Getting back to the garden in song; Lyrics offer lesson in environment
By Amy Farnsworth
The Boston Globe: March 2, 2008

Textbooks take a backseat to hip-hop when Michael Cermak enters the classroom. But the hip-hop and R&B tracks he plays for students aren't focusing on bling-bling. Instead, the kids who study with this Boston College doctoral student listen to artists rap about the environment. That's right. The environment.

Cermak is writing his doctoral thesis on the connection between environmental justice and hip-hop, and is in the classroom assisting teachers on the topic at the Urban Science Academy in West Roxbury and New Mission High School in Roxbury. He sees the music as an effective way to connect with students and get them thinking about the environment.

Cermak says he has seen students, "especially the ones that were not engaged in academic lessons," get interested.

"The big goal is to diversify the environmental movement . . . to develop future environmental leaders who are going to be coming from these urban communities of color" he said.

In the classroom, students have listened to the likes of rapper Mos Def and R&B/soul singer Marvin Gaye singing about environmental justice issues like the mercury disaster in Minamata, Japan and excessive water usage. And they have written their own songs.

"These kids came out with rap and spoken word poems that were so incredible - issues from their environment, social world, issues of oppression," Cermak said.

Throughout history, musicians have used songs to promote change in the environment. In his 1971 hit "Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)," Marvin Gaye croons about mercury and the destruction of the planet singing, "Oh, things aren't the way they used to be/no, no/oil wasted on the oceans and upon our seas/fish full of mercury/."

Def raps about poor water quality and excessive water usage on the track "New World Water," saying "Tell your crew use the H2 in wise amount since its the New World Water; and every drop counts."

In Boston, local hip-hop artists are also spreading messages about the state of the environment. Cermak has written about them in his doctoral thesis, and he has used their music in environmental hip-hop workshops he hosts around the city titled "Word Weapons."

One of these artists is Wil Bullock of Milton, who started working at The Food Project, a nonprofit organization that teaches students about agriculture and the food system through farming, when he was 15 years old. His experiences there inspired the songs on his five-track album titled "Time for Change." After traveling through various low-income neighborhoods, he wrote the title track about limited access to grocery stores in urban communities.

"If you wanted to get alcohol or fast food you can go to any corner. That's readily available to you. But if you want lettuce or tomatoes, you have to take three buses and it's a huge burden to get it," Bullock said.

Bullock, who works at the Trustees of Reservations, is working on developing a youth program this summer, where kids will grow produce in Mattapan and sell it at local farmer markets.

For Carlos Pemberthy, also known as Chapu, writing rap lyrics about the environment developed from working with the nonprofit Neighborhood of Affordable Housing on a campaign to stop the construction of the Chelsea diesel power plant. While petitioning, Pemberthy, of Revere, scribbled Spanish lyrics on a piece of paper, later turning it into a rap called "El Planeta Tierra" about the plant.

Brandon McDowell of Cambridge has added his voice to the eco-rap pack. A spoken word artist who works for the nonprofit organization Alternatives for Community and Environment, McDowell recites spoken word about going green, gentrification, and the use of land and space.

"Environmental justice and speaking out is about standing up and expressing yourself," McDowell said. "Hip hop - it's a way to tell stories and pass on knowledge."

Corey DePina of West Roxbury helps run songwriting and recording workshops at Zumix, a nonprofit organization in East Boston. During the past two months, DePina worked on crafting lyrics with students for an environmental justice songwriting contest and concert that took place on Feb. 19. On the side, he writes his own music under the name EnPossant about environmental and social justice issues.

His song "Erflings" talks about poverty and searching for a better world by thinking and acting locally. DePina says that rapping about environmental issues is nothing new, but that people may be tuning in to what's going on around them as more rappers write about the environment.

"I think people are just becoming more aware now that it's becoming a bigger issue. The movement will still continue."

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