Urban Arts Partnership’s ‘Fresh Prep’ – Hip Hop Infused Education Initiative – Highlighted in New York Times

As was the case with the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective, we are happy to report that a mainstream New York news organization beat us to the punch with a worthy hip hop-related story.

We’ve spoken on a few occasions to Sam Sellers, known among the New York City hip hop scene as Rabbi Darkside, about the hip hop infused educational program he has been involved in, “Fresh Prep,” along with the Urban Arts Partnership. Fresh Prep is a groundbreaking education initiative that successfully incorporates hip hop techniques in the classroom, and we have been eager to find out more, in order to write a story for our site.

Luckily, despite the fact that our backlog has yet to afford the opportunity to look further into it, the New York Times came to the rescue, and profiled Sellers and other associates of the organization, as they apply Fresh Prep techniques to a groups of students studying for Regents exams.

But instead of treating street culture as something that has no place in a classroom, it is being used as a vehicle to deliver instruction. That is the idea behind Fresh Prep, a program run by the Urban Arts Partnership that is trying to help hard-to-reach students pass the history Regents tests, which they must do to graduate.

Be sure to check out Preparing for State Tests, to a Hip-Hop Beat on NYTimes.com for more about this enlightening program.

UPDATE: The program was featured on CBS’ The Early Show. Story here. Video below.