Home

Hip Hop Hope

By Brooke from A.R.A.B.

 MELBOURNE - A.R.A.B is one of the best families you could find. I’m 16 and I became part of this amazing family four years ago when I was in Year Seven.

As you might imagine, with a name like A.R.A.B, it is not a regular family. A.R.A.B stands for Anti Racism Action Band.   It is a project run by the Victorian Arabic Social Services. We are a group of more than 200 teenagers who get together to have fun performing.
I do hip hop dance. Other members do contemporary and traditional dance, rap, beat box and even Arabic drumming.
The kids all come from the northern suburbs. Their ages range from 13 to 25. We all come from different cultural backgrounds - in case you were thinking everyone was from an Arabic country. 
 I attend classes at my school every week and at the end of the year everyone gets together to put on a show, usually at the Coburg Town Hall.   This year’s show was great, even though I wasn’t in it because of a sprained ankle.
After the show I heard one woman in the audience say: “Wow, these kids do so well.”   It made me feel really proud. It was really nice to hear someone say that.
Since it started, A.R.A.B has performed at more than 200 public and community events including the fourth Annual Arab American Comedy Festival in New York and the Malmsbury Juvenile Justice Detention Centre in Victoria. That’s an audience of more than 45,000 people.

The performers, like me, work with professional artists and schools. We try new works every year and the shows and events just keep getting better and better.
It’s a great way for young people to meet and do something creative that they might not have thought about.   It’s a really positive thing to do and way better than hanging around being bored.
So many students, other than my self always enjoy the shows and we all hope to still see A.R.A.B in action in the future years to come.

The thing I like about A.R.A.B is that everyone gets along. Everyone gets to voice their ideas and opinions about the show and all the students are involved in the routines. We are asked to help out with little things that make a big difference in the shows.
 
When I started performing I used to get really paranoid and really nervous before a show. It didn’t matter how many times I went through the routine, I still would get that nervous feeling. But over the years I have built up my confidence. Now I’m not afraid to go out and perform. I don’t get nervous anymore and I feel really good about myself when I dance. Dancing makes me happy. I would be a completely different person if I wasn’t involved in A.R.A.B, most likely not as confident and as happy as I am now.
It’s been a great way to make friends. I am still friends with people I met in Year Seven – people from so many different cultures. Being part of A.R.A.B has also taught me about commitment and making an effort.   If you don’t make an effort and show up for the classes, you won’t be in a show.
I love hip-hop dance. Sometimes it tells a story, sometimes it’s a lot of moves stuck together to music I would describe as urban R&B.
 
Being involved in A.R.A.B has made me realize that this country and this world has so many people and no one is the same. If everyone was the same, then there would be no point in meeting different people.
So if you’re a young person who has thought about doing something like dance, come and join our family. If you are someone who likes going to watch any kind of musical show, look out for the next A.R.A.B event.
Don’t just take my word: these are some of the awards A.R.A.B has won:
NAPCAN, Child Friendly Communities Award, 2007
A.R.A.B performer Kevin Nugara won the Kook Skools Best Rapper Award in 2005
A.R.A.B performer Pen Augaafapae was nominated in the Best Beat Box Kool Skools Awards, 2005
A.R.A.B was runner up in the 2005 Vic Health Awards Community Arts Participation section

More details available from the website:

plk.human-interest.org/artists/arab/