Connection through hip-hop: Toki Wright visits Cotter
Senior Mac Whaley watches on as hip-hop artist Toki Wright enlightens students on the power of music
Toki Wright wears a lot of hats: rapper, educator, ambassador, father, and community builder, among others.
The Rhymesayers Entertainment/Soul Tools Entertainment MC traveled to Winona for a workshop with area students, collaborating with those enrolled at Cotter, Riverway Learning Community, Winona Senior High School, Winona State, and St. Mary’s University.
The workshop was apart of the Sounds Like School program, a branch of Winona’s Midwest Music Fest. Past performers of the initiative include violinists Jillian Rae and LOTT of We Are the Willows and batteryboy.
“We started the Sounds Like School program last year. We had been doing workshops at all of the festivals and we were working with the music business program that just started up at Winona State. After we formed our nonprofit [status], we discussed what we could improve what we do with education,” Parker Forsell, director of MWMF, said.
Wright’s first stop in Winona was at Riverway Learning Community, where students were taught the idea of rhythm and measures. On Thursday, Wright visited Cotter and performed a few tracks. Cotter senior Mac R. Whaley (otherwise known as MC Crae) opened prior to Wright’s portion of the show. The St. Paul rapper also invited seniors Jonah Spiten and Jake Renk to the stage to create an instrumental. Spiten laced a distorted saxophone through Renk’s drum patterns. Junior Ryan Ortega joined Renk for an interpretive dance of the beat with no shame.
Senior Mac Whaley watches on as hip-hop artist Toki Wright enlightens students on the power of music
“I could stand up here and talk down to you all day, but that’s only going to be one direction of the conversation. The more valuable thing is to let everybody be heard and then work within that,” Wright said.
“Hip-hop opens doors that are unexpected because it’s inclusive.”
“Our goal is to get enough funding to one day do week-long residencies [like this one]. Imagine the possibilities. Things really start to get going. This is laying for the seeds for that now,” Forsell added.
“I’d say the media plays a very important role in how the mind of the people are shaped. One of the best things we can do for the future of humanity is have an honest media. Always staying true wherever you go and knowing that there are people who get into the media are merely just a vessel for other people’s ideas and don’t think for themselves. You see it with musicians all the time. Someone else writes for them, someone else dresses them, makes a back story for them and it’s dishonest,” Wright commented.
Toki Wright Projects
Pangaea (with Big Cats)
Listen to Soul Tools Radio every Saturday night from 9:00-11:00 PM
