Takes the reader into the heart of a poetry course in an urban high school to make the case for critical hip-hop pedagogies. Pairing rap music with its less controversial cousins, spoken word and slam poetry, this course honored and extended student interests. It also confronted the barriers of race, class, gender, and generation that can separate white teachers from classrooms of predominantly black and Latino students and students from each other. Argues that the very reasons teachers might resist the introduction of hip-hop into the planned curriculum are what make hip-hop so pedagogically vital. Reveals a student-centered pedagogy based on spoken word curriculum that is willing to tolerate conflict, as well as ambivalence, having the potential to air tensions and lead to new insights and understandings for both teachers and students. From publisher description.