Teacher. researcher. speaker. consultant.
Hip Hop pedagogy, critical media literacy, culturally relevant curriculum, & social justice education.
New Book Release
Teaching with Hip Hop in the 7-12 Grade Classroom:
A Guide to Supporting Students' Critical Development through Popular Texts
This book presents practical approaches for engaging with Hip Hop music and culture in the classroom. As the most popular form of music and youth culture today, Hip Hop is a powerful medium through which students can explore their identities and locate themselves in our social world. Designed for novice and veteran teachers, this book is filled with pedagogical tools, strategies, lesson plans, and real-world guidance on integrating Hip Hop into the curriculum. Through a wide range of approaches and insights, Lauren Leigh Kelly invites teachers to look to popular media culture to support students’ development and critical engagement with texts.
"In contrast to an often-held belief that Hip Hop is a musical genre that promotes hypersexuality and materialism (Rose, 2008), Hip Hop, in actuality, represents a form of art, community, and culture for those who identify with its elements. Additionally, understanding the history and culture of Hip Hop is, at this point, critical to understanding Black American history and modern youth culture. Recognizing the significance of Hip Hop in academic spaces can reinforce to students the integral contributions that Black and Latinx communities, including youth communities, have made to the history and culture of the U.S., a contribution that is often invisiblized in schools and in media." (Kelly, p. 87)
