News release from the College of St. Scholastica:

On April 23, Hip Hop and Human Dignity students at the College of St. Scholastica will throw Hip Hop Helps, a party to benefit Life House, a Duluth organization that serves homeless teenagers.

The party will run from 8:00 p.m. till 1:00 a.m. in Storm’s Den, on the first floor of St. Scholastica’s Mitchell Auditorium building. Tickets are $5, and will be sold in the Storm’s Den lobby starting at 6:30 on the night of the event.

Expected rappers are Mike Mictlan and SIMS of Minneapolis’ Doomtree, Detroit’s L.I. (Lyrics Intelligent), and Duluth’s Kritical Kontact and Good Knight. St. Scholastica student DJs BlancBlanc and DJb will perform. Dancers and graffiti artists are being scheduled.

Hip Hop and Human Dignity is a class in St. Scholastica’s five-year-old Dignitas program, through which 25 teachers from multiple academic disciplinles use eclectic topics – including food production, dystopian novels, slavery, and nursing – to engage students in conversations about self-respect, respecting and earning respect from other people, and basic human dignity. Dr. Patricia Hagen helped establish the program and directs it.

Since 1991, Life House has provided countless high-risk, homeless kids with shelter, love, self-worth, and other things that most children can take for granted. Life House helps kids find education, jobs, health services, and housing opportunities. The shelter also offers a variety of on-site programs and activities designed to stop cycles of poverty and homelessness.

For more information, contact Chris Godsey, Hip Hop and Human Dignity instructor (cgodsey @ css.edu).