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From Hip-Hop to Shakespeare: Dallas Blazes “Coordinated” Trail in Arts Education for City Young People

At the end of the school day, few teachers would find it easy to engage students in a complex lesson in the arts—or any other subject. But early on a recent evening in Dallas, the subject was hip-hop and the cross-cultural influences that shaped it, the setting was a mirrored dance studio at a recreation center in a neighborhood made up largely of Spanish-speakers and African-Americans, and the challenge of engaging 12 boys and girls aged 6 to 16 was being met masterfully by a lanky, 50-something musician and teacher named Leo Hassan, the product of a path-breaking, citywide arts education effort known as Thriving Minds.

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