Current events show Americans can build a new nation, and teachers can use technology and hip-hop to guide their students in playing a part in that new nation, a Massachusetts professor told a local audience Thursday.
Several dozen high school and college students listened to Kofi Charu Nat Turner, 39, an associate professor of education at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, tell how they can make a difference during a convocation in the 10th annual Martin Luther King Jr., celebration at Purdue University Northwest in Hammond.
“People need to organize, organize, organize to take action on any injustices they see,” said Turner, whose namesake is Nat Turner, a slave who led the largest slave rebellion in United States history in 1831.
“In the spirit of Dr. King, I’m really thinking about what it means for us to birth a new nation now.”
Turner’s comments, before his speech, were based on a 1957 speech King delivered on the liberation of the African country Ghana from British forces.
The women-led demonstrations Jan. 21 may be the spark to do more, Turner said.
“This is a moment where women all over the world are really finding their voice, and they stepped out to demonstrate against the current administration and the proposals that are underway,” he said.
Another model of rebellion may be hip-hop music, Turner said. What started out in the streets of urban America has become a worldwide cultural phenomenon, touching countries like China and the former Palestine, and teachers should embrace the art form, he said.
“Our job as educators is to show students how to take the information they find online, mix it, like in hip-hop, and create new information and then put that info back into cyberspace and put it back into the world,” Turner said.
Toni Washington-Simpson, a longtime arts educator and the chief organizer of Purdue’s MLK celebrations, described hip-hop music as an art form that is effective for anyone trying to share personal experiences.
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“Hip-hop is just telling your story, and I think hip-hop is a form of blues,” she said, as audio of King’s 1957 speech played in the background. “Hip-hop is for everybody. It’s their truth. Hip-hop, and art in general, imitate life.”
Michael Gonzalez is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.