Here and There at the East St. Louis Charter High School

On September 30, at the East St. Louis Charter High School, we listened to music by Jay Z and talked about the notion of "there" and "here." We were drawing off of Jay Z's song "Young Gifted & Black," where he juxtaposes different conditions. 

On the one hand, "Y'all can go home, husband and wife there" and "Y'all ain't gotta be in fear of y'all bosses there." On the other side, where he resides, "There's a different set of rules we abide by here / You need a gun, niggas might drive by here."

In our session at the Charter School, we spent time talking about places that represented "there" in relation to East St. Louis, and we talked about what it meant to reside "here." Like Jay Z, we spent some time  thinking about what it might mean not to have some worries over there. We also put thought into possibilities here. I learned quite a bit as the young folks hipped me to various notions of there and here within the city of East St. Louis.    


Related:
• Fall 2015 Programming