Maybe If I had his positive influence I would have made better and wiser choices whilst at school. Great discussion, as usual.. The integration of thoughts across the two seemingly separate worlds of Shakespeare and Hip Hop. You can learn more about Akalas work at www.hiphopShakespeare.com. When I asked them what they wanted to be when they were older, they said marine biologist, judge, lawyer, soldier not I want to be famous which is the most common aspiration in this country. Now I wantSpirits to enforce, art to enchant,And my ending is. I personally like hip hop a lot, so seeing a loved topic combined with the topic we are dealing in school with right now gives me a personal attachment to Shakespeare.Thanks a lot for your creative presentation and I hope to see more interesting stuff like that on this Channel!!!. They both can allude latent meanings in witty ways. I would absolutely love to see him and Jordan Peterson have a public discussion. As part of the colonizing efforts of the British in imperial India, the first English literature curricula were constructed, and Shakespeare's plays were central to . AKALA: Right, Tybalt, hes a great character, much better character than Romeo and or Juliet, right? Well considering this is a Ted talk i can't imagine any of this talk was 'on the fly'. Combining art forms.The background knowledge as far as Shakespeare is concerned is.. Well, that one is up to whoever is filling in the worksheet! Songs. Akala admits to having some sympathy with the idea of streaming by ability, despite this being a view associated with those well to the right of his own politics. Why might Akala say that we should teach learn Shakespeare? Im Michael Witmore, the Folgers director and, no, Im not going to give you the answer right now. The point is youre supposed to get them wrong, which well discuss in a minute. What is the rhythm of IAMBIC PENTAMETER? And even the portions of the Shakespeare and text that they sung sit perfectly over music because he wrote in this rhythm and because its very musical. Both she and the British Caribbean side of Akalas family encouraged his learning. I mean he was not Oxford. BARBARA: Well Id love to hear your Dostoyevsky rap, but Im gonna content myself with your Shakespeare ones. You know, youre being poetic but at the same time youve put these very serious constraints on you but what the iambic pentameter, I think, gives you, it makes it a lot easier to memorize and as weve now discovered, you know, we can see that over modern music is a pretty good way for a person to learn how to flow. If youre not an expert on jazz or on classical music, it can all sound the same till you get into it, right? Maybe you don't like it, but don't degrade the genre to say that its "an excuse for people to say whatever they want with total impunity", because its not. So, if someone, you know, if youre an artist who wants to write a verse that you can go into a cipher with and be confident that whatever beat that the DJ puts on you can flow with it, the pentameter is a great rhythm to do that. Akala is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. AKALA: Because actually the sounds that rhyme to a Brazilian Portuguese accent are not exactly what we perceive musically to be rhymes in English and it was a really interesting thing that I kinda found and heard. Teacher: Why it is ridiculous not to teach Shakespeare in school by: Matthew Truesdale Dana Dusbiber does a disservice to teachers and particularly those of us who teach English when she makes the argument that Shakespeare should be left to "rest in peace." Ms. Dusbiber is frustrated by the narrowness of the Western canon and by the expectation AKALA: Well I think one of the challenges we often have when interpreting the culture of the African diaspora is for a very long time, I think theres been a lot of great work done over the last half a century to repair but still to some degree because of the problems that many countries in Africa face today, we project those problems into the past in a time when they might not necessarily have existed. I'm a high school English teacher. The book analyses British society through Daley's experiences of British life as a child and later as a rapper, founder of the Hip-hop Shakespeare Company, a campaigner and a writer. A few years ago, I saw "a comedy of errors" set in a mafia controlled town in Italy. I am mind blowing with this tedtalk rap!! England still has this Victorian hangover in the way we teach Shakespeare, Akala explains. AKALA: And then you listen to Rappers Delight, its the same flow. BARBARA: Yeah, certainly not in class terms, yeah. Romeo and Juliet are still among Shakespeare's most widely read plays, despite not generally being regarded as one of his best. 16:09 - 16:12 What are we training the . AKALA: Yeah, I dont have a Dostoyevsky one, but its all right. Both my dad and my step-dad run sound systems and hip-hop. And I get that point of reference. BARBARA: Do you also run into this idea that, well I cant even I dont think any of the things that youre quoting to me could be Shakespeare because I just dont even know Shakespeare. That people have a sense of whos allowed, or have a misperception or a bias about whos allowed to know Shakespeare well enough to even identity it? British poet, rapper, and educator Kingslee James Daley, who goes by the stage name Akala, likes to recite a passage and then challenge his audience with this question. In the meantime, find us online and on the road. Musicality was central to Shakespeare. Then he talks about rhythm and the 'iambic pentameter'. There was a long tradition of gathering at Congo Square on a Sunday and when we understand this griot tradition and the drums and call and response and African polyrhythms and everything that came before it, we can literally plot a line through jazz and blues and gospel and reggae music in the Caribbean up to hip-hop. So what weve been trying to do is in keeping with its educational tradition.. So, I never ever had this sense that hip-hop was just what I saw on the television. Whos watching this because your teacher assigned it to you????????? interfere with the normal arrangement. 6 why might akala say that we should teach shakespeare . Throughout his entire career, he was experimenting with different forms of rhythm. They call blues devils music and they called it the Negros revenge. Thats an actual quote from the Daily Mail. Akala makes the point that it's hard to distinguish between hip hop and Shakespeare when . And so, Shakespeare is related to that whole politics of the British class system. What significant work? BARBARA BOGAEV: Well, part of me just wants you to rap for half an hour. Learn more about The Hip-hop Shakespeare Company (THSC). From award-winning theater and music, to poetry and exhibitions, experience the power of the arts with us. I mean the imagination of Shakespeare being a rapper is just hilarious In my opinion, the style of how you presented your findings is good and the interactive task of choosing who actually said different frazes was very interesting as well. Also, on a mildly irrelevant note, his accent is my inspiration for speaking eloquently whilst retaining the ineffable London ghetto drawl. In the 1400s, the main kingdom he speaks about in that book is the Empire of Mali. Cause theyre not that interesting. BARBARA: No. AKALA: Yeah, I mean he is an icon. This man has a brilliant mind and a brilliant heart! The original Shakespeare theatre was built in 1599, it has since become Shakespeare's Globe theatre Although it's not "well known", Akala says the world in the book might feel familiar to some . 1.) I think theres something about Shakespeare as a brand, but I think that comes as much from what has been written about him as what he wrote. This was to show how people are still affected by his work and are still writing like him. So, for example, Felipe Fernndez-Armesto, the great, you know, historian from Oxford University, he has a book called Millennium. But what do you want people to go home with? Using hip-hop to explore Shakespeare is not as unlikely as it might sound. But the evidence from his recent trip to Jamaica contradicts this. This is a totally manufactured way of speaking. AKALA: What we now call hip-hop, really, the main thing that changed with hip-hop was the production technique rather than the art of rhythmically rhyming over the beat of a drum that had been going on for hundreds of years. You can hear immediately that is not the same as shall I compare thee to a summers day. It doesnt have the same roll to it. And you mentioned a few of them. We can teach parts of some of them and really focus in on specific elements of that section. No, thank you very much. His works are timeless. I'd love to see a hip-hop themed "taming of the shrew". But some thought I was just a little bit too bright for someone like me. You know, its. His intellect and use of word is breathtaking. Support us to bring Shakespeare and his world to life for everyone. It doesnt matter that its from the projects of Staten Island. AKALA: How difficult that is to do to make sense, to rhyme, to be semi-autobiographical and to put ten syllables in every single line. AKALA: And it isnt. You wont always be able to pick up the rhyme. I teach thesis, like ancient Greece's Or Egyptology, This was a great learner moment. In the UK, Shakespeare has become a symbol, in many ways, of the British class system, and theres a perception that you have to be like basically as smart as Albert Einstein to enjoy Shakespeare. Showing this to my students. If his name doesn't sound familiar, it's because he usually goes by his stage name, Akala. That was great! Draw for your sword orSee to it your knees meet and greet the ground,Bow! I mean this is. That was incredible stuff, very impressive and informative. And even he got a couple wrong. The Poets Pen Turns Them to Shapes was produced by Richard Paul. remains to be my favorite ted talk, ive watched over and over and over again, I like the way he blends these disparate cultures (griots = bards) and mentions the need for explanation about Shakespeare's education as if only certain people have about the custodians of knowledge. It has to be rhythm first. So we give people all different sorts of verses to show how versatile Shakespeare was and how much he experimented across his career. Shakespeare should not be taught in the ninth grade curriculum because it's too hard to teach; also its very difficult to understand, last it's not even relatable to today's youth. And so if we take, say, jazz and we bring it all the way up to hip-hop, we talk about Congo Square. AKALA: No, absolute pleasure. This was an excellent use of my time! And through Hip-hop Shakespeares creative workshops and interactive lectures he is directly helping some of them giving them confidence in their own ability. If you can get him then anything is possible. As Akala points out there are over 100 songs in Shakespeares plays and iambic pentameter a poetic meter with five pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables per line is used as much in hip-hop songs as it was in the sonnets. Othello is not originally his story. BARBARA: Well, weve been talking about a lot of these misperceptions of Shakespeare but what are the common misperceptions of hip-hop? On why the playwright's works have become fixtures in education, Thompson says, "Shakespeare was a tool used to 'civilize' Black and brown people in England's empire. @Tiffany Summers I think it is only you and the person who liked your comment that have the problem. the outer limits or edge of an area or object. AKALA: I was not born under a rhyming planet. -Rhythm 2.) You must know that this guy is clearly good at putting words together. And to their power of imagination characters in stories Ive read are like my friends, to me they live and if they die I grieve for them. )Why might Akala say that we should teach Shakespeare? You can specify conditions of storing and accessing cookies in your browser. But that didnt mean he was always a good boy. The definition of hip hop he gave was fascinating. Rhyme differs even in English. AKALA raps Sonnet 18 again over an uptempo grime beat, closer to 140 BPM. This man is pure geniusshould be on telly. Music is imitating the rhythm of life what an intelligent perception, his lectures are intellectually rich. He then goes on to explain how many people who often criticize hip-hop dont actually understand it. If rapping was so easy, wed all be Nas, right, or wed all be KRS-One or wed all be Lauryn Hill. Many of Shakespeares works can be changed to fit the style of hip hop. The enlightenment of knowledge is a moving force. AKALA: Right. That boy Akalas a diamond fella.All you little boys are a Comedy of Errors,You bellow but you fellows get played likeThe cello. 19:48 - 19:50 . It's only fitting that his plays . The question is, why are some people then turned off it and others not? Akala is currently researching the reasons why the educational attainment of fourth-generation British Caribbeans is low. He is glad that British universities have increased the diversity of their students in recent years but still feels we have some way to go to match American universities. xx And thats what great culture does. BARBARA: Was it performance first for you? They are quite bland. A very interesting talk. Im gonna say thats not Shakespeare. What was the popular perception of jazz when jazz was the dominant youth culture for black America? I need this video, so i can show this to other people who say hip hop is shit. Theres something for everyone. What is hip-hop but a state of mind? SonicHits. Nasir Jones. So, for those who dont know what that is, Im gonna do my BBC accent now. a rough or noisy fight or quarrel. But it is still mysterious how that works and since you look at Shakespeare through this lens of both politics and music, Im curious what you think makes Shakespeares work timeless or relatable. And the word is *enunciation*. Working together for an inclusive Europe. I think if you look at hip-hop in particular, in London, the most diverse audience youll ever see at any gig you ever go to, without question, will be a hip-hop show. Some people can't even get past the language, sucks for them. You know, Ovid, Pluto, the Bible. Some of my uncles were gangsters. Observe digital content for Oxford Brookes alumni, supporters and friends, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), University news The magazine for Oxford Brookes alumni, supporters and friends, Wellness and mental health Black perspectives, Overcoming tragedy and finding an enlightened path, From Brookes to the Arctic Circle an artists journey, Oxford Brookes research: responding to Covid-19 and shaping the future, The importance of diversity and inclusion in marketing, The future of motor racing is here at Brookes, Local alumni chapters what they do and how you can join in. It has to be sung. i havent been on this thread in ages. flexi classic leash tape; dynacraft golf clubs australia. Don't you know the king's name is a tower? He has been co-opted as being just for people who speak in a particular way but there was no RP (a form of English pronunciation associated with higher social classes) in Shakespeares times! Ninety nine percent of England doesnt actually talk that way. Esp Rebelution and Sick Jacken etc. Answer by Guest. Even an acclaimed Shakespearean actor like Sir Ian McKellen can't always answer correctly. I think im officially blown awayi always said i liked rap because it's poetry and someone made a whole seminar about it!! I have used this as a concept for a university class presentation. Show all results: Artists. Whereas if I play you Lauryn Hill performing it on MTV Unplugged, immediately youre like, I didnt understand half the words. "Musicality was central to . AKALA: describes it as jazz. And obviously I deliberately picked rappers that were eloquent, rappers that were good, rappers that use I mean, weve got a line in there where the RZA says, the most benevolent king communicates for your dreams. You know, weve got another line fromthe Wu-Tang in particular were one of my favorite groups growing upwhere they say, judgment day cometh, conquer, its war. People hear the word cometh and obviously, naturally would assume its Shakespeare. Press Esc to cancel. He was interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. -Because of the intrinsic value in inspiring people towards their own creative excellence. Shakespeares writing influences a lot of modern-day trends we see in todays society such as music. Periphery. We had help from Joe Philip at Covered PR, from Mariama Abudulai, and from Ryan Pate at the Dub Room Studio in Los Angeles. I love your art, i've learnt more from akala lyrics and youtube vids than i ever did in history or english class, Hip-Hop & Shakespeare? William Shakespeare is regarded by many as the greatest playwright of all time and the most important author in the development of the English language. He says hip comes from the word hippy from a Senegalese language and it means 'open one's eyes and see' and the hop is representative of movement. Its interesting though, because they can do it when it comes to movies which is just as much entertainment as Hip Hop. This man is awesome. We obviously live in a corrupt world.What would the world be like with leaders such as thisI also wonder what Akala thinks pertaining to more spiritual perspectives on life. QUICK TIP: Open the transcript for this video and skim through it to help you find answers faster. Hes become a global icon for a whole host of interconnected complicated reasons. There is a close focus on education in the book - and not much of . Skespeare wrote in the 1600s. @Jimmyjamjohnson42It's a narcissistic idea. Bless the Good Man. What are we teaching young people? The creativity involved. Akala was brought up to take his education seriously. And so people would gather. Similarly with Shakespeare, if you watch the Baz Luhrmann Romeo + Juliet or, you know, Laurence Fishburne as Othello, I mean if you cant enjoy that, I would suggest that theres something wrong with you, maybe? Bring Shakespeares work to life in the classroom. BARBARA: Well, what I find interesting about peoples misperceptions, I mean this gets back to this relationship between hip-hop and Shakespeare that you talk about, is that Shakespeare really was the original mash-up artist as well. Although one might argue that all of his works should be included on this list due to his enormous literary . So they set up Saturday schools.. Akala really deserves to be more popular. BARBARA: Well, I mean were talking about the oral tradition. Everyone here because of their teachers lmaooo, if that is the case your teachers deserve more than you can possibly give if you find yourself in this position give him/her a hug or if that isn't appropriate shake hands or elbow bump a man that deserves to be heard, I loved Akala before my teacher and now when Im listening to it at school my teacher is on about how I like It now. [CLIP from Comedy Tragedy History continues]. Award winning hip-hop artist, education activist and author, Akala received an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes in June 2018. Raw like the Ball of Brazilians. This guy is smart asf! Hip hop should be taught more in universities and people like him should be honorary professors. AJ says: "Because hip-hop tells stories, Shakespeare is a good subject. You know, hes not do you know what I mean? He then goes on to show how these oral traditions influenced a lot of music styles from jazz, funk, blues to hip hop. You know, sometimes when I ask young people, for example, I say, where, you know, where does black America music come from? I mean you gotta remember when blues was around, you know, in the UK, we have a paper called the Daily Mail, a favorite right-wing paper. You listen to Chinese music and be like, I cant tell it apart. [Verse 1:] Nigga listen. Quer ser o melhor vai ser o melhor pra tua comunidadeUm som por semana?No sou esse tipo de MCEu fao um som por anoE tu no fica uma semana sem ouvirMensageiro sim senhorVagabundo se emocionaPorque sente o esprito dos ancestrais, Griot! From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Would love to see more of Akala on TedxTalks :). Love them both! Our doors are reopening in Fall 2023! So I felt it would be radical to take this symbol of elitism and say no, thats not what he was in his time and he is still relevant today.. Truly Amazing!! Answer: He claims that they share rhythm. Wheres this mountain of evidence? I've heard his fire in the booths but never checked him out even though they were and still are the best ones. K. Chesterton~. Get real, homey. Both can be representing entertainment and both can be representing life as it is. 20:11 - 20:15 I never expected this. They made music in spite of the condition of enslavement. A lot of young boys dont know how to express their emotions and that leads to conflict because they end up articulating them with their fists or worse.. Real Hip Hop is not Dead, it just went Underground, and also lives Independently. But they didnt see being smart as separate from being a tough guy. I didn't feel like sitting in the canteen on my lunch break, I felt like making better use of my time. 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Both Hiphop and Shakespeare are examples of the some of the most paramount poetry there is. I'm a teacher, and my students and I love this performance. BARBARA: It was such a pleasure to talk to you. We have lyrics for 'Akala' by these artists: The lyrics can frequently be found in the. HipHop ain't dead Akala's got it at Ted and has risen Shakespeare from the dead. Annunciation means something quite different (its the visitation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary). School was fraught with contradictions and challenges for me despite my academic abilities. Because you talk, also in that presentation, about how rhyme differs from place to place, from language to language which Ive never thought about it that way. MCs! BARBARA: Well, what when you do that exercise, then, what misperceptions do you find that people have? I've only known about you for about a month, but for you, I have a lot respect. Your ears and your brain literally are not yet trained to understand the vocabulary of that music. Ian McKellen came. He became part of the elite in a way. BARBARA: I was not born under a rhyming planet. If youve been enjoying Shakespeare Unlimited, I hope youll consider reviewing the podcast on whatever platform you get this podcast from. ann sheridan son richard, what is the strongest loomian in loomian legacy, medexpress patient portal login,
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