Beats and Rhymes that Empower Students

The sounds of sneakers squeaking against waxed floors and ever-changing beats filled the cafeteria of Skyline College Saturday afternoon, as an all styles dance battle capped off a full day of hip-hop workshops at the college’s fourth annual Rock the School Bells conference.

Coordinated by Skyline counselor and teacher Nate Nevado, the yearly conference sees various volunteer participants helping promote empowerment and self awareness through the use of hip-hop culture and history.

A day full of breakout sessions that included graffiti workshops, DJ fundamentals, dance lessons and social justice seminars was broken up by 18 and under emcee and dance battles, and culminated with a 7pm concert featuring local hip-hop artists and dancers like Jupiter 7 and Dirty Boots. Workshop presenters included hip-hop legends like choreographer Doctor Plik Plok and DJ, producer and journalist Davey D.

According to co-coordinator Matthew Ledesma, a counselor at Parkway Heights Middle School and South San Francisco High School, more than 100 students from local middle and high schools, as well as some Skyline students, attended the conference.

Ledesma said that, more than being a fun day of events, the conference is intended to be a learning experience for participants.

“It utilizes hip-hop as a tool for empowerment and education among middle school and high school aged youth,” he said.

Among the youth in attendance, South San Francisco High School junior helped found the Urban Youth Expression club at his school, and said that hip-hop has had a major influence on his life.

“Hip-hop is a culture of expression and art,” Jackson said. “It gave me the confidence to come out and do what I love. It taught me to be unique.”

Jackson said that the positive messages that hip-hop spreads have helped him to overcome negativity, both in his life growing up and in a larger sense.

“Middle school is a time when everyone is confused,” he said, describing how he got into music at a young age, playing the drums and eventually dancing. He explained now music helped him to overcome social problems that plague many young adolescents: “It helped me find who I am and change me for the better. I became a more social person.”

One of 18 students to compete in the dance battle, Jackson is a b-boy who hopes to delve into other aspects of hip-hop culture such as writing and DJ-ing in the future. He explained that part of the impetus for starting Urban Youth Expression was to help educate others about the history of hip-hop and show them how to tap into their own creativity to express themselves through it.

“I don’t dance just to dance,” he explained. “I was thinking ‘What way can I give back to hip-hop the way it’s helped me?’ It’s about helping out others because there’s nothing better than seeing a smile on someone else’s face.”

He once helped a friend who rapped see past negative images often portrayed in commercial hip-hop, showing him how he could relay more hopeful ideas and more meaningful lyrics.

Nevado stressed that one of the biggest obstacles to understanding hip-hop is the common media portrayal of the art as perpetuating violence. One of his goals in creating the conference was to spread the knowledge of hip-hop’s roots, and to show youth how it is a form of expression that they can use in their everyday lives to make themselves stronger, more critically thinking people.

“Hip-hop is an art form,” he said, explaining that the many skills kids learn through various forms of hip-hop, whether they be writing, emceeing or dancing, can transfer to other aspects of their lives and help them build self confidence. “I want them to challenge what they hear, to take opposing views.”

Much in the way that Jackson helps spread the art and message through Urban Youth Expression, Nevado said he hopes that the conference will help inspire other youth to keep learning and passing what they know along to others.

“This is not just an event,” he said. “It’s a process. I want them to not just keep [what they know] within themselves, but to share it.”

In keeping with the goal of sharing education and self-esteem, four students were presented with $500 college scholarships at the day’s end. According to Nevado, all staffers, workshop leaders and entertainers volunteered their time for the day, with proceeds from the event’s ticket sales going into these scholarship funds each year.

Local students Kent Foster, Jayzel Reyes, Saba Nazir and M.E. Urquico all walked out of the concert with a head start on their college funds.

“This is how hip-hop can really give back,” Nevado said.

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