Old Skool Like When Scratchin' Was Something You Did to Your Ass When No One Was Looking
For me, it seems, it started out purely pedagogical.
Now, seemingly, increasingly, ever so illogical...
but then, most recently, intriguingly, none other than borderline conjugal,
that I might develop some proclivity,
for this poetic activity... Hip Hop methodology.
At once so philosophical, a study inherently sociopsychological,
yet toxic, makes my clock tick-tock-tick—
like when Herbie used to "Rock-it"—
here now we hip-hop it... flip, floss, gloss and polish it...
A cultural phenomena initially rejected.
Today, a new society, pervasively infected,
'til we say "That's ilI!" And if that's the dope, and it's "so dope" that it's
got these kids willin' to learn, then it's killin' it...
It's ill, sick, and—intrinsically—chronic,
so, stop hatin' it... Keep syncopatin' it...
Drop it, don't stop it...
So, it follows that, pedagogically speaking...
To say it's a way to connect, dissect, and respect...
but not to disconnect.
Interject some hope, inclusion, less mutual exclusion...
to help raise some collaboration, within this—
a newly united, routinely disenfranchised nation—
of our urban youth, to facilitate their own spoken truth...
Free from patronizing, criticizing, these heated tempers a'rising,
to claim their sense of place, their OWN ed space,
in this convoluted rat race...
So, when you're kickin' it with your colleagues
in these schools, halls and colleges,
you can be bringin' it... IN and,
flossin' and huggin' and flippin' it...
(Droppin' it, still not stoppin' it)
...to resemble and assemble something curricular,
if not spectacular,
with my street smart new vernacular!
—Dana Kaleta, Milwaukee, WI
