Musician, author and educator Alexis Dean Jr., known as L.E.X., toured the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) for two weeks in a hip-hop residency program to perform for schools and speak with students.
Dean is from Milwaukee and was formerly a teacher at MMSD through AmeriCorps. His return to Madison is a frequent stop where he typically performs for Kids at the Rotunda, but he wanted to figure out a way to perform at the district where he formerly worked. Dean’s musical style is described as clean hip hop, where he mixes hip hop-based pedagogy with topics like Social and Emotional Learning.
“I’ve been trying to construct a little tour with the MMSD schools during Read Your Heart Out Month and Black History Month,” Dean said. It started as just a few schools every year that I would connect with, and then some people at MMSD noticed what I was doing and my performances, and they were wondering if they sent out a message to the district, who would ask me to or want me to come to their school to perform.”
Dean is excited to be back to see what’s changed. He taught at Mendota before he moved to Michigan around four years ago.
He’s performed at other MMSD schools before, separate from the residency in his frequent visits, but he got to experience some school for the first time and take in the different cultures of each.
“It’s been really great to see the difference while I’m performing, but I also, when I go to the different classrooms and do Q&A sessions with them, too, seeing how we’re all connected based on how we learn in school, but how just one individual school can be completely different in different ways.”
Some key differences Dean has seen are how MMSD is celebrating Black History Month. It was celebrated before, but now he noticed that it’s embedded into their Black history education, which Dean was excited to see.
He ended up coming to 16 schools across MMSD during his two-week residency. Madison365 attended his performance at John F. Kennedy Elementary School, 221 Meadowlark Dr., on Feb. 24.
During the performance, students were highly engaged. Dean started off asking students if they knew why he was here, followed up by asking them to raise their hands if they knew their numbers from 1-20.
“Now this first song, you may be a little nervous, a little shy. That’s okay,” Dean said to students at Kennedy. “You can rock a little bit. You can nod your head if you’re ready to rock.”
Dean mostly performed from his latest album “Say Your Dreams With A Smile.”
Children quickly got into the groove of it and picked up the lyrics. Kennedy’s gymnasium filled with the sounds of Dean rapping and kids singing along.
Dean’s style is very intentional to try to pull kids into the performance. He notes that his favorite thing to do throughout shows is to teach — because he is an educator — but bring out different elements of hip hop.
“In the beginning of my performance, I always tell the kids that throughout this show, they’re going to become a rapper and we’re going to rap together,” Dean said. “Right away, I’m teaching them call and response like they’re doing in their classroom, but throughout the show.”
His approach resonates with kids. Though Dean is admittedly always a little nervous if the kids and adults are going to like it. That nervousness quickly slipped away as kids sang along and teachers started to dance.
Dean completed his residency on Feb. 27. He hopes to come back for another round with more schools.
