ARTS! by the people

This whole week the English camp has hosted activities organized by ARTS! by the people. It’s a really cool organization that works with kids using hip-hop. They try to promote peace and understanding everywhere. We’ve had groups of kids learning hip-hop dance, graffiti, and songwriting. It’s really cool- we’re actually going to record a song together and then get a tape of it! I’m on it as well, which is awesome. As I said before, it’s on the subject of peace, so the rap is too. It’s so cute to hear some of their raps! Two of my girls wrote, for the beginning: “What’s up, I said my name is Maya. What’s up, I said my name is Malak. Dancing is our game, when we hear the beat we go insane.” One of my shyest girls, Katrin (who actually never speaks) recorded her rap as well. I could hear her voice! The other girls said that it was the first time they had really heard her speak. Music is a powerful thing!

The girls absolutely love dance, and they are always eager to show off what they’ve learned. A lot of times they’ll come out of their activities and say, “Hannah! Hannah! Look what we learned!” It’s really great to see them so pumped about something like this. I think that ARTS! by the people is a great program, and I’m so happy to have them here with us!

Hannah