Hip Hop Heritage program breaks through to teens

AS MC SERCH's "Back to the Grill" thumps loudly in the background, Tarrell Edwards, a junior at South Philly High, starts break-dancing on the rolled-out white linoleum-tile floor. He performs a handstand, cocks his legs at an angle and freezes in midair as other students cheer him on.

David "DK" Kruth, a junior at Central High School known for his "DK Drop," break-dances, then for a second, he's upside down, stops midmove, then drops to the tile floor.

The teens - blacks, Asians and Latinos - come to this after-school Hip Hop Heritage program run by the nonprofit Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition (SEAMAAC) at the Academy at Palumbo in South Philly to do what they love. Some break-dance (or in their words, "b-boy"), some learn to deejay, others make mini-movies or record songs.

What they get as fringe benefits are friendships with students from different backgrounds, a support group away from home and a safe haven from the at-times messed-up streets.

'Keeps me grounded'

Benyaamin "Ben" Barnes, 18, said he used to hang out and "do dumb stuff," like smoke weed and fight.

But through the Hip Hop Heritage program, "I figured out who my real friends are. They're like my family now. At the end of the day, I always have them to turn to."

Barnes, who said he dropped out of Sayre High School as a senior at the end of last year, plans to attend a Philly charter school in the fall to get his diploma. A few weeks ago, he began interning at SEAMAAC's South Philly office, handling administrative tasks.

"I have this thing about authority," he said one day while riding the Market-Frankford Line back to his home in West Philly after the hip-hop program. "So if someone pulls their authority on me, I start an argument," he said, explaining why he left Sayre. He said he and a "teacher would argue, I would start cursing. I would just leave the room."

Now, "my main focus in life is breaking [break-dancing]. That's what keeps me grounded," he said.

Barnes' dad, Ryan McGee, 35, who works as a plumber, knows how the SEAMAAC program has changed his son.

"He was a badass," the dad said. Now, because of the hip-hop program, "he's got a level of responsibility. It shapes you up."

"I respect the program because it gives them the chance to do what they want to do. It seemed at first, no one wanted to help them." The program gives students "a place to flourish," McGee said.