The history lessons echoing through Tilton Hall last week were hardly standard classroom fare. For one thing, they rhymed. And you could dance to them.

Clark University’s Hiatt Center for Urban Education teamed with University Park Campus School teacher Max Stern ’12, MAT ’13 (shown above with his students) to stage the second annual R.A.P.F.A.I.R. (Revolutions and Protests that Fought Against Imperial Rule), starring Stern’s ninth-grade U.S. history class.

The UPCS students competed for prizes and notoriety in the rap/slam poetry competition for a panel of guest judges.

The R.A.P.F.A.I.R. is a display of student work on the histories of people who have fought against oppression, exploitation, and imperialism to achieve independence and self-rule. Among the topics students addressed were the Partition of Africa, the rubber terror in the Congo, French colonialism of Indochina, the Opium Wars in China, the Spanish-American War, and United States imperialism in Latin America.

The event gave students the opportunity to share their research through hip-hop, focusing on the countries that represent the student demographics in the UPCS ninth grade.