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Hip Hop and Spoken Word Therapy in School Counseling: Developing Culturally Responsive Approaches By Levy, Ian, with a Foreword by Christopher Emdin. New York: Routledge, 2021. Pp. xiv, 146. $39.16
Dr. Ian Levy's Hip Hop and Spoken Word Therapy in School Counseling: Developing Culturally Responsive Approaches (2021) starts with the author's ode to Hip Hop, a personal narrative that creates a foundational groundwork for the book. Levy sets the tone for how Hip Hop, counseling, and spoken word therapy can combine to create a culturally responsive experience for students. Levy explains that Hip Hop Spoken Word Therapy (HHSWT), is a "holistic approach to school counseling" based on "five years of practice as a school counselor, as well as an additional three years as a counselor educator" (4). HHSWT brings together "elements of counseling and hip-hop education to detail the theoretical development, practical implementation and empirical evaluation" to school counseling (4).
In his text, he cites other foundational scholars to lay the groundwork for his theory and contribution to the field. His goals with this text were to talk about his time as a practitioner, lover of Hip Hop, and how to implement Hip Hop and spoken word therapy in a school setting, particularly within school counseling.
The layout of the text was beneficial and effective in building the reader's knowledge. Levy took his time explaining Hip Hop culture and its history to claim its importance in education and counseling. By centering the voices and experiences of Brown and Black folks, Levy can dig deeper into Hip Hop's contribution to his program as a school counselor. Levy does not shy away from talking about the perceptions of...