Past Programs

"The Barbershop Show" Human Rights Education

 

Key Messages:

• Everyone has "human rights" that no one has the right to take away and everyone has the same rights, regardless of who you are and where you live
• Change happens because many concerned people are working and speaking out together
• Young Canadians can effect positive change within their communities, domestically and overseas

 

 

Activity Overview:

"The Barbershop Show" blurs the lines between concert and hip-hop musical by using comedy, spoken word, music, skits and props to create a truly innovative performance. Throughout the production, skits illustrate the everyday comings and goings in the barbershop to complement the musicians' sets. Musicians slated to appear in the production include: R&B singer Melanie Durrant, hip-hop artist Shohn (Rikoshay) Booth, outspoken poet Equniox 199, and spoken word artist Dwayne Morgan. The production is hosted by Will Strickland' creator/professor of the first ever university-accredited course on hip-hop culture, Edutainment: The Impact of Hip Hop on Amercian Culture, taught at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1998.

 

 

Drawing from the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the production, post-show workshops and supplementary curriculum, including in-class activities, examine contemporary examples of the lives of youth in Canada as well as youth around the world that lack human rights or are affected by human rights abuses. The production address critical and relevant issues related to human rights including: violence against women, child labor, refugees' rights, access to education, effects of war on children, poverty etc.

 

Content Examples:

• "Growing up with war" - The lives of children, including our friends and classmates, who have experienced war or other forms of armed conflict.
• "Silence is violence" - Challenging abuse and violence against girls/women in our own communities
• "Who made my jeans?" - Shining the light of human rights on what we buy, where it comes from, who makes it, and how we can live responsibly in ways that protect the human rights of others often far away.

 

This program was supported in part by: