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For their FSEM trip, the Global Hip-Hop students traveled to Denver’s RiNo district to view examples of the area’s graffiti. “The trip is also a way of introducing the students to hip-hop’s four elements—rap, Djing, breakdance, and graffiti—and to get them to start thinking about how these art forms are interconnected,” Paige explains.

Alex Gardner, a Denver DJ and break-dancer, led the tour and explained that studying the art helps contextualize hip-hop as a greater cultural movement. “It’s important to understand the context of the graffiti so we can understand why it depicts certain subjects,” Gardner said. “Graffiti can take on a variety of styles and forms—stickers, tags, burner pieces and lowbrow. It depends on the artist’s choice.”

One student, Liz DiLoreto, said she was interested in the class because she studied African-American culture and history during high school. “The coolest thing for me is to see the emergence of the culture — the people who started creating this kind of art and music,” she said.

Another student, Zane Taylor, said he was grateful for the opportunity to take a class about how culture and art affect society. “A lot of people disregard graffiti and pretend like it doesn’t exist,” he said, “but I think our generation is more understanding of this as an art form and thinks of it less as a destruction of property.”

After the graffiti tour, the students visited��, a nonprofit—run by 91��ɫ alumna Jami Duffy—that pairs local musicians and producers with at-risk youth to create their own music. The students participated in a breakdance workshop and were introduced to the recording studio by producer��.