Hip Hop Tech Camp: The Roots and STEM of Rap - A Writing & Technology Workshop for Grades 6-12

Students apply writing and technology skills to compose and record lyrics, download beats, and mix audio in this week-long STEM workshop. Participants will be introduced to hardware, software and terminology such as mixers, MIDI keyboards, VersePerfect, Audacity, cloud storage and online music libraries. The camp schedule will cover a range of topics that will leave students well-versed in the world of music production and composition.

Camp Schedule

• Day 1: The Roots of Rap - The Math / Poetry Connection
• Day 2: Hero Poems & Intro to Rap Performances
• Day 3: Past Time Poems / Intro to Rap Performances Continued
• Day 4: Political Poems / Rap Performance: Beat Selection
• Day 5: Recording / Software Usage / Final Performances

The Hip Hop Tech Camp: The Roots and STEM of Rap showcase day will be held on July 26 beginning at 6:30 PM.

About The Artists

Born in High Point, North Carolina, Jeffery Weatherford, also known as “Jeffery the Artivist,” has exhibited his creative spirit from a very young age. The son of a New York Times best-selling author, the gift of gab is in his genes. A multi-faceted, award-winning children’s book illustrator artist and internationally known, spoken word poet/MC, Weatherford received his Master of Fine Arts from Howard University in May of 2016. Since graduation, his debut title, "You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen" has been making notable waves in the children's book realm. He was recently invited to Ghana and Senegal on an international tour where he taught youth about being an illustrator and performed his poetry for the community every chance he got. He was given the name 'Yaw Ngyabo Aja I' by an elder while on his tour of the motherland in Ghana, which translates to "Thursday born word witch" because of the power in his tongue and how his words are mesmerizing to those that hear them. Weatherford/Yaw teaches that HIP HOP is an acronym for "Higher Infinite Power Healing Our People" and uses his artistic voice as an MC to be an eloquent voice for the voiceless and oppressed. A diverse spoken word artist, MC, social media expert, as well as the founder and chief of the global hip hop collective, TRiiiBE Worldwide, he has been steadily adding to his accolades and making quite the name for himself. From clothing design, to music, opening up for the Wu Tang Clan, Azalea Banks, Dave East, Oshun, and many more, to poetry, to visual arts, there is no telling how Weatherford is going to inspire the world next!