Hip-Hop is Helping NYC Students Cope with Life’s Hurdles

The birthplace of Hip-Hop has a secret that they’re not trying to keep secret anymore. Students love Hip-Hop! Students want counseling! Students fully embrace rap, poetry, and spoken word as ways to sort through their emotions! Yes, my friends, you all just read that correctly. The kids want an outlet! Hip-Hop is the answer. Brace ya’selves, I’m ’bout to drop an amazing story on you right now. Currently the New Visions High School for Advanced Math and Science II (AMS II) is championing an after-school program that is literally changing the lives of dozens of impoverished, under-served, under-represented, under-funded, and over-critiqued young men and women of color. The program was launched by AMS II under the direct guidance of Columbia doctoral student and Hip-Hop artist, Ian Levy. He was brought in as the 9th grade counselor but soon realized that the student population was hungry for a Hip-Hop after-school club, so he did what any educator and fan of #bars would do: he asked his principal to make it happen. Courtesy of The New York Times [divider type=”space_thin”]A year and a half later and Levy’s office is now decked out in posters of Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, and Biggie while his desks are filled with Logic installed computers, MIDI pads, and keyboards with a corner complete with a mic, Beats headphones, and sound buffers. He now has a fully functioning studio in place so any and all students (not just members of the after-school club) can come spit whatever lyrics they …