Students from Different Disciplines and Language Backgrounds Interact with Afro-Italian Rapper Amir Issaa During Visit on Campus

非洲裔意大利说唱歌手Amir Issaa在校园举办音乐会和研讨会已经过去一段时间了，但他的个人故事和有力的歌曲仍然是不同学科和文化/语言背景的学生之间对话的一部分。 An internationally renowned hip-hop artist who has creatively collaborated with several artists over the decades, Amir is also a passionate supporter of the BLM agenda in Italy and regularly holds rap writing workshops in schools, prisons, and colleges across the world. It is this combination of being an artist and having a concrete commitment to social justice that impressed the students who had a chance to interact with him in various forms on Oct. 3, 2022, as part of his Power to the Words/Potere alle Parole program, supported by the Inserra Endowment (Italian Program, WLC Department) included in the Hip Hop Residency Week of the Cali School of Music.

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The concert held in Leshowitz Hall brought together students not just from the Italian program but across different disciplines on campus who are taking Italian Gen Ed and language requirement classes: additionally, a small contingent from Fordham University and Rutgers University joined members of the broader community including HS teachers and local residents, as well as students and faculty from the Cali School of Music. Equipped with lyrics in Italian and English, participants were able to appreciate the content of the songs, while singing along with Amir, who after the second piece had them stand up and forget about their chairs for the rest of the performance.

Different students had different favorites depending on their specific life experiences. Hana El Halawani, a major in Family Science and Human Development, liked I Am Not An Immigrant: “I related to this song because I am an Arab American Muslim. A lot of people think that just because I wear the hijab I was not born and raised in this country. The line that stayed with me is ‘I am not a terrorist, I am not a refugee.’ I relate because I have been called a terrorist.” Aldana Cerrate Banda, a major in Linguistics, identified with Amir’s statement in Game Over: ‘Like many others, I am a son of the street fighting for redemption, and I don’t want to make do with what I have – my parents already did.’ As she put it: “Growing up in very poor conditions has led me to have big expectations for my future. I had to leave my country in search of opportunities, and I will do everything I can to go further than anybody in my family ever has to achieve success.” 

Amir is also an author: Vivo per questo (2017), his personal and artistic autobiography, is a testament to the challenges and imagination of the second generation in Italy (the book will be published in English by San Diego State University Press, edited by Clarissa Clò). Amir’s second book, Educazione Rap (2021), looks at rap as a poetic linguistic exercise as well as a shared experience of social impact across borders. For this work as an educator he was interviewed by WMSC, Montclair State University’s award-winning radio station led by general manager Anabella Poland (first on the right). Communication and Media Arts major Isaias Ramirez (second from the left) sat down with Amir to talk about his activism, music, and the power of rap. In the last bit of the interview, Amir rapped a cappella a few lines highlighting his belief in fighting with words rather than guns (see video below):

Once on stage, Amir mingled stories and anecdotes from his life with the performance of his songs. During the Q&A, the audience learned about his trajectory as an Afro-Italian struggling due to his father’s long-term prison conviction when he was a kid and the discrimination he experienced as a child of mixed race – his song La mia pelle/My Skin tells this story in incisive ways in collaboration with Somali-Italian writer Cristina Ali Farah- see English lyrics here).

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Journalism and Digital Media student Lynise Olivacce (journalist and photographer atThe Montclarion, pictured below) explored themes linked to the function of rap as therapy in Amir’s work both as a tool for self-expression, denunciation of social ills, and definition of a community of fellow artists across borders (see full interview). Amir expressed his connection to a whole tradition of U.S. rap, especially the East Coast one, but also articulated his own vision of rap rooted in Italy, with a social purpose, and as an occasion for enriching exchanges.

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Montclair State University had already hosted Amir Issaa as part of an online program organized by Dr. Antenos (2021 Coccia Institute Teaching Symposium titled “Do You Speak Global? Intercultural Communicative Citizenship in the Italian Classroom”) before this past October’s in-person visit: we look forward to having him again for new initiatives in the future! Torna presto, Amir, with your scialla (it means “cool” or “chill” in Italian slang, as a famous song of his recites)!