Help Support the 2025 UPCS RAP FAIR!

The R.A.P. F.A.I.R. (Revolutions and Protests that Fought Against Imperial Rule) is an annual curriculum and project that I do with my 9th graders every year at University Park Campus School. This project combines hip hop and visual art as a medium for my 9th grade students to tell the stories of revolutionary, independence movements in World History. Groups of students are assigned a country from around the world to learn how they fought back against empires and colonizers. Through the use of rap, poetry, and visual art; scholars will perform their research and tell these stories in front of a live audience consisting of peers, teachers, community members, and a panel of judges. My 10th grade student interns host, organize, and design this event, which will also include prizes, food, games, music, and guest performances from community artists. My 9th graders always hear from the upperclassmen about how exciting and fun this event is, and I need some financial help to maintain this enthusiasm. For the past few years, many people have been generous to donate to help make this event possible, and now I need your help again. This fundraiser is set up to help make this event something the kids will look forward to.

Students yearn for something to look forward to outside of the traditional classroom. It is my hope that this event gives them a space to artistically express themselves and learn from each other in authentic ways, while having some rewards to work toward. Students will compete for prizes will be in the form of gift certificates to winning student groups - this is a special way to acknowledge distinguished performers and highlight group efforts and talents. Individual Prizes will be also awarded to students to recognize individual efforts such as best visual artwork and best historical reacher. Lastly, what makes this event special is that students get a chance to see local community rap and dance artists from Worcester perform throughout the day, creating an authentic hip hop atmosphere and environment where students feel and learn that hip-hop culture is thriving beyond the classroom in the Worcester community.

With your financial support, my school will be able to purchase prizes to award students for their hard work, and it will also help me provide some monetary compensation for outside community performers to come into the space to perform for the kids. Many of them take off work to be there and perform for the kids, so this is helpful to compensate them for their time.

I'm asking for $1,040 to help support and fund the following goals. Any additional donations beyond our goal will be used for decorations, supplies, food, and costs for the current and future RAP FAIR EVENTS.

1. $440 for gift card prizes for student groups and individual awards

2. $600 for gift card compensation for community performers (3 sets of 200$ gift for each performer/group coming to give a performance to our students)

I appreciate you for taking the time to read about this project. Please feel free to share with other folks in your network to help me achieve my fundraising goal. Thank you!