WILMINGTON, N.C. — As kids grow and change, they have a lot of different emotions that they have to process, and school sometimes doesn’t always teach them how to process them.
That’s why the University of North Carolina at Wilmington started the Hip-Hop Collective, a program that allows middle schoolers to create their own music and write their own lyrics.
What You Need To Know
- The Hip-Hop Collective was started to help students process their emotions healthily
- It allows to students to create and write their own music, which can help them get things off their chest
- The Hip-Hop Collective is in line the Community Resiliency Model
Artist Brandon Hickman says that music can be therapeutic.
“They can draw, draw what they’re feeling, they write their lyrics, write what they’re feeling,” Hickman said. “It helps them get some things off their chest and create.”
Through the Hip-Hop Collective, he’s been teaching students to create music, and he says he sees how much it’s helped his students.
“You see a different student,” Hickman said. “Once they start working and getting into what they like, you see a different student.”
And for students like Ja’Naz Vaught, this program has become something to look forward to in school.
“I didn’t really get into music in school, but this collective, I got excited for it at first, and I’m still excited for it,” Vaught said. “But I heard that it’s the last day or could be the last day, and that’s kind of a bummer because it was kind of the best thing happening in this school.”
And even though the students may be done with the program now, Hickman says he hopes these kids will take music — and its benefits — with them for the rest of their lives, just like he did.
“I started playing the trombone in fifth grade, sixth grade and played it all the way through college. And I'm a DJ. I’m on the radio,” Hickman said. “So most of my life has been music.”
UNCW says the Hip-Hop Collective is in line with the Community Resiliency Model, which introduces students to balance their bodies and their minds.
This is the collective’s pilot program, and students are hoping it returns for the next school year.
