The KL learning environment cultivates learning in a non-judgmental space and preserves both individual & community story while providing excellence in developing methods and teaching tools that promote differentiated instruction and student directed learning. Instructors foster safe spaces for community thought & interpretation, creative celebration, oral tradition, literacy and civic engagement.

KL curriculum uses the language of youth with literacy activities that teach Hip Hop aesthetics while utilizing the stories, the ideas, & wording that aids them make sense of their lives, their histories, & their world. Components include 1) Arts: technical training in various arts mediums including but not limited to elements such as graffiti, dance, storytelling/spoken word/emceeing, and beatbox/music.2) Academic: reading/research, writing, story collection, and analytical skills that foster a culturally responsive dialogue between participants and their communities.

Both volunteer/intern and KL Teaching Artists present programs. The goal of these programs is to provide exposure to various art forms and aesthetics. Workshops provided by Teaching Artists include creative writing/spoken word, video, performance technique, Hip Hop theatre, Grafiti-muralism, deejaying, cultural & urban dance, and or female empowerment. These Residencies take place in various CPS schools and community centers throughout Chicago. Arts Residencies including the Free Drop In Arts (hosted at Clarendon Park Community Center) engage KL participants artistically while serving as a stepping-stone for socially conscious growth. Participants will learn the ins and outs of creating art for self-empowerment and social up- liftment. Free Drop In Arts at Clarendon Park are offered Seasonally, and tentatively include Graffiti Arts & Muralism, Footworking dance, Hip Hop Theater, and Music Production.
How workshops and artist residencies are implemented?

Kuumba Lynx provides curriculum/lesson plans that follow state standards and teach to the state goals. The company’s writing and dramatic exercises, coupled with professional performance technique, visual arts, and music/dance backgrounds encourage the students to take creative risks, to voice their feelings, and share experiences in order to develop self esteem and confidence in leadership abilities. Teaching Artists strongly encourage self-expression in a safe and non-judgmental environment that supports space for students to explore their personal stories and that of those around them. In forms ranging from creative writing, and muralism to movement technique, youth will experience the value of self-expression while exploring their ideas.

KL Long Term (2+ weeks) Arts Residency Menu is as followed:

KL professional Teaching Artists provide cultural & historical education specific to the Hip-Hop genre and the participants varying cultural backgrounds while guiding them through the artistic process of either creating their own performance work and or specifically studying one component/technique of a given urban art form. KL has a vast array of professionally trained Teaching Artists which enables them to instruct in specific art forms such as creative writing, spoken word, video, theatre, deejaying, funk/house, footworking, Latin, African, modern, graffiti art & muralism, etc. Generally KL programs cross-artistic disciplines as a pure reflection of the art of Hip Hop, which often includes more than one artistic component. These workshops and residencies integrate Hip-Hop aesthetic into the learning process via human beat box ciphers, creative writing, storytelling and spoken word, turntablism(DJ), leadership/team games, story collection, community research, urban/cultural dance forms, and street art skills.

Urban Dance Projex: This Dance program provides the opportunity to explore dance genres such as African, Hip-Hop, Latin, Tap, meditation, and, or Modern dance. Learn the history & technique of dance forms that spread across cultures. Students are exposed to the roots of urban dance styles such as house, poppin’/lockin’,hip-hop-jazz/funk, and b-girl’n/boy’n.

Hip Hop Arts & Activism: An innovative Urban Arts and social service project. Teaching aesthetic provides skill nurturing in various art forms while exposing participants to meaningful careers and group activities.

Hip Hop Theatre Production: utilizing various interdisciplinary performance elements embraced within Hip-Hop genre and less mainstream performing arts circles participants learn the process of creating a short Hip-Hop Theatre production; minimum of 90 instructional hours.

Around My Way Story Preservation: Provides the opportunity to explore literary performance in the context of personal story collection. KL artists guide participants as they share stories about personal experiences, community exploration, family, spirituality, and culture. Using interdisciplinary performance techniques to provide opportunities for students to explore their identity.

Peace Projex: An exciting Hip-Hop and Cultural Arts Club that engages participants in re-discovering positive Hip-Hop history and culture through muralism/ visual art, spoken word, rhyming, turntabilism, creative writing, breaking, locking and popping, footworking, storytelling, and cultural dance.

What It Do-Performance Poetry: Dispelling preconceived notions about poetry, participants explore the art of spoken word and emceeing as an essential element linked directly to hip hop culture. Participants will analyze the poetry of Hip-Hop and compare its motifs, themes, and general poetic devices such as alliteration, rhyme scheme, figurative language, etc.

Urban Art Mural Specialists: From the Graff element of hip-hop, participants create visual art/murals and or poetry collages on walls, lockers, or benches, you decide!

The Art of Deejaying and Music Production: Intro to history of hip-hop as it relates to the art of turntablism and beat making. Participants will learn the ins and outs of break beats, equipment set up, scratchin, jugglin, party crowd pleasers, and battle deejaying. This program also delves into cd mixing and sampling.

Picture Dat! : Combines photography with creative writing and spoken word.

Video Down: Video Documentation and Montage Imaging speaks to the visual and auditory learner. Participants are lead through the process of developing personal video art installations that incorporate poetry, and story telling with images and sound. PC’s required.

Who will conduct the workshops and artist residencies?

Volunteers who are strongly engaged in the arts and education community and members of the Kuumba Lynx Teaching Artist Roster which currently consists of 12 Professional artists from varying artistic backgrounds. They are all fingerprinted and have police background checks. Most have been working with youth and KL program participants for a minimum of five years in various capacities, all have taught/ Assisted in Chicago area schools, and have some knowledge of the state standards learning goals. This is an opportunity for new and potential KL Teaching Artists to gain exposure to the KL aesthetic, confidence, and teaching expertise.

KL Short Term Workshops Menu as followed:

KL offers one to three session workshops with the goal of building community and vehicles for our voices. Workshops promote artistic expression, critical discussion, and analytical strategies for creative development & self-empowerment. In addition to the below examples, KL can work with your school or organization to design a workshop(s) that caters to your needs. KL also can provide a one-time workshop emphasizing a specific aesthetic skill in the form of DeeJaying, Graffiti/Urban Art, Instrument Making & Music, Theatre, Poetry, and or Urban/Cultural Dance. State Goals and Rubrics provided upon request. Professional Develeopment credit can be provided.

The Word-Creative Poetry writing workshop

In this workshop, participants can explore personal voice, literary device, and poetic forms in an uncensored, safe, community centered setting. Something shared is something gained …we write to share and we share to learn… Participant’s original writings will be guided to reflect current issues, as well as offer insight to the often non-existent or silenced voices of marginalized and underrepresented youth and their communities. Participants are encouraged to write original poetry that models traditional or contemporary poetic writing formats.

Hip-Hop Theatre-Storytelling and Spoken Word through Community Preservation

Using Hip-Hop Music and Hip-Hop Cultural History as a catalyst, students will explore their own histories and creativity through dynamic writing and performance exercises. This will be a space where young people can freely express themselves, while learning to be active and positive contributors to their community. The workshop captures stories--tells them—values them—so that participants as well as others may grow from their own personal experiences and those of others. The workshop reminds participants “…remember if you don’t tell you story who will?—and if someone does choose to tell your story --will they tell it right?” Community experiences of peace and social justice are formative and lasting. Unfortunately, too often these experiences are not talked about because of pain, fear, embarrassment, the intense pressure to fit in, or the inability to discuss society’s ills and isms without being “politically correct.” The intention of this workshop isn’t to make us bitter, but to engage participants in self-reflection/universal thought and possibly some dialogue about the isms and ills facing America and our world today. Hip-Hop was founded as a vehicle for the self-expression of urban American youth, yet it has spread internationally touching the lives of marginalized and oppressed peoples everywhere. It has always given the silenced ones a voice. KL artists will introduce the basics of theater and storytelling in a performance context through creative writing and performance art activities. Within this workshop participants will be asked to reflect upon their family upbringings and community stories. Instructors will work to uncover and identify neighborhood characters by asking participants to vividly describe them through the written word and oral story sharing. Participants will be informed of the Djahli/Griot and emcee/story teller traditions while simultaneously being exposed to the foundation of Hip-Hop movement and the basics of storytelling formats including conflict, resolution, plot, character development, and narration. Time permitting; the basic techniques of page to stage i.e. movement, timing, and rhythm (voice and instruments) will be applied to the stories created during the workshop. Participants will focus on Ethnographic storytelling, working to identify specific character qualities such as gestures, energy awareness, body rhythms, voice, their movement and their language. KL Instructors engage participants in activities that encouraged space utilization, natural rhythms of their bodies and awareness of their environments. Artist will lead participants in the exploration of the various characters in their community, and then support participants in developing monologues based on these community characters. As a final touch, participants then incorporate forms of movement so to create the stage life of a character, while simultaneously utilizing live music, instruments, and or the sounds and smells of their neighborhood in order to develop a stage setting based on everyday surroundings. This workshop encourages students to create original performance works embracing identity and community history; This Hip-Hop Theatre intro workshop is the starting point for the more intensive instruction found in KL Arts Residency programs. The ultimate goal of this Hip-Hop Theatre workshop is to familiarize participants with The Hip-Hop Arts and Cultural movement while getting them comfortable with stage presentation, their voices and bodies, and with their written and oral voice.

Creating Circles-Finding your peace

KL artists will fuse popular theatre exercises with traditional practices, group sharing and movement. Artists will provide tools for participants to tell their own stories in their own creative ways. This creative writing/storytelling and team building workshop introduces participants to the idea of putting your best foot forward or extending a positive energy so to create a tone for peace within and around us. This is an opportunity for us to individually decide what will support us in being the best person we can be. The workshop zeroes in on dealing with frustrations. These are personal decisions that each participant must reflect on, the facilitator can only keep a constant flow of questions in order to guide participants in making their own decisions. The workshop ends with each participant contributing a part of themselves to the group and creating individual works that they can take home with them. The workshop will focus on individual story as means for reconnecting our individual struggles to our broader communities and the global world.

Block By Block-Exploring urban art through words

KL Artist leads participants through an investigation of stories inherent in some of Chicago’s well-known murals and famous urban paintings. Participants will examine these visual pieces through their cultural relevance and historical contexts as well as modern day interpretations. Based on these explorations, participants are given a chance to respond to these artistic works via graffiti urban arts or by creating personal stories and short theatrical scenes. The history of Hip-Hop arts movement is explored while exposing participants to the fundamental elements of graffiti and urban art genre. Participants will examine various paintings, murals, urban art pieces including stencil etc. and discuss themes found in the works of art used to promote social justice or inform the world of a silence voice. Participants can also be introduced to the elements of spoken word (voice, stage presence, gaze, movement etc.) and storytelling such as character, setting, plot, and dialogue. Everyone will develop stories or their own visual art based on the urban art viewed. If spoken word is chosen as focus, the Arts Instructor facilitates the fine-tuning of the performance piece once their written works are revised and developed for the stage. Using their bodies and voices as tools for performance, participants present their original creations to each other.

Mural Specialists:

Aimed at empowering youth and communities through mural painting projects citywide, this workshop/project reaches out to local business, organizations, and residential homes in an effort to revitalize and draw awe to the community. Recent projects have included murals in alleys, buildings, and privately owned structures. This program also includes a humanities/ historical component where people can take a Community Mural tour: Walk and learn with Kuumba Lynx and community residents about the rich diversity, & neighborhood struggles of Chicago’s Uptown, a north side neighborhood. Understand why art education is embraced in this community and how Kuumba Lynx is working toward empowering communities through Hip-Hop preservation and art for social justice. This tour begins at Truman College and ends at Clarendon Park Community Center. Participants will view notable landmarks including a 5 panel mural painted by 27 youth on residential garages, and Uplift Community School murals. These murals are filled with images depicting the strengths & struggles of Uptown while embracing the importance of social change & arts education.

Urban Dance Projex:

UDP is an innovative program that can engage participants in critically and physically exploring various urban dance styles that include locking/popping (LA), house (NYC), free-style, hip-hop-funk/jazz, footworking and b-girlin’/boyin’. Taught by internationally experienced choreographers and dance educators, workshop participants will gain exposure to practical knowledge about the historical and cultural importance of urban dance in relation to African and Jazz Dance. This Dance workshop also provides the opportunity to explore dance genres such as African, Latin, Caribbean, Tap, meditation, and, or Modern dance. Learn the history & technique of dance forms that spread across cultures.

Destructive Forces:

In recent years, commercial rap, mainstream media and music videos have been criticized for glorifying sex, violence, pimp culture, pornography, consumerism, and substance use. This workshop is designed to assist youth in understanding how mass media and hip-hop culture affect the lives of young women and girls. Through interactive activities and group discussion, we will explore messages about sexuality, relationships, and gender in hip-hop and popular culture. Participants will discuss and build strategies for resisting demeaning media images. We will also explore creative ways to use hip-hop as a tool for empowerment and social change.

Teacher Professional Development Workshop

KL Professional Development workshops are designed to study the kinds of practices and perspectives teachers need to elicit high levels of engagement and achievement from students of diverse cultural and economic backgrounds in an urban setting. Educators will learn proven, hands-on techniques that will help them to develop lesson plans and strengthen their course study (knowledge and understanding), as well as create a platform from which they will understand the scope of hip-hop history, culture, politics, and pedagogy. The workshop will consist of lecture and performance synthesized with hands on activities that train for effective strategies and cutting-edge multicultural educational approaches.

Teaching Artists of the Kuumba Lynx Roster stress the importance of effectively expressing oneself through increased arts education and community awareness. The Teaching Artists provide exercises that demand the participants to be descriptive, imaginative, and risk taking. The participants are encouraged to use their creativity and personal experiences via the various artistic elements of Hip-Hop and cultural arts so to convey meaning, allow for personal reflection, and provide insight that will engage their audience, themselves and one another. All KL Teaching Artists strive to foster creative expression in a non-judgmental space. Artist pride themselves on their unique teaching processes that include critical analysis, and continuous mapping of an individuals development.

Evidence of Teaching Artist excellence is visually present in the Theatre that is produced by, KLPE. KL Teaching Artists have played an active role in placing KLPE at the forefront of the emerging Hip-Hop Theatre movement in the United Sates. Having been featured at the New York Hip Hop Theatre Fest as a local headliner, and currently being featured in Steppenwolf’s Traffic Series KLPE continues to expand its horizons. KL likes to think of our work as a reflection of the ideology behind non-commercial original Hip-Hop and is reflective of Teaching Artist whom embody a pride for battling mainstream Hip-Hop. Therefore, KL works to connect modern day experiences and their relevance to many of our cultural traditions and artistic practices involving growth, collective responsibility, celebration, reflection, and self-determination.