Community organization Art Starts is using hip hop to engage youth and teach life skills at the same time in their School of Rap program.
"This program is really amazing," said Rea McNamara, program co-ordinator for the just-completed School of Rap in the Oakwood/Vaughan neighbourhood, which is run in partnership with Montage Support Services.
"For some participants it offers a chance to experience a different art form, but for others the interest lies in having a career and being an artist."
The program, begun in 2007, is aimed at dispelling the negative, mainstream view of hip hop by focusing on the art form's history and its roots in Africa and New York City.
"We want to show these kids a sense of hip hop culture as a culture of social change," McNamara said. "It's a way to express themselves and develop song writing, performing, rhyming and recording skills."
The nine-week program, led by Toronto hip hop artist Dan-e-o, offers participants a chance to create their own hip hop tracks and even record them in a studio setting.
"I love making music my whole life," Dan-e-o said. "To give back to a community also interested in making music, learning how to write and record while getting a better appreciation of what hip hop culture is as opposed to buying into the stereotypes, is really what School of Rap is about."
The resulting recordings from the Oakwood/Vaughan program, which is the fourth School of Rap to be run in the city, will be released as a compilation album this weekend.
"Visionists" compiles the work of the seven disabled and able-bodied young rappers between the ages of 10 and 31 who participated in the program. The album contains thought-provoking tracks that confront many social-political, economic and identity issues faced by Toronto youth.
The album includes two tracks featuring Luis Vides, a participant who was hired by the organization to write a track for their Jane's Walk event, which is a neighbourhood tour designed to foster community.
"I've been in the program for two years and it's definitely a good program," said Vides, who is known to his fellow classmates as Lucho. "I've definitely seen how I've progressed as an artist since then."
McNamara describes the CD as wide-ranging, covering everything from participants' views of hip hop today to their take on their own neighbourhoods and the larger world they live in.
Art Starts will be celebrating the release of "Visionists" with a block party Sunday, May 31 from 1 to 5 p.m. at Montage Support Services located at 504 Oakwood Avenue.
The party will feature performances from the Visionist artists, break dancing from Lady Noyz and the Oakwood Library B-girls Crew, music by DJ Jazzy and free food and drink.
Art Starts offers after-school and summer programming in several neighbourhoods across Toronto.
For more information visit www.artstarts.net