Excerpts from IndyStar | By Gwen Ragno |

A class of sixth-grade students at IPS School 43 spent the past two months learning about their neighborhood and helping tell its story — through hip-hop.

The students have been working weekly with Okara Imani, a songwriter-in-residence fellow from Harrison Center for the Arts, the Star report says. Blending the musical style of hip-hop with the immersive storytelling of opera, she is writing what the Harrison Center calls a “hip-hoperetta.” The music and dialogue will be heard through headphones as people take a guided tour about the slice of the Butler-Tarkington neighborhood surrounding the school.

Watch the video.

“We think this identity and sense of place is really important to being a good citizen,” she said. “You need to know where you are, and you need to know your story.”

School 43 was chosen as the focus for the hip-hoperetta because community leaders from Butler-Tarkington, Meridian-Kessler, Mapleton-Fall Creek and Crown Hill had invited Harrison Center to coordinate some creative placemaking in the area.

The four neighborhoods teamed up earlier this year as Maple Crossing, part of the Great Places 2020 collaboration among city government, nonprofits and businesses to spur neighborhood redevelopment.

Learn more about Maple Crossing.

Read the article as originally published.

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