.”
Bellegarde and the kids seem receptive to the idea of the program growing, too. During his time in the north, Bellegarde saw potential in the program, not only to provide students with a reason to be excited for class but as a new way to teach vital lessons.
“We have one kid in the group who actually rides in a taxi from Deschambault Lake every morning and after school to go to class. That’s an hour, an hour and a half, every morning and after school. That’s dedication to come to school and I think it’s evident that this is the sort of reinforcement we need to provide to youth,” he said.
