At 11 a.m. on a Tuesday, beats echoed through the art museum wing of the South Dallas Cultural Center (SDCC) in Fair Park. DJ, promoter and hip-hop ambassador Joel Salazar was manning the turntables as "I Ain't No Joke" by Eric B. & Rakim gave way to "Organ Donor" by DJ Shadow.
Salazar is teaching a fun course about the elements of hip-hop culture to students in grades 6 through 12. The free class takes place every Tuesday and Thursday and is part of the SDCC: Summer Arts at the Center Program, funded by the city of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs.
One week, they learned about the art of breakdancing. "Today, we covered all of the different elements of B-Boying," Salazar says. "The top rock, down rock, power moves and the freeze" -- the core moves of breakdancing. Salazar directs the class, frequently stopping to recap and test the student's knowledge of information they've covered.
On this day, a professional B-boy who goes by the name of Soulbot joined Salazar to demo the moves; he's worked with Salazar before at workshops and shows in the past.
DJing, emceeing, breakdance and graffiti collectively are the foundation of hip-hop culture, and Salazar also teaches that to adults at a bar in Deep Ellum in a series called Hip-Hop 101. But during the day, with the kids, his lesson plans are in the classroom instead -- and he's able to educate students about hip-hop's connections to black and Latino heritage. They focus on its ties to Caribbean, Central America and South America, all ports during the transatlantic slave trade. 2018's lesson centers specifically around Puerto Rico and "the retention of Africanism in and on Puerto Rican culture," says Marilyn Clark, education and outreach coordinator.
Salazar has put an emphasis on making sure his students receive a well-rounded gender inclusive experience, too: Soulbot joined them one day, and a female instructor named Jennifer "Bgirl Bout' It" Gonzales joined them two days later. "I really like the students to see both male and female examples," he says, "especially when it comes to hip-hop culture, because it's mostly male-dominated. It's really important that they also see women [involved]. I've had female DJs, dancers and artists just to switch it up, so they have a diverse mix of instructors."
Students at SDCC get to attend other summer classes, too, showing up 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, to learn about dance, drumming, photography, creative writing, painting, gardening, Spanish and several other subjects. Each class focuses on the roots of shared customs between blacks and Latinos.
"What we do is teach African and African-American history and culture using the arts," says Clark, a veteran civil rights activist. Rather than lecturing about how African people made it to America, her team uses interactive, engaging teaching methods. "That's what this whole summer is about," she says.
On a tour through the SDCC, Clark led the way into an auditorium where teacher Menkiti Rice presided over a drumming class. About 12 students ranging from kindergarten through second grade were seated in a circle with drums in front of them, awaiting instruction. Rice asked the class, "what country are we studying?" and the students yelled back, "Puerto Rico!" -- all smiles. He then asked, "what's the name of the music?" and they replied, "bomba!" -- which is a traditional style of music and dance where the rhythm of the drums is dictated by the dancer. Throughout the class, Rice and his students communicated in Spanish and English.
"Bomba is African rhythm combined with Spanish and Native American rhythms that were used to express our resistance to the conditions we were in," Clark explains. "It was also used to celebrate birthdays, weddings and other occasions."
On the last day of the program, on Friday, July 13, SDCC will host a festival where students will present what they've learned. It will be a meaningful day for the organizers, who work with Summer Arts at the Center Program because it fills a specific need for their community.
"These are all children of South Dallas," Clark says. "If we wanted, we could open it up more, and people would pay money to come here. We don't, because we have to serve the children and the families who are here. We want the people who live here to benefit from the resources."