Hip Hop in Social Work. Presenting was Dr. Edgar Tyson, a professor in my program who was practicing in Florida at a center for boys that had no where else to live. Most were troubled youth and family members wouldn't take them in anymore. Dr. Tyson spoke of one boy, 14 years old, who had been passed around to different family members and finally ended up with his grandmother and was doing well with her. She passed away and no one else would take him so he came to the center. Dr. Tyson kept trying to talk to him about his grandmother but he wouldn't. One day Dr. Tyson saw the boy cleaning up after lunch singing along to Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's song "Tha Crossroads." At their next session, Dr. Tyson asked him about the song and they two got into a deep discussion not only about the boy's grandmother but also loss and the tough life many youth live out on the streets.
From that point on, Dr. Tyson decided to use Hip Hop in his practice with the youth in this center. He said it worked especially well in the groups he was running. He'd have the youth listen to a song and then talk about the emotions that come with it. Dr. Tyson defined three different types of Hip Hop for us: Hiphop (the collective consciousness and spiritual movement), Hip Hop (the whole culture, relating to dance, art, etc) and hip hop (products the culture produces, for example rap music). He read to us from "The Gospel of Hip Hop" by KRS One (that's where the definitions came from) and we listened to other songs and talked about them. Dr. Tyson said these boys talked of the music being a way to vicariously experience things. They're not just relating to it, they're experienceing it. Hip Hop has helped them to "go there" when it's not been possible for them to do so before. Dr. Tyson's been extremely successful using this intervention and it was so great to learn about it FROM him. He's obviously so passionate about it and really believes in it.
I also took the session on Capacitar, an ancient healing art. Capacitar means "to empower" and is used largely in helping trauma victims to heal by using methods of Tai Chi, breathwork, pressure points, fingerholds and other body-mind-spirit methods. Our presenter, Maureen Jerkowski (a second year in our program) has been practicing Capacitar for many years with trauma victims, but she also uses the same concepts to alleviate her own stress. Instead of lecturing us, she actually had us go through four exercises. I learned a lot I can do to get positive energy running through myself. We all walked out of that session completely relaxed and stress free. Excellent.
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