If you think Hip-Hop is just music, Carlos ‘REC' McBride has a few lessons to teach you. This fall Greenfield Community College is offering a humanities course called "These Are The Breaks: A Critical Analysis of the History of Hip-Hop Culture and its Social Impact."

"We are not just talking about music, but how this phenomenon manifested post-civil rights era through the rebellion of urban youth in the Bronx with very little resources or opportunities," said McBride, who designed and teaches the course. The course covers the history of Hip-Hop, how it originated and the culture and art forms that surround it, including graffiti and writing, the music of DJs and MCs, and the b-boys and b-girls, also known as break dancers. It was first taught this spring, and there was so much interest in it, that the class was overloaded. The class uses selected readings, films, documentaries, videos, music, guest lecturers, poets and current events to better understand the socio-political elements that shaped Hip-Hop.

McBride, 37, is working on a doctorate of education in the Language, Literacy, and Culture program from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His focus in the program is on critical pedagogy and social justice in Hip-Hop "culture." McBride says he uses quotation marks around culture, because it is up for debate in his class whether it is indeed a culture or not. He has also given talks on graffiti art in major U.S. cities and will present this September in Montréal Canada at the Latin American Studies Association conference. He is also working on his personal project called TRGGR, a new grassroots and academic journal of independent thinking and expression focused on Hip-Hop music, culture, education and politics. "A lot of my work focuses on how we can use elements of Hip-Hop ‘culture' to generate critical literacy in classrooms, primarily with youth from marginalized communities. We infuse different elements into the classroom, to develop a pedagogy that would allow the youth to develop their own narratives that ultimately challenges dominant discourse," McBride said.

McBride grew up in Hip-Hop culture and is of African-American and Puerto Rican heritage. He is originally from Passaic, New Jersey, but lived much of his life in Springfield, Massachusetts and Brooklyn, N.Y., but now lives in Amherst. McBride dropped out of high school after the ninth grade and becoming a parent at an early age. He seemed to be heading toward a downward spiral in life when he got a second chance. Through the Learning Tree program in Springfield, he was able to move back into the world of education and eventually went to Hampshire College as a James Baldwin Scholar and then to the University of Massachusetts for graduate work. McBride became associated with GCC as a New Perspectives Fellow, where he came up with the concept and design for the course.

Leo Hwang-Carlos, associate dean for humanities, said the course is offered through the Humanities 108 series, which offer surveys of the humanities through specialized topics. "You can access art, history, music, philosophy, literature – all through the context of what Hip-Hop culture is and what constitutes Hip-Hop as a movement and social phenomenon and musical style," Hwang-Carlos said. He said this is a course that would appeal to a lot of different kinds of people. "What really intrigues me about Hip-Hop is its roots in the protest movement — it's a social movement that talks about culture history and the human experience and those are universally vital things to the humanities," Hwang-Carlos said. "And while it might seem on the one hand something that is non-traditional, its roots are steeped in the very things that build our music and literature; the way we write our history."

The GCC course is set up for anyone who enjoys learning about culture. But, McBride said students can also use this course as a way to discuss and think about their own struggles and oppressive situations in the context of the larger society. "A lot of the students are going through intense life struggles — having multiple jobs, grappling with past addictions, dealing with family death, trying to understand their own identities and the way they fit into their own communities," McBride said. "Hip-Hop speaks about overcoming obstacles, breaking boundaries of class, race and culture, and overcoming oppression. These speak to people regardless of skin color or ethnic nationality," Hwang-Carlos said. For more information on this or other GCC Humanities Courses, please contract the Humanities Division at 775-1220, or contact McBride about this course at Press Contacts: Carlos McBride: (413) 347-7787 Leo Hwang-Carlos: (413) 775-1221