INTERESTED IN THE HIP HOP INSTITUTE?
Students wanting to enroll in the Hip Hop Institute must enroll by May 15 in ConnectCarolina. All three courses (MUSC 156, 157 and 286) satisfy the Visual and Performing Arts General Education requirement at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Contact Mark Katz at mkatz@email.unc.edu with questions.
WANT TO SIGN UP FOR SUMMER SCHOOL?
- Maymester courses run from May 15-31.
- Summer Session I runs from May 15 to June 20.
- Summer Session II runs from June 24 to July 30.
For additional summer school course offerings, check the Summer School course listings here.
This summer, students will take their talents from the classroom to the stage at UNC’s first ever Hip Hop Institute.
The Hip Hop Institute, a new UNC Summer School program being offered June 3-14, consists of three courses: Rap Lab, Beat Making Lab and Hip Hop Dance. The courses will run concurrently and collaborate over the course of the session. The experience will culminate in a live concert that will be open to the public.
Program creator and UNC professor Mark Katz was inspired by Next Level, an initiative that brings culturally rich hip hop experiences to diverse communities across the world. In his role as co-director at Next Level, he met with hip hop creatives, whom he collaborated with to bring a similar program to UNC.
“It’s an incredibly powerful program. It's really life changing for both the instructors and the participants,” Katz said. “And I thought why not try to do something like that here … why not do do something that's so effective and powerful.
Joining UNC Rap Lab instructor Dasan Ahanu will be Junious Brickhouse and Kerwin Young, who will teach dance and beat making, respectively.
The courses are not intended to be mastery classes for experienced students, but rather an opportunity for students to try a new or unearthed passion. Students do not need prior experience to sign up, and there is no audition required to enroll.
“It could be that someone has never rapped before,” Katz said. “We want to make sure that they are interested in (hip hop) and willing to try and work hard. And that's that's what we ask … It's not a kind of pre-professional training. It could be for some people but it's really more enrichment.”
One of the most exciting aspects of the courses, said Katz, is their integrated and collaborative nature. While both Beat Making Lab and Rap Lab are offered during the year at UNC, they are often scheduled for different semesters, and students rarely have the ability to work together. During the summer Hip Hop Institute, all three courses will meet and perform together, allowing students the opportunity to be exposed to multiple disciplines.
Ultimately, Katz hopes the Institute gives students a new creative outlet on campus and an appreciation and more nuanced view of the hip hop genre.
“I know that so many students are really looking for ways to express themselves artistically and develop their craft and they can do that in various ways but not not very easily on campus through hip hop,” Katz said.
“Generally that's something that people do on their own or have to drop out of school if they really wanted to. So I'm excited about just seeing the talent that's on campus come together and seeing that unleashed through these summer classes.”
