Bemoons.wordpress.com

When Brian Mooney’s students struggled in March to digest the literary themes and dense language in Toni Morrison’s novel “The Bluest Eye,” Mr. Mooney sought inspiration from an unorthodox teacher of his own: the two-time Grammy winner and world-famous...

Listen to the radio piece here: http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/06/13/413966099/a-visit-from-kendrick-lamar-best-day-of-school-ever At around midday Monday at High Tech High School in North Bergen, N.J., about 40 students are crammed into a small...

I’ve been hesitant to write about Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly (TPAB) because there are layers to the shit. Sonic, cultural, and political layers that need time to breathe and manifest. Some of those layers are pedagogical. For example...

An ad from the Food and Drug Administration’s Fresh Empire campaign. FDA hide caption toggle caption FDA The federal government is getting into hip-hop — well, sort of. For its latest anti-tobacco campaign, the Food and Drug Administration is trying...

The federal government is getting into hip-hop — well, sort of. For its latest anti-tobacco campaign, the Food and Drug Administration is trying to harness hip-hop sounds, style and swagger to reach black, Hispanic and other minority teens — who disproportionately...