A School Called Tribe is a cross-pollination between jazz/pop musicians and rappers & hip-hoppers. During spring 2022, 12 rappers took part in a spring boot camp by Graffiti vzw at De Koer, working on rap techniques, writing lyrics, stage presence,…In fall 2022, we will continue to work on this, with rappers from various neighborhoods in Ghent and students from the jazz/pop/production master’s program and the educational master’s program in music at the School of Arts, Ghent.

The musicians will play together during 5 evening sessions and 3 project days, on the site of De Koer and in a band room of the Jazz/Pop department of the School of Arts. We are thus shifting between a formal and more informal context and also between formal and non-formal learning, because making music across genres is not something you learn from a textbook! Experienced coaches Fatih Devos (Graffiti vzw) and Erik Bogaerts ensure that everything is artistically on the right track.

The artistic result is a slightly unpredictable mix of jazz, hip-hop and slam poetry, grown from the musical and textual ‘flavors’ of all involved. After a try-out at club Telex (18/11/2022), this concert will travel to partner organizations in Ghent, Brussels and Antwerp later in the fall and in spring 2023.

(c) Sam De Buysere en Giada Cicchetti.