(North Bergen, NJ—September
29, 2016) Brian Mooney, a language arts teacher at High Tech High School, has
published his first book on hip hop instruction in the classroom, announced Dr. Joseph Giammarella,
Principal of High Tech High School.
Released
by Peter Lang International Academic Publishing, Mooney’s new book, Breakbeat Pedagogy: Hip Hop and Spoken Word Beyond
the Classroom Walls, which includes a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Christopher Emdin of Teachers
College, Columbia University, features Mooney’s ethnographic research on hip
hop’s positive impact on students’ construction of identity through writing in
hip hop and spoken word performance art spaces.
Including anecdotes gleaned from Mooney’s experience as the facilitator
of “Word Up,” High Tech’s hip hop and spoken word poetry events, Mooney’s book
encourages hip hop performance spaces in public schools as a viable component
to a traditional liberal arts education.
Breakbeat Pedagogy: Hip Hop and
Spoken Word Beyond the Classroom Walls also includes the original
work of High Tech alumni and can be purchased at Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Breakbeat-Pedagogy-Classroom-Counterpoints-Criticality/dp/1433133245),
Barnes & Noble, or other book dealers.
Breakbeat Pedagogy: Hip Hop and
Spoken Word Beyond the Classroom Walls has been called the first
in the next wave of hip hop pedagogy and scholarship. To launch the book, which went on sale on
September 1st, Mooney will be speaking and signing books at WORD
Bookstore in Jersey City on Thursday, October 13th.
