- 9 hours ago
Anika Bowie (Run Like Harriet), Tony Simmons (Highschool For Recording Arts).
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00How are y'all feeling?
00:04I am Bridget Todd.
00:05I am so excited to be here back with you again today.
00:08High School for Recording Arts, also known as Hip-Hop High,
00:12pioneered the concept of connecting with at-risk students and young people
00:16through music, arts, and hip-hop music,
00:19and using it really to uplift our communities.
00:21And so I'm so excited and blessed and grateful
00:24to be joined by our panel to discuss
00:26how we can connect with young people through art, culture, and activism.
00:31I would love to get started by both of y'all introducing yourself.
00:35Hey, everyone.
00:37Let me make sure the mic is working.
00:41Try it one more time.
00:42Testing one, two.
00:42Testing one, two, one, two, three.
00:44You hear me?
00:45Okay, we in there?
00:45Okay, got it.
00:47Yes.
00:48Hey, everyone.
00:48How y'all doing?
00:50Woo!
00:51Good, good.
00:52It's a beautiful day.
00:53My name is Anika Bowie, and I am the CEO and founder of Run Like Harriet.
01:00I am an activist.
01:02I am the former vice president for the Minneapolis NAACP.
01:07So when it comes to civil rights and social justice,
01:09that's the heart of what I'm about.
01:11I'm also an artist.
01:13I was a former educator at HSRA.
01:16Woo-hoo!
01:16Yes, and build out the royalty curriculum and just, like, just activate young people
01:24to believe in their greatness and believe in just their powers.
01:27So I'm happy to be here today.
01:30I'm Rondell Ray.
01:32Shout out to Twin Cities, St. Paul.
01:35I just love my community and just happy to be here.
01:38Yes, yes.
01:39Let's hear it for Anika.
01:41Woo-hoo!
01:42So I'm Tony Simmons.
01:44I helped to create the High School for Recording Arts with my brother, partner, David T.C. Ellis,
01:49who I'll talk about a little bit later.
01:52But I'm the executive director there now.
01:55Also work with high-tech high graduate school education in San Diego,
01:59starting new schools all around the country.
02:02Just a creator myself.
02:04You know, old-school musician, jazz trumpet player.
02:07Got frustrated, took the law school route, but still a creator in every other sense.
02:12I just want to say this is such a beautiful, just such a beautiful gathering of people from the community.
02:18I just want to congratulate, you know, Anthony and all the team at Afropunk
02:23and thank them for engaging this community so, so beautifully.
02:27Thank you for that.
02:29So I would love to get started.
02:30You know, how did the both of you become people who were interested in activating young people
02:35through art, through creativity, through positivity and things like that?
02:39How did you come to this work?
02:42I would say, for me, I know art was my pathway.
02:48I say art was my catalyst for change.
02:51Growing up in the neighborhood, I was exposed to a lot, right?
02:55We also know that there was the mass incarceration, the prison industrial complex.
03:00A lot of people, you know, getting brutalized by police.
03:05So issues in our community was very present, and there was no denying that, right?
03:11And I had to also find a way to use a positive outlet, and art was that.
03:19I was a writer, a poet.
03:23I did theater.
03:24I also went to St. Paul Central High School and was part of this community called Central
03:30Touring Theater, which does, I hear some woo-woo-woos in the crowd, that does social justice theater.
03:39And really, it was, I think it was just, I was really blessed to be part of an education
03:44system that utilized a social justice pedagogy.
03:48And that's really important.
03:50And I had educators who were also activists.
03:54And even in this day and age now, to just even educate your young people on the truth,
04:00and, you know, teach them to be more than just low-wage workers, right?
04:05To be entrepreneurs is an art of activism.
04:10So I was blessed to have so many people in my community to invest in me, to expand my mind.
04:16And I think, for me, it was really, you know, I'm 30 now.
04:22You know, I'm, hey, talk 30 to me.
04:26And so for a long time, I was considered a youth, right?
04:32You know, majority of my life now.
04:34So now transitioning into my 30s and being in the position where I can actually give back,
04:42I can't forget about those things that the older people or just so many people in my community
04:49offered to me.
04:50And that was a listening ear and a platform to be able to share my voice, speak truth to power.
04:57Also, I would say being truthful and being honest.
05:05For me, my breaking point was when my dad was incarcerated.
05:12And I had to navigate, you know, life without my dad.
05:19And, you know, growing up, I was a big daddy's girl, right?
05:22So that really impacted me and drove me to learn everything I needed to learn about the criminal justice system.
05:33My coping mechanism during that time was being the intellectual, right?
05:37Because I was just like, I'm trying to understand who in the world would design a system to where,
05:43you know, you will criminalize people for the very thing.
05:46Now, 20 years later, we are legalizing in multiple states, right?
05:50And the war on drugs being really a scam of just the war against black people.
05:56And it took art.
05:59It was an art for me to get to that point to understand that these structures and how we respond to problems
06:09and how we solve problems takes a lot of creativity and innovation.
06:14And when you are in a place of embracing that creativity, you create these confined systems, right?
06:23So I'm always about community and always about expansion.
06:27And I would say art definitely was that catalyst for me.
06:30That's beautiful.
06:31Nigar could listen to you all day.
06:34Congratulations for being 30 and doing so much already in the community.
06:38You were just the commencement speaker at your alma mater, High School Center.
06:43What?
06:44Yes.
06:44I would.
06:45Congratulations.
06:46Yes, yes.
06:47So, you know, for me, like I said, I grew up just surrounded with music.
06:54I'm from New York.
06:55I was born and raised in Brooklyn and Queens.
06:58Yes.
06:58All who's from New York in the house.
07:00And, you know, I'm old head.
07:03I grew up really loving jazz, really loving R&B, soul.
07:09But then when I was in high school, this art form hip-hop came on.
07:13You know, that was my contemporaries at the time that was really embracing this culture.
07:18And, you know, I never imagined that, you know, that was preparing me for my life work.
07:25So when I went to college, I went to Howard University.
07:28Then I came back.
07:28HU?
07:29HU, Bison in the house.
07:31And then Pace, and I went to law school, I was thinking, you know, I was just going
07:37to be on this track where I was going to be, like, you know, representing recording artists.
07:42I was doing criminal defense work.
07:44And I remember one thing in particular.
07:47When I was doing criminal defense work, a lot of times I was working with juveniles
07:51who were caught up in the system.
07:52And I remember just feeling like, gosh, I wish I could have gotten to them earlier.
07:56Just as a mentor, not as a lawyer.
08:00You know, not trying to get them out of something, but trying to inspire them to something.
08:04Well, fast forward, I'm representing these hip-hop artists.
08:09I'm at this conference called Impact in Atlantic City.
08:12You know, I'm there with all of the big, you know, luminaries in hip-hop.
08:16And I'm sitting next to this guy from the Twin Cities.
08:19He said his name was David T.C. Ellis.
08:20And we're talking and everything, and I'm telling him what I do.
08:24And I said, so what do you do?
08:25He said, well, I'm from St. Paul.
08:27I grew up with Prince, and I'm now at Sider Paisley Park.
08:30This is the mid-'90s when he said Prince.
08:33I just saw his lips moving, right?
08:36I was like, Prince?
08:38Like, you grew up with Prince.
08:39The icon?
08:40Right, right.
08:41So, you know, he and I just became friends.
08:43I started representing him.
08:45He started bringing me out to Minnesota.
08:47And there was a point in time when he, you know, was no longer signing Paisley
08:53because Prince got out of his deal with Warner Brothers,
08:56and he wanted to open up a recording studio called Studio 4.
08:59And he asked me, you know, to help him with that,
09:02and I would fly in from New York.
09:03But then over time, you know, although he was just in the music business,
09:07we both were just in the music business.
09:08Had no idea about thinking about education.
09:12Yeah.
09:12Hungry for it.
09:14Wanted to know how the business works.
09:15How do you copyright trademark?
09:17They were just brilliant.
09:19But then David would talk to them.
09:20He would say, like, you know, you guys are brilliant,
09:22but you're here, like, all day, every day.
09:24Why aren't you in school?
09:25You know, they'd be like, they were like 17, 16, 15.
09:28They were like, man, school's boring.
09:30I got kicked out.
09:31You know, this is what I'm trying to learn.
09:33And David was like, yo, but you still need your education.
09:37Eventually, you know, he realized that wasn't going to happen.
09:40They weren't going to go back to school.
09:41And he said, man, I'm just going to start a school from my studio.
09:46And out of Studio 4, we created the high school for recording arts.
09:49Woo!
09:50Right?
09:51That's right.
09:52And, you know, I wrote a curriculum, a business of music with a friend.
09:57And I would fly back and forth.
09:59And then three years into the school, David one time called me.
10:02He said, Tony, I know you're tired of practicing law.
10:04And you love it out here.
10:06Why don't you just come out here and run this with me?
10:07And I literally, in that phone call, I said, that's what I'm going to do.
10:12And it was the best decision I ever made in my life.
10:14And there's so many young people I see here who are a product of HSRA and TC's vision.
10:20And just the honor of working with them has just been, you know, a blessing.
10:25But the last point I want to say is that, you know, working with them is not just in terms of education,
10:32as you would think in a traditional sense.
10:34HSRA has been a social justice project from its inception.
10:40It's always been about engaging brilliant young people that the system has marginalized and oppressed
10:46and pushed out of education because they just, just the way they show up
10:50and the way that they, you know, they lean in into who they are authentically.
10:55And we've had to fight constantly for the system to understand the work that we're doing
11:02so that we can engage these brilliant young people in a way that most prepares them
11:07for what their God-given, you know, talent and gifts have given them the chance to be.
11:14So, you know, for me, I never thought I would be in this work,
11:18but I thank God every day that I'm in it.
11:20And I get more out of it than I can imagine that I think they get from me.
11:27Tony, you know, you basically wrote the book on how hip-hop can be a lens for young people
11:34to really tap into their genius, Hip-Hop Genius 2.0.
11:37You happen to have the book.
11:40And I guess a question that I would have for both of you is how can this be a lens
11:45for our youth to really feel seen and tap into their brilliance?
11:49Well, you know, Hip-Hop Genius is really just about, you know, youth culture
11:54and youth empowerment and youth voice.
11:57And it really spans beyond hip-hop, but hip-hop has been the cultural force
12:02that really has brought it to the fore at the greatest level, right?
12:07I mean, when you think about hip-hop and where it has gone
12:10and what it has done for the culture and how it has impacted society
12:15and how it has given rise to so many dynamic community leaders, it's just phenomenal.
12:21So, you know, for me, you know, Hip-Hop Genius has been an effort of love.
12:28And it's been, you know, not just my book.
12:30It's been a collaboration with David C. Zellis.
12:33The first, this is Hip-Hop Genius 2.0.
12:36The first Hip-Hop Genius is basically his story.
12:38And the beginning of HSRA, which I just touched on.
12:42And it was written by Sam Seidel, a brilliant young educator who we've worked with.
12:47And 2.0 has brought in myself and Michael Lipset.
12:51And we've just been able, we've just been talking about, you know,
12:55why has the educational system not recognized how important it is
13:00to engage young people in a way that empowers them, gives them voice.
13:04And we wrote the first book 10 years ago with an idea that things were going to change.
13:1010 years later, we were like, not much has changed.
13:14So this book is a call to action.
13:16We call it The Bum Rush.
13:18You know, when I was coming up, you know, when you, you know,
13:21The Bum Rush meant something.
13:22It meant like if you go in a club with your boys and, you know,
13:25you're young, you don't got no money in your pocket,
13:26and you're trying to get into the club, you're trying to see your girl or whatever,
13:29you know, and they got the bodyguards there, you know,
13:32you basically had a plan.
13:34You're going to get in, right?
13:36You know, you've got, you talk to your boys about it.
13:38You know, you'll know what you're going to do.
13:39You size up, you know, the guys, you know, some of them swollen up,
13:42but, you know, you got some agile guys.
13:44And then, you know, when you call a thing, you know, you do the rush in.
13:48And we believe that that concept is really important in terms of education.
13:53We need to be, you know, unapologetically insistent on changing education
14:01because way too many young people are falling through the cracks,
14:05end up being criminalized.
14:07You know, the school to prison pipeline is for real.
14:10You know, when you disrupt that through education,
14:13you're really saving a generation.
14:15So for me, that's what, you know, hip-hop genius is about.
14:19Anika is hip-hop genius, you know.
14:21And, you know, when I, again, when I watch her and how she moves,
14:25she just totally embodies, even though she didn't graduate from HSRA,
14:29you know, it doesn't matter because hip-hop genius is universal.
14:33And, you know, she and so many other young people here, you know,
14:36really embody that whole spirit of what we're doing.
14:39Yeah.
14:40I'll even add to when we were sitting here and I was just watching,
14:44I told Tony, I was like, wow, you really built an ecosystem of creatives.
14:49Just even, you know, looking around, like, the people who's doing,
14:53behind the cameras, serving the food, all the artists,
14:56everyone who's been part of this, been part of this ecosystem of creatives.
15:01And that's the importance of, you know, believing in your dream
15:04and trusting and building out a movement.
15:06I tell people all the time, hip-hop is not a genre, it's a movement.
15:10And how hip-hop was introduced to me, just far as what it means,
15:15it's an intelligent movement.
15:17You think about hip, right, it's an action, hop.
15:20Or hip is an intelligence, hop is an action.
15:24And just with the movement of hip-hop during that time,
15:28of, like, the riots and all the uprisings,
15:31the civil uprisings during that time,
15:32and even now, the people who've been the front lines
15:36and the movers and shakers have been people
15:38who can reach the hearts and minds of people,
15:40and you can do that through art.
15:41So I just want to share that.
15:43You also are an ecosystem builder as well.
15:47Well, you know, we're part of a big community.
15:49I see Mama Shy here from HAZ, and I see, you know,
15:53yes, just give Mama Shy a half.
15:55You know, who's just...
15:56Queen Mama Shy.
15:57Yeah, right.
15:58Who is, you know, part of the HSRA family and community
16:03and does so much with the same young people we're talking about
16:06in terms of really helping them make healthy choices in life
16:10and really preparing them for, you know,
16:12all of the things that sometimes trip young people up.
16:16Our staff at HSRA is just tremendous.
16:19The community support is so, so important.
16:23We couldn't do what we do without so many people in the community
16:26who understand our work, understand, you know,
16:30that we can't figure all of the things out
16:32and we don't have the capacity to do everything.
16:34We've got to come together as a community,
16:36and we've just been blessed with, you know, that kind of support.
16:40So, you know, it takes a village, right?
16:44Yes.
16:44You know, and we definitely have been blessed with that.
16:47I love it.
16:48So I have one more question before we throw it to the audience
16:50for both of you.
16:52What is your unapologetically black vision
16:55for the future of hip-hop and education?
16:57I would say I really am tapped into Afrofuturism.
17:07Afrofuturism, I believe, is that pathway of freedom
17:13when it looks like expanding our imagination,
17:16which is really important.
17:18I think the future of hip-hop is tapping into
17:23just all different type of expressions, right?
17:26I think the future of hip-hop is included with wellness,
17:33included with health.
17:34I think the future of hip-hop is going to make us more alive again.
17:40I think, you know, especially during COVID,
17:43we think about during that time,
17:45a lot of things were shut down, right?
17:48But the creativity just went through the roof,
17:51and those who were able to be creative
17:53and express themselves and be able to pivot,
17:58be hip-hop were the ones who were able to rise during that time.
18:01So I think the future of hip-hop has always been global,
18:05but now we're going to be more connected,
18:08you know, across different geographies,
18:11different cultures, different languages.
18:14And the future of hip-hop is just going to continue.
18:17I feel like it's kind of like Wakanda,
18:18like the Wakanda forever, you know?
18:20So the future of hip-hop also is going to be driven by our ancestors, right?
18:27I think everything is done in the breadth of Sankofa,
18:31where we're looking back to move forward.
18:33And I know for me, what has been my driving forward
18:38is when I think about just Queen Harriet Tubman, right?
18:42And, like, her contribution to the movement
18:45of what it means to be unapologetically black
18:48and to dream and to keep going.
18:52And I think that's going to be infused in hip-hop.
18:54So I'm definitely in the future of hip-hop
18:56is really our young people.
18:58And I got my eyes open, my ears open
19:03to what young people are creating
19:04and, like, however they want to move
19:07and however they want to expand
19:08and how we can be supportive of that movement as well, too.
19:12The hip-hop, or the future of hip-hop,
19:15I believe is also political.
19:17I had ran for office three years ago
19:20for St. Paul City Council.
19:23And hip-hop, really, I used, you know, hip-hop all the way
19:27with my ability to convey my message,
19:31how I marketed and how I even, you know,
19:35tapped into the community
19:36to be able to really ensure
19:40that our government is engaged
19:43and is following the orders
19:45of what people are saying they need.
19:47So hip-hop is listening and receiving,
19:50and hip-hop is going to continue forever.
19:54So I love the Afrofuturism aspect
19:59of the future of hip-hop.
20:01That's real, and I love to see
20:05where people are really conquering that space.
20:08But just to be succinct,
20:10for me, it's about economic empowerment.
20:13It's about ownership.
20:14You know, we see not only with hip-hop artists,
20:17but just across the community,
20:19you know, and right where we are situated.
20:23You know, it's about, you know,
20:24us taking on economic independence
20:27so that we could best serve our community
20:29and our people, right?
20:31The other part, I would say,
20:32is about, you know, education.
20:35To me, the future of hip-hop
20:36is about creating new learning spaces
20:38where young people can get
20:40the kind of education they deserve,
20:42whether they're creating their own
20:44learning communities and spaces,
20:46which are validated in terms of,
20:48you know, what they're learning
20:49and the society understands that
20:52and respects that,
20:53or is breaking through
20:55the outmoded, outdated,
21:00traditional system
21:01that really needs a fresh fusion of ideas,
21:06you know, that I believe
21:07is going to come from young people
21:08to transform that.
21:11Absolutely.
21:11Give it up.
21:13That was wonderful.
21:14Thank you for all that you're doing
21:16with our young people
21:17and in our community,
21:18and thank all of you for listening.
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