Monday Lyricism Club Week 10: Shared Storytelling

Free for youth ages 12-18

Program Description:

By this week, the youth will have finished their lyrical project; completed the written piece, and reflected on if this is how they want to be represented and presented to the group. Finally, they will go up to the recording studio for final production. If time permits the youth will also learn how to set up their work for online distribution i.e Soundcloud, Spotify, and YouTube. The youth will also have the opportunity to present their written piece at Antyx’s Friday cypher.

Monday Lyricism Club Week 9: Finalizing Your Structure

Free for youth ages 12-18

Program Description:

With the final week approaching, we will spend the day preparing for next week and completing our personal story. We will go over how to ensure this is the path we want to take, as this piece will be the foundation for the image that we present ourselves as going forward. 

With a deadline approaching, youth will deepen their understanding of starting and finishing a project – hopefully being more prepared to independently begin writing their own lyrics in their own time.
Youth will be finalizing their lyrics, having learned the importance of timeliness, goal setting, time preparation and finally working towards formatting their final structure and readying themselves for recording.

Monday Lyricism Club Week 8: Clarity, Context, Flow and Delivery

Free for youth ages 12-18

Program Description:

Interconnectedness is a value born with the origins of hip-hop. Today we will learn about the various levels of collaboration within the culture that provided clarity. By blending elements of various cultures together, it has “transcended” all genres by becoming “a means for seeing, celebrating, experiencing, understanding, confronting & commenting on life & the world”. 

Hip-Hop was born out of poverty, discrimination, and a systemic wave of political violence directed towards minorities; this is when these populations took matters into their own hands – working together to create better circumstances for themselves, by themselves. We will explore how sufficient planning and preparation can lead to the smallest movements. 

This week each youth report on their progress, what they need help with and if they are ready to begin recording any of their parts. If youth are not yet ready to record, they them work in pairs to support and encourage each other’s ideas. Encouragement could be done through providing a beat, going over notes together, helping to arrange sections, supporting in the recording studio or offering advice on different tones.  

Monday Lyricism Club Week 7: Understanding Your Tone

Free for youth ages 12-18

Program Description:

This week we will discuss the difference between our favourite artists and influential artists and explore the following: can you listen to an artist if they’ve done wrong? What about your biggest influences do you look up to? Do they have an influence on your own perspectives? The answers may surprise you... Reflecting on artistic tone, we will better understand how a change in voice can be of great influence. 
Leading on from the discussion last week, we will discuss the influence that our favourite artists have on us. What does their image tell us about them? Is there a tone carried in their music that gives off a certain vibe? Reflecting on the various elements of tone, youth will learn how the tone in their lyrics will dictate the emotion given off to listeners. 

The youth will be given time to begin formatting their songs now that they understand how their tone will impact the impression they give off; offering assistance and allowing youth to work together.

Monday Lyricism Club Week 6: How to Build Character

Free for youth ages 12-18

Program Description:

Do you think your values have an impact on the way you see yourself? We will be testing our personalities to discover where our interests lie and discuss how and if our experiences influence how we present ourselves to the world. 
Self Image is a huge part of hip-hop culture; people use it as a platform for alter-egos, boosting their confidence, and/or sending messages about themselves to their communities. The character type that we build in our writing impacts the impression we give off, and how people interact with us and impacts the environments we find ourselves in.  
This week we will be discussing our values and how they reflect on our self-image. Taking the enneagram test, youth may better understand how they see themselves, how they present themselves to the world, and the impact their character has on their environment. Youth will take time to reflect on the results of this test. The youth will write about their interests, issues important to them, and how their experiences may have influenced who they are today. They will then be given some meditation time to reflect on the notes they’ve taken over the weeks, highlighting important things they would like to share with the group about who they are. The youth will take these highlights and write a brief introduction about themselves. Each youth will have 2 minutes to briefly share. 

Monday Lyricism Club Week 5: Finding Your Place

Free for youth ages 12-18

Program Description:

Boundaries are one thing, but as we know the Hip-Hop scene is ever-changing, and remaining confident in the spaces we make for ourselves is key. As is large in the hip-hop community, we will discuss trauma & whether or not music and dance can unite divided communities, as well as how we would facilitate safe spaces & why it’s important. 

With a focus on creating safe spaces, the group will discuss trauma and how it has impacted who we are today. Opening up with an ice breaker on sensitive subjects; we will gain confidence to tell the group what our triggers are and/or what we don’t like being around. We will discuss Adverse Childhood Experiences and how they can impact us, taking time to reflect on our own trauma. We will wrap up with a sharing circle on how we may not always be able to choose our environments, but how we may be able to mold them better based on our qualities. 

Monday Lyricism Club Week 4: Sharing your Experiences and Preferences

Free for youth ages 12-18

Program Description:

With Hip-Hop culture taking a change in direction as of late, it’s important to set boundaries in our environments. Where we choose to focus our energy and who we choose to share it with can have a huge impact on the experiences we have, for example; the new styles of Hip Hop that glorify drugs, disrespect & disregard & the impact it leaves on young listeners.  
We will begin the program with a sharing circle on our vulnerabilities, encouraging one another to face and appreciate our weaknesses and learn how we can grow from the experiences. Youth will get into pairs and practice acknowledging their discomforts and voicing their desires for personal space. Each individual will discover more of their preferences using the Big 5 test, which will help them identify where their discomforts lie and better understand their boundaries. Knowing our boundaries can better prepare us for what we share, and want to write about, and provide focus to what we want the world to know.

Monday Lyricism Club Week 3: Importance of Plot

Free for youth ages 12-18

Program Description:

This week we will be discussing what about Hip-Hop culture makes it “toxic”, and how we can combat it with healthy perspectives. By seeing things in a certain light, we subconsciously plan & prepare for how we will respond either positively or negatively. 

We will discuss how we can sometimes hold people in a certain light and how it may not reflect who they truly are when we walk around with “tinted lenses”. Youth will pick from the Bias tests and reflect on the outcome of their results. The youth will participate in an activity where they imagine a scenario and give examples of how people may interpret it differently.

As a group, we’ll listen to the song ‘Trainsong’ by Listener and explore what he could have done differently to better understand the situation he was in. We will take time to write about a time in our life when things could have gone differently had we dealt with it from a different perspective. We’ll wrap up with a video and reminder that knowing your own and your friends’ “love languages” can provide better mutual communication & support. 

Monday Lyricism Club Week 2: Exploring Descriptive Words

Free for youth ages 12-18

Program Description:

Often times we only remember to express ourselves through words when we are brimming full of emotions, but it’s also important to allow others the chance to share their emotions as well. This is what Hip-Hop is truly about. In a cypher, each individual will be given the floor to share how they feel in a safe & productive manner. Today we’ll be learning how to work together in sharing our feelings respectfully using descriptive words.  

Using nouns, verbs & adjectives, the youth describe an experience they’ve had in as much detail as possible. We’ll explore Raplibs to assist in describing actions. We’ll discuss how emotions can build up and come out in other ways that we may not recognize, as well as how we can appropriately recognize when we need to and how to communicate feelings. Understanding our own love language can help us understand our own burnout; what we need from our peers and when we need to take time for ourselves.  

Monday Lyricism Club Week 1: Intro to Writing & Journaling

Free for youth ages 12-18

Program Description:

Writing lyrics can be a means of journalling, venting, or of telling someone how we feel. How we’re able to process our own emotions can be heavily portrayed in our words whether we want it to or not. We will learn how to express our emotions clearly through the use of spoken word & lyricism in the hopes of sharing a message of importance with our peers.

This week we’ll discuss Plutchik’s wheel of emotions & reflect on our current feelings. Youth will test their own emotional intelligence and write on the outcome and explore how in sync they are with their emotions. We will finish our discussion with a lyrical analysis of Ladders by Mac Miller and discuss our takeaways from the song reflecting on how it made us feel and why. From the notes taken, we will take some time to write about ourselves.