Episode 5: Che "Rhymefest" Smith reflects on cultural communion and how he bridges between Chicago and Cody, Wyoming
Oh, it ain't got a barrel of money. Maybe we're ragged and funny, but we'll travel along singing a song side by side.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:There's something about kindness that works everywhere. There's something about not taking on someone else's problem and returning that with love and patience. That works everywhere. The similarity that I find in human beings is that we all want to be treated with dignity. And so, you know, when I say I found my village of value, people of values, it's those who want to unite, those who want to bridge.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And those people exist everywhere.
Ellen Wolter:That's Chase Smith, also known as Rhyme Fest, an artist, songwriter, humanitarian, and political practitioner from Chicago. He's a Grammy award winning rapper and writer and cofounder of the nonprofit Art of Culture, which works to strengthen and celebrate communities through nature, culture, and art. In 2023, Che was a Pritzker fellow at the University of Chicago where he taught about cultural communion.
Ellen Wolter:Che joined
Ellen Wolter:me for a conversation about his accomplished career, growing up in Chicago and his experiences crossing rural and urban spaces as he spent time living in Cody, Wyoming. We talked about the value of art for social impact and the challenges of how media can distort what is actually happening in communities. And stay for the end because Che generously shares his gifts and talents as a rapper with us, demonstrating in real time cultural communion. And with that, he encouraged all of us to think about how we can use our gifts to bridge across difference. This is Ellen Wilcher with the University of Minnesota Extension, and this is the Side by Side podcast.
Ellen Wolter:Well, welcome, Che. It is so nice to have you on our podcast today. We are thrilled that you are here to talk with us about crossing rural and urban spaces and what that's meant for you and in your life and in your experiences. So welcome.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Thank you for having me.
Ellen Wolter:Well, I'm just gonna start with if
Ellen Wolter:you could tell us a little bit
Ellen Wolter:about your hometown and growing up in Chicago, which is I believe where you grew up.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I grew up, Chicago, on the south side. And, you know, growing up in Chicago, it's special.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:It's a blessing. I I had access to a lot of things that were big in the world, but and global to the world, but local to me. And sometimes when things are local to you, you may not even see the value of the Japanese park or the bird park on Montrose Beach or the value of riding along Lakeshore Drive looking at all the colorful sailboats with a beautiful skyline of Chicago, you may not see the value of having a place like Operation Push where Jesse Jackson led the the Rainbow Push movement from there and you're a part of history and you can go in that building and they had it open for me as a teenager, we would do shows there and, like, concerts, and we didn't even know that that was where the civil rights movement was being, like, headquartered. You know, we just knew that, like, Wu Tang Clan was gonna be there on Saturday and, like, I got to open up and they had open mics for young people. And growing up in Chicago, I didn't see how I was standing on shoulders of greatness and being mentored into a role of service.
Ellen Wolter:Jay, what are for you the the ways in which Chicago helped you come into figuring out that role of service?
Che Smith/Rhymefest:You know, iron is forged when it's hit, and diamonds are made under pressure. And I guess me coming into where I am now in terms of how I define service and and how I was forged by Chicago was watching as much greatness as you have in a place, you have that much injustice. For every ebb, there's a flow. For every in, there's a out. And so, you know, we did have, we do have challenges when it comes to the neighborhood public school that I went to.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And when I went to South Shore High School or my neighborhood schools, I didn't know that it was kinda like I was just being warehoused. I've been in communities where poverty has been managed, not like, eradicated. I've been in underserved communities where I thought that was what was normal and that was the way of the world. However, when you have that type of environment, but you also have the first black publishing company called Third World Press that's in the community. In these underserved communities, it is true.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:I can talk about the darkness. I can talk about the food deserts and people getting breakfast from the gas station. However, there are also lighthouses. There's also 3rd world press. There's also, a guy in Bronzeville named Patrick McCoy who has the largest private, art collection in the country, and all you gotta do is know where Patrick McCoy is and go to his house and immerse yourself in colors and in art, and Patrick McCoy was the the one who taught me in the community.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:He said, you don't need an alarm system or ADT to live on the south side. I said, then how do you protect your property? He said, surround it with art, they won't break in. I said, what? And you start learning like magical ways to live in different types of environments.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And when you travel the world and you see hardship in other parts of the world and you start using those lessons from those lighthouses, you start being able to navigate anywhere, and that's where you get those sayings. If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. If you can make it in Chicago, you can make it anywhere. And so I started to put that into practice and then learn from those other places what to bring back to this environment.
Ellen Wolter:So, Che, that brings me to your organization, the Art of Culture. Yes.
Ellen Wolter:Can you tell us
Ellen Wolter:a little bit about about your organization?
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Yeah. I would love to. So Art of Culture started, our organization started, its former name was Donda's House, and, it was named after doctor Donda West, who was, one of my early mentors. When we talk about that early access to greatness and standing on the shoulders of greatness, doctor Donda West is also the mother of Kanye West or Yay, formerly known as Kanye West, and his mom, was the dean of education at Chicago State University and she didn't only teach children, she mentored young people, around the community and who were around her son. And so she taught me how to write authentically to, you know, a lot of what I was writing early on in my rap career was to be commercial on the radio.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And for a black kid from the south side, it was write about how many women you had sex with, write about how many drugs you sold, how many guns you shot, how many people you hurt. And that was rewarded by industry commercial success for rappers. That was the entertainment that fulfilled the narrative of black men and women on the south side, and the industry rewarded that. And doctor Donda West said, no. No.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:No, honey. Write about the people that go to work every day. Write about the the kids that go to school every day. Write about your life. Your life is the story we've never heard before.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And just teaching me narrative impact. She didn't know a lot about hip hop, but she knew a lot about people. And so Donda's house, I know I'm taking making a short story long, Donda's house was created in her name and in her pedagogy to teach young people those lessons I was taught about writing. But now, here I come back to the community with Donda's name and 2 Grammys and and, you know, the armor for the children to listen to me. So we started off as a writing program.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:We began teaching young people at Donda's house how to build their own festivals and how to give themselves their own platforms. That was a local movement where we worked with over 1500 young people. We will have concerts in Millennial Park in Chicago call, where we would bridge the intergenerational gap and have young people reimagining blues at the Blues Fest with, veteran blues artists from Chicago. And then, you know, my wife and I start talking, and I said, we gotta take this national, international, and international, and globally. And we changed the name from Donda's House to Art of Culture.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And now, our mission statement is empowering people through the power of nature, culture, and art. And so what we had did, we worked with the Skillman Foundation, a year and a half ago in Art of Culture. We did a city centered retreat where 11 kids from Detroit, we brought them to Cody, Wyoming to interact with 12 indigenous children and everybody who was putting it together for us in Wyoming were, Kodiites. And so the Kodiites got to have a hand in helping us, bring these city centered kids from Detroit and these indigenous kids and and taking them through a western experience and everybody learned something to the point where one of the black kids from Detroit said, wow. At the end of this, I realized my black privilege.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And and the white people in Cody looked and said, what? Like they never thought they'd ever see a black kid say that from the city. And I said, what do you mean black privilege? He said, I never knew how hard the indigenous had it. And that that was just a wake up moment for everybody in the room and we all accepted each other's truths and we didn't argue about it politically, but we learned about one another culturally.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And in that time, I said, this is what our culture is about, those nature experiences that bring out our humanity and bring us together to celebrate each other's culture. From there, my wife and I, we support a school, called Golgotha in Arusha, Tanzania, where we help them get up to date with media, technology. It's an elementary school. We support a DJ program in Dakar, Senegal, because we found that in DJing and in music, that the young people can leverage that for career opportunities because everybody needs a DJ for the beach party even though you may not, you may get a doctor or engineering degree, a medical or engineering degree in a lot of these African countries, you still don't get hired. They'll bring in French people.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:They'll bring in American people or Indian people or Asian people with degrees and let them work in the diaspora, and don't even give the educated people of their country an opportunity to do the high work. And so, you know, what we're doing is saying we'll leverage your gifts, leverage your art, and raise that up, and create your own economy. We're working on water wells and, food distribution in a country named Mauritania. We work with organizations on the ground there. So our culture is working locally, nationally, and internationally to make cultural, impact through art and nature.
Ellen Wolter:You know, what you're describing, it sounds similar to a lot of the work that's happening in rural places called place making.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Mhmm.
Ellen Wolter:This idea of using art to bring people into rural spaces that are economically depressed and, you know, folks aren't visiting them and, you know, you're using art to create social impact. Is that fair to say?
Che Smith/Rhymefest:That is that is exactly what we're doing. You know, I'll tell you something. If you go and and you have a conversation or a round table and you start debating the facts and the news, people start taking their own sides. But when you express it in a song, when you express it in a poem, it gives people the feeling like, oh, we're all together. They can see the past, the present, and the future all in one and it allows breathing room for better conversation because it's not me versus you.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:It's not antagonistic. It's a rhythm. It's a pattern and and we start to see the pattern. There there's something I think even when you look at the Quran or the Bible, Muhammad, prophet Muhammad or Jesus, they spoke in poetry. They spoke in metaphor.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:They spoke in parable. And I think when we speak to each other in parable, we begin to understand things better. Mhmm.
Ellen Wolter:And each other. Mhmm.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Each other. Yeah.
Ellen Wolter:Yeah. Che, you mentioned spending time in Cody, Wyoming. And I mentioned my mom, has lived there for the last 15, 20 years. And I I love that you said Codyites because she says the same thing.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Yeah.
Ellen Wolter:But I'm curious. What is your connection to rural spaces? What have been your experiences in rural places?
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Well, I spent a year on a ranch in Wyoming, and that year I spent on that ranch, I got outside of the ranch. I started to visit the churches and, sit and listen and see, you know, what's the similarities and the differences with how we interpret faith and community. And from the churches, I started going out into the mountains, hiking, learning from people, even, you know, it's interesting because I'm from Chicago, I've never fully been comfortable with the idea of guns. And in Cody, I mean, they get passed out with the driver's license. And so, like, I started to ask questions and go to shooting ranges and talk to hunters and, you know, I started to have a different view of guns from Chicago to Cody and I realized, oh, like, we don't understand the environment that they're in and the connection the cultural connection to the gun versus the environment I'm in in Chicago and the disconnect we have around what a gun is and why a gun is.
Ellen Wolter:Were there things about Cody, Wyoming that surprised you or just being in the American west that surprised you?
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Yes. Learning that weight, all people are not the same. All rural areas are not the same. The west is not the south. And sometimes I think people get it confused, especially, I think, a lot of pea a lot of black people may may look at the west and see it like the south.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:It may be rural. It may be similarities, but, you know, the say the adage of if you've seen one rural town, you've seen one rural town. And even in Montana, when you look at a place like Bozeman, Montana, that is a very diverse, place. I mean, Montana is a whole different beast and it's right next door. If you look at a place like Red Lodge so Red Lodge is in the mountains of Montana, small town, smaller than Cody, but it's a ski town that's open to everybody.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And and Rio Lodge is very, liberal. Jackson Hole, small town in Wyoming, very ultra liberal. Cody, very conservative. So these towns are small, but they're all different. Liz Cheney, the majority of her votes came from Jackson Hole for her last bid.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Cody though, even though it's conservative, it is the entrance to Yellowstone National Park. So they're used to having a lot of international people come and they know how to host. So they they are used to diversity coming through even though it's a small town and they know how to get along with people of the world. Although they are a lot of them have never left that area, They know how to interact with Asians and Indians and Africans and Jamaicans, and in fact, what you find in a lot of small towns that surprised me as we have this national talk about immigration, a lot of these towns don't have enough workers to even work during the summer where they have these summer rushes of tourists and so what do they do? They bring in Jamaicans.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:They bring in Mexicans. They bring in Haitians to fulfill those jobs to keep the town thriving. And they love immigration when it comes to how we work together to make a thriving community. And what what surprised me is that a lot of things that are in the media as the political talking points that make people take sides aren't even the reality on the ground. You know, because I'm there, you know, I have a home there that we visit in the summer.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:What I find is, if I just deal with the community and the reality that's on the ground and leave the talking point near media narrative out of how I deal with people in the present, I actually have a great experience.
Ellen Wolter:And, Che, that reminds me of when you were talking about your hometown in Chicago. You know, the idea that stories are told about us, not by us. And I I think that's a little bit of what you're saying. Is that fair to say? You know, you're seeing all these narratives in the media that aren't accurately portraying what's happening on the ground in both urban and rural spaces.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Yeah. You know, I told one of my my good friends in Cody, her name is, Amy. I said to Amy, I said, you know, I because she always is going on about the media, the media, the media. Oh, god. I hate the media.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:So I say, yeah, you know. I said, the media is the unofficial fourth branch of government. And she looked at me and said, explain that. I said, well, you know, you got the executive and the judicial and, you know, the congress. I said, however, the media is where the Americans get our information for how we engage with the other three branches of government.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:I said the problem with the media is that the other three branches of government are democratic and the media is private. So when you have a private media, it is generated by a capitalistic kinda like, how can we get more clicks? How can we get more money? And and it starts to influence the other three branches by dividing us so that it can it can amplify its own wealth. And so media doesn't work for all of us because it's private.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:To your point, it's not our authentic voice. Mhmm. And it and it exacerbates our problems by not being the authentic voice of the American people. And so I think that's the problem media has to solve with itself. I think the media has to have a discussion with itself about how we're gonna receive authentic voices and information because I think even the discussion that the media is having with itself, they're they're not willing to police themselves in the ethical manner for the service of Americans and people globally.
Ellen Wolter:So I grew up in Montana, in North Dakota.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Oh, so you know what I mean when I say both men and their lives.
Ellen Wolter:Yeah. I do. Yeah. You're talking about my my sort of home hometowns, if you will. But I've had friends and, you know, colleagues who are black and I'd say, oh, you should come out to Montana and come visit.
Ellen Wolter:And they're they're like, no, I would never go to Montana. I I wouldn't feel comfortable. I it would be scary for me. And I'm just curious with your experience going into Cody, was there an unease as a black man going into a predominantly white community? Or was it like, oh, no.
Ellen Wolter:I'm not worried about this at all. What was that experience like for you?
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Well, at first, I mean, because it's foreign and then you realize that that's someone else's you know what I learned about America? America is the land of the free, and you're free to go wherever you want. But what we need to realize is that we are entering other people's villages and communities and the rules that we go by and the values that we have in our village may not apply in someone else's village. And so we have to be courteous enough to learn where we're at and what the decorum is where we're at, not where we come from or what we think something should be. And so what I did entering Cody was took a step back from whoever I thought I was or wherever I thought I was coming from, and I took a step back to learn, to ask questions, to inquire, and and participate in the service that that Cody participates in.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:The first thing I did was try to find places to volunteer. And in that, I found my tribe. I found the people who were of service. And I think what you know, for me, it was just entering Cody was all about finding your tribe, and your tribe has a certain value system. And there are gonna be people everywhere.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:You come to Chicago, you're gonna find extremism. You go to Cody, you I'm sure you can find it if you look for it. But because I looked for my tribe and values, I didn't have as hard of a time as people would have thought. In fact, now when I when I go to Cody, my friends are fighting over whose house I'm visiting first.
Ellen Wolter:I love that say.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Why didn't you come up here? Yeah. And then and then you start seeing, like, you you know, for me, it's not a lot of me in Cody, so it's not like a threat. Like, a lot, sometimes it's, people are battling over the threat of the loss of resources. So, I'm not the threat, you know.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:You'll see something like, you know, in Cody right now, it's like, oh, the Mormons. Like, you know, and and I hang with the Mormons too. I got a lot of Mormon friends just to let you know, but you start seeing, like, kinda like local beef. You know what I mean? And the local beef is like, oh, the Mormons or boy, don't go over there to, you know, Riverton with the natives or, you know, like, you know.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And so, like, in Cody, I start seeing how whether you're black, whether you're, native, Mormon, if it was nothing but one race, it would be men and women going at, like, there there's always something to be divided over. And I started learning that, oh, this is not about race per se. It's about how humans interact. It's like humans always find a way to be at odds with one another. There was a time where the homo erectus and the homo sapien were, on we have various human species living together and the sapiens said there can only be one species.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:It got rid of the, you know, the other species of human. And to this day, there's divide over anything. And so, you know, when I say I found my village of value, people of values, it's those who want to unite, those who want to bridge, and those people exist everywhere. And as a black man in Cody, I feel protected by my village of value people.
Ellen Wolter:Well, and, you know, you mentioned when we were at the IOP conference, and again, listeners, I'll be sure to link to this panel so you can watch it, that there are friends from Cody that visit you in Chicago. And there's, I think, also an unease for folks who grew up in rural spaces to say, Oh gosh, oh, that's so scary going to an urban space. You know, there's so much crime, you know, all the sort of stereotypes that you you hear about with urban spaces. Right? So can you tell a little bit about the folks from Cody who have visited you in Chicago?
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Oh, my my my brother, Tom. So the guy who sold us the house, the first thing he did was he rented it to my wife and I, so we were renting the house. And Tom rented us the house. He grew up in Cody, and I loved being there so much, felt so comfortable. I called Tom and because he had moved to Arkansas with his sister.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And, I said, Tom, I would like you to sell us the house that you're renting to us. He said, that's my mom and dad's house. They died in that house. I said, we'll treat it like your mom and dad treated it. And what I didn't know is that Tom and the neighbors were already talking and the neighbors were like, who's the guy you let stay in your house?
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Lucky And Tom was already telling the neighbors he's a great guy. He was already, like, making the the ground fertile for us and letting the neighbors know, give them a chance, and then you realize that you need allies. It's not you making your way. Somebody is speaking on your behalf and you're being watched wherever you go, and those small town people talk and it gets around fast. There's a black guy living in Tom's house.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And so I said, Tom, if you sell us this house, I'll bring you to Chicago and let you stay with us for a week. And he was open and he came and visited us in Chicago. Now this is what happened when he visited. He got a hotel room, but when he came to our house, he said, Do you have a room in the basement? Because we're family.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:I don't wanna stay in the hotel. I wanna stay with you guys. And I I'm a big city guy. Like, you gotta stay at a hotel, man. I like it.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:So but then I said, okay. Okay, Tom. You can stay here with us. And we had the best week ever. And you know what I learned from Tom?
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Like, he he Well, number 1, he said, Chicago is not as scary as it was in my mind all my life. And I said, Tom, but you're teaching us hospitality, eating like bringing your neighbor in, letting your neighbor stay with you. You're teaching us how to be family. Oh, man. I needed that.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And he said, I needed you. I needed this. I needed these experiences you're giving me. Wow. And so, it made, call more neighbors in Cody to tell them about what Chicago was and who we are.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And that's something that I could not Even if I woulda talked to all my neighbors, volunteered for years, Tom was the one that they grew up with that needed to speak to them, and it taught me that everybody And that's why I bring people from Cody to Chicago because I can tell them anything and they're like, well, you know, of course you'd say that, but everyone needs to speak to their person. White people have to speak to white people about justice. Black people have to speak to black people about how to solve crime in our communities. Men have to talk to men about divine masculinity and how to hold ourselves accountable. But people of understanding have to speak to one another.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And that's one of the things I've been learning. By bringing Cody Ice to Chicago, they're speaking to each other and it's breaking down barriers more than I could ever do.
Ellen Wolter:That that's just such a heartening story. I just love that story. I just and then part of it is my experience. Right? Crossing rural and urban spaces.
Ellen Wolter:I've had that experience. So, Tay, you are running for Chicago School Board.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:I am.
Ellen Wolter:Yeah. And I I happen to pull up kinda your three priorities that you're focusing on. So it's the safety and well-being of students, you know, mental health and counseling, focusing on community engagement and partnership Mhmm. And then focusing on financial growth and stability of of the schools. And one of the things that struck me as I was reading those priorities is those sound an awful lot, like a lot of the priorities in rural spaces.
Ellen Wolter:So I just sort of curious, you know, I'd love of course to hear about your run for school board in Chicago, but then also some of the similarities that you see across rural and urban spaces.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Yeah. Yeah. Let's see. Let's let's start I'll start with the similarities that I see across rural and urban spaces. Someone told me once, when I was in Cody, cowboy, a real old cowboy, 80 about 85 year old cowboy, he said, now listen here, son.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:I'll tell you a little bit about Cody. If you come down here and you got a chip on your shoulder, they're gonna wanna knock it off. And I said, okay. Whatever chip, fear, perception, projection, get it out of yourself, Che. Talking to myself because you don't want anybody to knock it off for you.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And that's when I decided nothing would offend me. So for example, we went snowmobiling in Yellowstone during the wintertime, and when my family walked in, it was about 8 of us, and I had all my brothers and cousins with me and the guy saw us and he said, hey, Jim. They found us. And And my brothers were look alike, was that racist? Like, what does he mean they found us?
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And I laughed and I said, hey, that's the same thing the natives said when they saw you. And we all had a laugh because it didn't offend me. I get it. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, this is a rare sight for you to see, like, 8 black men walking in to get uniforms to go snowmobiling in Yellowstone.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And there's a historical reason for that, but there's no need for me to get into it. Let's deal with right now. Let's laugh it off, and let's go have a good time in nature. And that's what we did. And and what I find is the similarity is the same thing in Chicago.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Sometimes people will perceive you as one thing and if you have a chip on your shoulder about how you think you're perceived, now you've proven them right and they wanna knock that chip off your shoulder. There's something about kindness that works everywhere. There's something about not taking on someone else's problem and and returning that with love and patience that works everywhere. The similarity that I find in human beings is that we all wanna be treated with dignity. A lot of us don't know how to receive dignity so we don't know how to give it, but if you give people the dignity that they The love, you don't take things personal as as best as possible because I understand there are some things that are egregious and when something is egregious, you have to deal with it another way.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:But if it's just people talking, the similarity in people is that we all want peace. Everybody wants peace. And sometimes, we have a challenge in figuring out how to get there, but that advice that old cowboy gave me brought has brought me more peace. Don't walk in the room with a chip on your shoulder because somebody's gonna knock it off.
Ellen Wolter:Some cowboy wisdom. Cowboy wisdom. From Cody, I love that.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:And so, you know, and then going to school board, that's some of what I want to bring to the schools. I want to bring a vibration of village. I want to bring values. You know, for a long time, c p s has just been a shadowy organization that has been in the business of business and not in the business of children. And saving children and loving children and bringing community together and using, hospitable values to get people involved, to make schools work better.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:So what's been happening is people say, oh, we need more money. We need more resources, and not, we need more care. We need more parent involvement. We need more teachers to be supported by mental, counseling, emotional counseling, for students so that teacher and and people professionals to come in and do that so that teachers don't have to do clerical work. They can be in the job of teaching and students can still get the support that they need.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:I was a, Chicago public school student. I went to neighborhood schools for elementary and high school, and I've been able to work with one of the greatest artists, from Chicago, Common, who was another Chicago public school student. We wrote a Oscar award winning song that's used at graduations called Glory with John Legend, and you know, I've been truly blessed, so blessed that I have time to serve and give back what was given to me. And that thing that we were able to do with our art to leverage that for social and political justice, That's what's gonna get our young people excited about coming back to school. You know, after the pandemic, Chicago Public Schools have all time low attendance rates, have all time low reading and and math scores.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:You know, our children are not excited as we would like them to be about an ed the educational experience, but I think it's because of the disconnection between, education and community. 6 out of every 10 of our tax dollars go to your local public school. People move to a neighborhood so that their children can have a great education. So when you see these underserved communities or impoverished communities and my taxes are going up, but my property value are is going down, that tells you something about the schools and the neighborhood. Now, it's not to say that everything's bad.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Chicago has some great schools. We got Whitney Young and Kenwood and Hyde Park and Walter Payton and, Lincoln Park, schools, but, Jones Commercial. However, the schools that are not doing well don't have the equity that those schools that are doing well have. So what I would like to see on Chicago's school board is not a overhaul of the system, but bringing up to equity the schools that just need a little more love. And I think that And when I use the word love, I'm I'm not using it in this kinda squishy, kinda vague way.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:I believe love is a real word. Love is a action. Love is like us coming together, not in argument or debate or with a chip on our shoulder. Love is coming together because we're saying, yo, we really wanna service our children and not only the children. The parents need help.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:The parent School has to be a sustainable system with wraparound services, not just for children, for community, for parents. How am I gonna pay this bill? Parents are stressed out, moving different directions. Single moms don't have a lot of time. So if the school has some of those resources where mom and dad can be at the school getting resources, they can also meet with the teacher.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:So I wanna see schools become sustainable resource centers, not just for children, but for the whole community.
Ellen Wolter:Yeah. Investment in everyone. Yeah. Yeah. Well, best of luck on that on that school board run, Shay.
Ellen Wolter:I'll be watching for sure. And I just I we have just, I don't know, 7 more minutes. And although I think I could talk to you for a couple more hours because it's just such a pleasure to talk with you, and have just a few more questions and then I can I can get you on your way here?
Che Smith/Rhymefest:You gotta let me rap. Listen. My resolution to work out didn't work out. I was going vegan till the chicken bought the jerk out. I was smoking herbal till the heathens, bought the dirk out.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Ask yourself a question. Are you better or are you worse now? It's like we lost the first, second, and third round, then traveled the world just vibing on how the earth sounds, beautiful, wild, and unusual. I was trying to rhyme in my life, turned to a musical. Entourage turned enemies, but I'm a turn the industry into a ministry.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Never left the south side. I've been in the streets. Danger's in the room, but it's not you, it's me. We all have to work on the danger within ourselves to bring love and value systems to everyone else. The problem is not outside.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:It's inside. That's all I wanted to say.
Ellen Wolter:Oh, I love Che. I just feel so honored. Thank you so much. That is just such a treat for our listeners. And for me, I feel like I feel like I just had my own private little concert, so I can't, I can't thank you enough.
Ellen Wolter:Also a really important message and I think really nice to end on and, just have a couple of more questions. We've talked a lot about bridging across difference. Right. And part of that has to do with what's going on with ourselves. One of the classes that you taught at IOP when you were a Pritzker Fellow was called Cultural Communion.
Ellen Wolter:What is cultural communion and how can folks do a better job of of pushing outside their bubbles of bridging with each other?
Che Smith/Rhymefest:I'll tell you a story, small story. So, there was a congressman named congressman John Conyers, of Detroit, who was, for 15 years, was trying to get a national holiday for doctor King, and senator Hemsley and Ronald Reagan were like, no way. This is not happening. We're not doing a national holiday for King. And congressman Conyers called a friend of his named Stevie Wonder and said, Steve, I need you to help me with this and this is what cultural communion is and this is what cultural currency is and this is how you can leverage it for social and political justice.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Stevie Wonder said, I'm gonna make a song and he made a song called happy birthday. And then happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. And that song went around the country and white and black and Hispanic said, oh my God, that song Stevie Wonder made for Doctor. King is so great.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Why don't we have a national holiday? Senator Hemsley ended up saying, by tyranny of majority, we have to pass this national holiday for doctor Martin Luther King, and the bill was signed with the Black Caucus. It Ronald Reagan and senator Hemsley there. The people who who were against it for 5th for almost 2 decades, music brought cultural communion. And so, you know, what I was, the seminars that I was leading at the IOP was how do you use your gift?
Che Smith/Rhymefest:How do you use fashion? How do you use nature? How do you Not even use. I don't like the word use. How do you leverage your gift?
Che Smith/Rhymefest:How do you leverage fashion, nature, culture, music, poetry to bring communion together and solve common problems with holistic solutions. That's what we were unpacking.
Ellen Wolter:I'm gonna be thinking about what I can leverage, and I I hope our listeners will be thinking about all their strengths that they can leverage their gifts. I love that.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Yes.
Ellen Wolter:That's really great. Thank you so much, Che, for being on today. We really appreciate it.
Che Smith/Rhymefest:Thank you for having me. I really appreciate you and your listeners.
Ellen Wolter:Thank you for listening
Ellen Wolter:to Side by Side. We welcome your emails at sidebysideumn.edu. Side by Side is a production of the University of Minnesota Extension and is written and hosted by me, Ellen Walter. Nancy Rosenbaum is our senior producer. Special thanks to Jan Jekyllah, who designed our wonderful logo, and Jim Griswold, who sings and plays guitar in our opening and closing credits.
Jim Griswold (music):It really doesn't matter at all.
Ellen Wolter:You can find episodes of Side by Side wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back next week with another episode. I'm Ellen Walter, and this is Side by Side. Singing
Jim Griswold (music):a song side by side.
