Arkansas PBS > Engage > Pressroom > Helena-West Helena school’s innovative approach to self-expression through the arts to be discussed in ‘Rap Squad’ virtual screening, discussion May 13
Posted 12 May 2021
Filmmakers,
educators, artists join Arkansas PBS for event
CONWAY, Ark. (Arkansas PBS) — Arkansas
PBS will host the free, virtual screening event and panel discussion “Rap
Squad: Where Music, Arts & Education Converge” Thursday, May 13, at 7 p.m. to explore
how students can have a voice and speak their truths through a creative outlet.
Registration for the event is required at myarpbs.org/rapsquadevent.
“Rap Squad” is an intimate verité
documentary about Arkansas high school hip hop artists who seek healing for
themselves and equity in their community through their music. In the Arkansas
Delta, students Montae and Ray join an after-school club – the Central Rap
Squad – and begin writing music to cope with personal traumas. When their rural
town prepares to vote on a proposal that would raise property taxes to build a
new public high school, the young men shift their focus from inner healing to
social action, using their music and platform to fight for a more equitable
future. “Rap Squad” is part of the Reel South documentary series, that reckons
with the South’s past, present and future.
Panelists for the screening will include:
·
Director
Nathan Willis, a
commercial and documentary filmmaker based in the American South. In the past
he has directed short-form documentaries for Vice, MSNBC, Fusion, PBS and the
Academy Award-winning production company, Participant Media.
·
Producer
Nolan Dean, an
award-winning, multi-disciplinary filmmaker based in the Arkansas-Mississippi
Delta who has centered his practice on producing compelling narrative and
documentaries in the Delta that promote cross-cultural empathy and human
welfare.
·
Victor
Sellarole, co-founded
the Rap Squad. After studying English Literature at UC Berkeley, he taught
English for four years in Arkansas and was a 2017 LEE Community Organizing
Fellow. Sellarole currently teaches English at Herbert Hoover Middle School in
San Francisco and serves on the Culturally Responsive Literature and Nonfiction
Review and Recommendation Committee.
·
Jess
Rossoni, co-founded the
Rap Squad. After studying political science and education at Berkeley, she
taught English in Arkansas. Afterward, she recruited college students to TFA
and worked in education policy. Now, Rossoni works at a venture firm in San
Francisco that specializes in helping young people start their own companies.
·
Hung
Pham, director for the
Center for Children & Youth and the interim executive director for Arkansas
A+ Schools, both at the University of Arkansas. His work encompasses a range of
programs for K-12 students, pre-service teachers and classroom educators to
foster literacy, arts/creativity and pro-social learning. In 2019, Pham and CCY
received the Governor’s Arts Award for contributions to the arts in education.
Leading the discussion will be Clarice
& Kwami Abdul-Bey, co-conveners of the Arkansas Peace & Justice
Memorial Movement, 2021 Arkansas Coalition for Peace and Justice - Arkansas
Peace Activists of the Year recipients and co-directors of the Washitaw
Foothills Youth Media Arts & Literacy Collective.
“Reel South: Rap Squad” will air on Arkansas
PBS Sunday, May 16, at 10 p.m. and stream at myarpbs.org/watchlive.
Executive producers for “Rap Squad” are Craig
Renaud and Courtney Pledger.
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