Rowdy Summer Cypher

EMAIL CONTACTS BELOW FOR MORE INFO!

WOKESHOP: Rowdy Summer Cypher
LOCATION: CCB Plaza [201 Corcoran St, Durham, NC 27701]
DATES: FIRST AND THIRD FRIDAYS, April 18-September 5, 2025
TIME: 9:19PM-11PM
COST: FREE
FACILITATORS:
DESCRIPTION: All summer long on 1st & 3rd Fridays at 9:19PM youth gather in downtown Durham in front of the bronze “Major” bull statue to rap, sing, make beats, and create community together. We call it the Rowdy Summer Cypher, in honor of our late Executive Director Josh “Rowdy” Rowsey who passed away in April of 2024. At the cypher, youth are challenged to improvise and think on their toes and to build self-confidence and empathy. It’s group therapy through Hip Hop!

HIP HOP = HEALING

Elements of Hip Hop have roots in ancient African traditions. We’ve effectively traded one African drum for another: the djembe (an African drum made of goat skin, stretched out over a wooden frame) for an MPC (plastic pads connected to circuits and a motherboard), producing electronic beats that resonate positive vibrations out into the streets. Hip Hop was born in the Bronx, New York, at a time when many Black and Latinx youth were slipping through the cracks of the social safety net. Arts programs were being eliminated from schools, and youth were left with few alternatives, so they took their creative energies to the streets. Durham is at a similar crossroads, with underfunded schools, and historic disinvestment in the Black and Latinx communities. Meanwhile, as downtown Durham has expanded rapidly with restaurants, hotels, festivals, and bars, youth and people of color are feeling marginalized, and pushed out. ROWDY SUMMER CYPHER provides safe space for kids to occupy the heart of our city every week, to speak their truth unapologetically, affirm self-esteem, and help the creative fires inside each of them radiate. In doing so they HEAL – not only themselves – but the City of Durham as well.

WHO IS THIS FOR?: All youth
CONTACTS: 

Pierce – [email protected]