School’s out this week, and a new high school will soon welcome its first ninth-grade class: the Bronx School of Hip-Hop. City officials and available research suggest it’s the only known noncharter public school in the nation that weaves hip hop into every aspect of education. And despite the name, it’s not simply an arts, music production or graphic design school.
“People tend to hear the word ‘hip-hop’ and automatically associate it with music,” said founding principal Jason Reyes. “We use it as a lens through which we examine literature, math, science, civics, history, technology and art.”
Epicenter NYC spoke with Reyes, a Bronx native and longtime educator, about the school’s vision and what families of current eighth graders should know before applying. The responses below have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Epicenter NYC: What made you want to found the Bronx School of Hip-Hop?
Jason Reyes: The Bronx School of Hip-Hop grew out of the formal school proposal process that New York City Public Schools has. Educators, community members and school leaders submit innovative ideas based on what the city needs.
This proposal centered on hip-hop as a rigorous academic framework. When the Office of New Schools reviewed it, it really stood out as a strong model for what students might need in New York City.
I was doing a lot of this work at my middle school, and we were seeing really good results by rooting education in hip-hop culture and student identity. We saw attendance increase, achievement go up every year and a different tone among students. Kids wanted to be in school.
Once a proposal gets selected, the office identifies the right leader to bring that vision to life. That search led them to me.
A part of that process was also making sure we engaged the community. One of the things I did was visit various middle schools to get as much input from eighth graders because I’m building a school for them.
What was striking to me was that there was no interaction with a family member or student that felt hesitant. The reaction was, “We’ve been waiting for this.”
It felt like confirmation that New York City Public Schools was listening to what the community wanted. It was constant validation: “Let’s do this for hip-hop, let’s do this for the Bronx and, most importantly, let’s do this for our young people.”
Epicenter NYC: You’ve said even though hip-hop is the lens, the focus is on transferable skills. How so?
Reyes: What we’re looking at here is an innovative model of being culturally responsive when we’re trying to have students engaged in learning. Far too often, students come into school and don’t necessarily feel like they see themselves as part of the learning experience. It feels like, “I know I have to do this because it’s school.”
What we’re doing is making sure students feel that the learning experience has value because it connects to the culture they’re a part of and their creative endeavors. It’s just as rigorous as any other classroom. We’re simply creating that connection.
Epicenter NYC: What kinds of careers could students pursue through this model?
Reyes: Definitely careers around engineering, particularly audio engineering, graphic design and the business side of the culture. Students will learn entrepreneurship, business law, contracts and financial literacy around a billion-dollar global industry.
One thing we’re going to do is have students develop capstone projects where they pitch ideas to potential investors in a Shark Tank-style setting. That takes an ecosystem. We’re teaching students that there’s a whole ecosystem beyond the end product, whether that’s music or performance. Students will gain a better understanding of all the moving parts beyond the performer, and all of those moving parts are jobs.
Our mission is rooted in students becoming hip-hop scholar entrepreneurs. By graduation, they’ll have a powerful portfolio showing work across different areas and experiences that many students don’t get before leaving high school.
Epicenter NYC: How are students helping inform the school design?
Reyes: Culture gets built from listening. As I did throughout the design process, student voice is going to be a major part of understanding culture. We want students to feel like they are part of the school — not that they just go somewhere, but that it belongs to them.
A lot of what came up in conversations with students was authenticity and voice. Students want to feel like what they have to say is valuable, respected and treated as important. Hip-hop, at its core, is authenticity and voice, so we’re leaning into that.
Epicenter NYC: What’s the most important thing you want students to experience in school?
Reyes: I never want students not to feel seen. Throughout my career, we’ve always made it a priority to ensure every student who walks through the door feels valued, seen and that their identity is affirmed.
And part of that is having teachers with similar lived experience. Some of the teachers are hopefully going to be from the Bronx or at least have the understanding and cultural relevance that comes from a variety of different backgrounds.
It’s a plus to have our students see and hear people that look like them and sound like them. That is definitely important, but it’s just as important that they’re exposed to differences. Because hip-hop is not just the Bronx; hip-hop is worldwide. Hip-hop is studied in Japan. So those experiences will broaden our students’ horizons. Sometimes you meet someone from a different state and they listen to a different style of hip-hop, and we have these really deep conversations around those creative processes.
Epicenter NYC: Looking ahead, what would success look like?
Reyes: Success looks like a thriving community of students who recognize the power of who they are.
They’re engaging in rigorous experiences, creating things and developing a stronger sense of themselves. When they graduate, they know their next steps, whether that’s college, continuing this work or stepping into careers that have opened up to them through the credentials and experiences they’ve gained.
Epicenter NYC: But the Bronx is the birthplace of hip-hop, so why does the borough need a school centered on it?
Reyes: There’s power in hip-hop to connect to education. We’re leaning into the beauty, intelligence and genius that exist in the culture and utilizing that as a teaching point. A lot of times, hip-hop as an art form is not viewed as genius or intelligence. Sometimes there’s a negative perception of what it can be.
What we want to do is highlight that intelligence. When you see someone like [the record producer and DJ] DJ Premier create a beat and really analyze his process, you see mathematics. Students begin to see where math lives in something that’s tangible to them.
If they already enjoy making beats or producing music, now they have a connection point. Their understanding grows because they’re connected to what they’re learning.
Epicenter NYC: Is it too late for families to apply for September?
Reyes: We’re still accepting applications. Families of current eighth graders who are interested in the school should apply.
How to apply
Families of students now finishing eighth grade can join the waitlist through MySchools. If seats become available, students on the waitlist may receive an offer to join the school’s inaugural class.
The post How the Bronx School of Hip-Hop uses the borough’s signature genre to teach lessons far beyond it appeared first on Epicenter NYC.
