Hip Hop for the People

Hip Hop for the People (Bisco Smith & Gustav Gauntlett)

In July of 2012, ARTS By The People sent two of our teaching artists, Brad “Bisco” Smith and Gustav Gauntlett, to Jerusalem, Israel to run a hip hop songwriting and street art workshop with Arab and Jewish middle-school students. The workshop included a group of 52 students between the ages of 9 and 14 years old. They learned about the techniques and history of socially conscious street art and designed and completed their own 32’ x 8’ mural.

They also learned about the history of hip hop and wrote and recorded a song in 3 languages: English, Hebrew and Arabic! The workshop culminated in a mixed media performance that included all of the different elements from the sessions.

Here is a link to the song Peace! created in Gustav’s hip hop songwriting class.

Check out the song Peace! created in Gustav’s hip hop songwriting class, Bisco’s documentary Words to the World – The Making of a Mural, and photos from the week below.

In the summer of 2012 Arts by the People and Project Harmony brought three New York / Los Angeles based teaching artists to a co-existence camp in Jerusalem, Israel. Little Giant Works documented the street art workshop and its culmination in the making of a mural. Special thanks to Jasmine Angelique Hemery, Arts by the People, Project Harmony, and all the donors that made the travel, workshops, and documentation possible.