Open Mic Night

"Open Mic Night is the beginning of a necessary conversation regarding youth centrism in higher education. Utilizing art, spoken word and Hip Hop Pedagogy as as a vehicle, the authors drop serious knowledge about how to engage students and provide platforms for student voice and collaboration on college and university campuses. This book is an imperative as campuses learn to partner with a new generation of youth who live in a diverse and civically-engaged world."

Torie Weiston-Serdan, Ph.D., Executive Director at Youth Mentoring - Action Network

"Open Mic Night provides a comprehensive, insider’s account of what makes spoken word poetry spaces integral to campus life. The conceptual foundations and practical recommendations from educators, scholars, artists, and event organizers are essential resources for making campuses more dynamic, creative, and justice-centered."

Emery Petchauer, Associate Professor - Michigan State University, Author of Hip Hop Culture in College Students’ Lives

From the Foreword:
“Are we listening? And are we willing to create the spaces for truth-telling and witness bearing that will allow for wellness and new imagination?

The editors and authors of this book answer these questions for educators profoundly, weaving poetry, spoken word, and personal storytelling to speak their truths loudly, boldly, and unapologetically. The rich tapestry that these authors paint with their words inspire hope, possibility, and change. They are stories of pain and struggle -- the unending effort to foster spaces that enable them and others to live more fully in their bodies.”

Wilson K. Okello and Stephen John Quaye - Miami University, Ohio

"Beautifully poetic, creatively academic. This book speaks brilliantly to student voice. Its authors advance the student engagement literature in culturally rich ways. Reading it is a delightfully sensory, yet powerfully instructive experience."

Shaun R. Harper, Clifford and Betty Allen Professor - University of Southern California Rossier School of Education

“For readers working in the field of student affairs, the collection is surely validating. For those outside the field, like this reviewer, it is an eye-opener, revealing that ‘student affairs professionals are educators outside of the classroom’ whose efforts are informed by pedagogical theory and clear objectives for student development. The focus on a critical pedagogy that centers student voices and experiences makes this collection relevant to educators across contexts and institutions, as it reminds us how much our own identities and commitments inform our decisions as practitioners. Open Mic Night positions student affairs administrators as central sources of creative and intellectual potential on campus, and makes clear that those of us in the privileged, visible position of tenure-track faculty would benefit from reaching outside our disciplinary departments to make common cause with colleagues in student affairs for the benefit of the students we are all engaged in educating.

If there's one word that orients this collection, it is love. Almost every essay mentions love as a necessary element of the work described, as student activities administrators seek to create spaces where students feel welcomed and supported and as students describe their experiences in such spaces. I come away from Open Mic Night convinced that representation is critical to the field of student activities. The contributors' passion for their work comes through clearly, based as it is in their own lived experiences of alienation and belonging.”

Teachers College Record - .

Foreword—Wilson K. Okello and Stephen John Quaye
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction—Robb Ryan Q. Thibault
Prologue

1) Soul Mates: When the Academic Scholar Meets the Street Poet—Toby S. Jenkins
Student Voices—Jason Reynolds
2) The Spoken Word Experience: Shifting Student Learning From the Classroom to the Stage—Anthony R. Keith Jr.
Student Voices—Quay Anthony Dorsey
3) Words Have Power: Spoken Word Performance as an Educational, Community Engagement, and Personal Development Tool for College Students—Crystal Leigh Endsley
Student Voices—Caty Taborda-Whitt
4) Talking Back and Mouthing Off: The Importance of Privileging Student Voice in Student Affairs Programming—Toby S. Jenkins
Student Voices—Opeyemi Owoeye (O-Slice)
5) Poetry is My Politics: Linking Spoken Word and Social Activism—Crystal Leigh Endsley
Student Voices—Terri Moise
6) Social Justice Education Ain't Pretty: A Case for Hip-Hop Feminist Studies—Marla L. Jaksch
Student Voices—Kevyn Teape
7) Setting the Stage: Considerations for Creative and Intentional Spoken Word Programming—Anthony R. Keith Jr.
8) Scaling Up for Sustainability: Hip-Hop and Spoken Word as Vehicles for Transnational Inclusion—Marla L. Jaksch

Epilogue—Toby S. Jenkins
About the Editors
Index

Toby S. Jenkins

Toby S. Jenkins is an Assistant Professor of Curriculum Studies at the University of South Carolina. Prior to USC, she served as a faculty member at Georgia Southern University, the University of Hawaii Manoa, and George Mason University. Her professional background includes ten years of experience as a student affairs administrator at Penn State University and the University of Maryland. Her first book, My Culture, My Color, My Self: Heritage, Community, & Resilience in the Lives of Young Adults was named to the American Association of Publisher’s List of the Top 100 Books for Understanding Race in America. Her research interests focus on how communities of color use culture as a politic of social survival, a tool of social change, and a medium for transformative education. She is also interested in the ways in which culture influences students’ perceptions of the purpose of education and their commitment to community based leadership.

Crystal Leigh Endsley

Crystal Leigh Endsley is Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. Her first book, The Fifth Element: Social Justice Pedagogy Through Spoken Word Poetry explores spoken word poetry as a tool for social justice, critical feminist pedagogy, and new ways of teaching and learning. Crystal Leigh is an internationally renowned spoken word artist. Recognized by Cosmopolitan Magazine as a “Fun, Fearless Female,” Crystal Leigh is both performer and professor, and works to serve her community as an artist, activist, and academic. Her most recent scholarship-activism focuses on how spoken word poetry and performance can connect girls, impact their communities, and inform government policy. Crystal Leigh directed the creative performance of spoken word at the United Nations for International Day of the Girl in October 2016.

Marla L. Jaksch

Marla L. Jaksch is an Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Coordinator of Competitive Post-Graduate Fellowships. She attended the Pennsylvania State University where she received a dual-title Ph.D. in Women’s Studies and Art Education. Her research and teaching interests include: transnational feminisms, development, art and microfinance schemes, STEAM, visual culture, cultural tourism, heritage, and preservation, feminist pedagogies and methodologies, and global community engaged learning.

Anthony R. Keith

Anthony R. Keith identifies as a poet, educator, and a nerd. As a poet, Tony has traveled around the world teaching through poetry and empowering young people to engage in the art of spoken word. He volunteers as coach for Washington D.C.’s Youth Poetry Slam Team and most recently featured at Washington National Cathedral's Martin Luther King Jr. celebration. As an educator, Tony strives to ensure social justice and equity is at the crux of his curriculum, pedagogy and professional practice. He currently serves a Director of Programs at For Love of Children, an out-of-school time educational services provider for marginalized youth in Washington D.C. As a nerd, Tony is a perpetual student; he holds a B.A. in Communication from the University of Maryland College Park, a M.Ed. in College Student Affairs from Penn State University and is a Ph.D. student in Education Leadership at George Mason University.

Robb Ryan Q. Thibault

Robb Ryan Q. Thibault M.S., is the Director of Student Life and Leadership/Hunt College Union at SUNY Oneonta. He earned his Bachelors of Science in History & Political Science at Western Michigan University, and Masters of Science in Human Resource Development at Indiana State University.

Crystal Leigh Endsley: TedX Hamilton Performance

Toby Jenkins at Busboys & Poets Shirlington

Tony Keith: Natl Assoc of Social Work