Hip Hop Therapy - Constructing a Live-Room Recording Studio
My students need new drum and saxophone microphones, 5 pairs of headphones, an M-Audio 8 track interface, a rug, and two lamps to help create an in-school studio to record their music.
$951 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
The vast majority of my students are Bronx, NY born and raised. I say this because, so is Hip Hop culture. My students are hip hop to the core and are best summed up by the phrase "real recognize real". These young people are incredibly eager to learn, and they want to do well in school, but they will not give you the time of day unless you show them respect. This respect comes from the formation of academic spaces that make students feel comfort and belonging: showing them they can use who they are to be successful in school and beyond.
Luckily, the high school in which I work is dedicated to engaging young people through their culture and helping them develop emotionally and academically.
I have been given the green light by my administration to do this Hip Hop Therapy work. My school is centered in a fairly underdeveloped area of the Bronx and is a prime location to begin integrating culturally relevant counseling curriculum.
My Project
The requested materials will help to establish a safe space for my students to better engage in lyric writing and instrumental recording in a live-room recording studio. In this space, students will not only be able to recite and record their lyrics, but we can also create full pieces of music by recording drums and other instruments. The instrumental and drum microphones will help me construct a live recording room. This is crucial to the process, because rapping or creating instrumental music within a live-recording room creates a more engaging environment, increasing students' willingness to explore themselves. The 8 track interface will help me capture multiple sounds at once, allow students chances to collaborate, and increase the variety of sounds we can record per song. All in all, this would increase students' ability to be heard in that they'd be able to express themselves on recording through different media (rapping, playing drums, or playing another instrument).
In addition, rugs and lamps are a common accessory in studio spaces.
Having these in our studio will aid the creation of a calm atmosphere necessary for writing. An extra 5 pairs of headphones would help me establish various work-stations within the same classroom. Knowing that students are so engaged in the work, a lot of our lyric writing can happen independently, and the more headphones we have, the more individual stations I can create.
Most of my students' academic struggles don't come from intellectual deficits but stem largely from emotional struggles in and outside of school. What's worse is that quite often, these issues go unaddressed in school, or the attempts made to address them are culturally irrelevant and undesirable for students. Hip Hop Therapy is a culturally relevant approach which helps young people cultivate the emotional skill-set necessary to navigate difficult situations.
M-Audio M-Track Eight | 8-Channel High-Resolution USB 2.0 Audio Interface with Octane Preamp (24-bit/96 kHz)
• Amazon Business
$399.00
1
$399.00
Pyle-Pro PDKM7 7 Microphone Wired Drum Kit with Mounting Accesories
• Amazon Business
$130.58
1
$130.58
Sennheiser HD 202 II Professional Headphones (Black)
• Amazon Business
$24.49
5
$122.45
Pyle-Pro PMSAX1 Instrument/Saxaphone XLR Condenser Microphone
• Amazon Business
$49.99
1
$49.99
Sweet Home Stores Cozy Shag Collection Moroccan Trellis Design Shag Rug Contemporary Living & Bedroom Soft Shaggy Area Rug, Grey & Cream, 39" L x 60" W
• Amazon Business
$27.40
1
$27.40
Ikea 101.398.79 69-Inch. Floor Uplight Lamp, Black & White
• Amazon Business
$18.83
1
$18.83
Ikea 301.841.73 Holmo 46" Floor Lamp
• Amazon Business
$18.28
1
$18.28
Materials cost
$766.53
Vendor shipping charges
FREE
Sales tax
$0.00
3rd party payment processing fee
$11.50
Fulfillment labor & materials
$30.00
Total project cost
$808.03
Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms
$142.59
Total project goal
$950.62
How we calculate what's needed
Total project goal
$950.62
14 Donors
-$746.51
Donations toward project cost
-$672.03
Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms
-$74.48
match offer
-$160.00
Match offer toward project cost
-$136.00
Match offer to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mr. Levy and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
