Rapper gives Chaucer new life

More than 500 students from English and performing arts classes at Oakland's Skyline High School were treated to a performance by hip-hop Chaucer rapper Dirk "Baba" Brinkman this week.

Brinkman, 26, put to music literary classics "The Pardoner's Tale" and "The Wife of Bath's Tale" and rhymed along.

Rappers aren't looking at classical work like Chaucer's for their material, Brinkman said, but the similarities are there.

Ancient Anglo-Saxon forms and today's rap rhythms both use verses and couplets that end in rhyme, he said, and create poetry intended for oral expression.

"Baba's taking 14th century Chaucer and making it accessible and cool," said Chris Kelly, a Skyline social science teacher who invited the Vancouver-based performer to the school.

Brinkman began writing his one-man show "The Rap Canterbury Tales" four years ago and since has toured around the world with a recent stop at the San Francisco Fringe Festival last fall.

"If you can translate Chaucer into rap, you can translate anything into rap," the Canadian actor said Wednesday.

Rap is broadening its base from New York City to everywhere, he said. "Kids around the English-speaking world have to study Chaucer and lots of them are into rap."

One interested student was Skyline senior and rapper Gordon Battles. While some students checked their text-messages and whispered to friends, Battles listened closely to Brinkman's words.

"I think he is very creative and talented for bringing 'The Canterbury Tales' to rap," he said.

Battles has read the "Wife of Bath's Tale" and saw similar themes in today's popular culture. In Chaucer's version, the wife tells of her relationships with five husbands and her struggle and use of sexual manipulation to gain control over them.

"It does relate to hip-hop," he said. The wife portrays the society we live in, he said, just like his music.

The aspiring music producer has been rapping since seventh grade and uses the motto "Dug-out" as his theme. His group, the Blockhittaz, raps about experiences on the streets and how they are trying to "dig out" from their beginnings.

"We talk about our environment -- the streets, housing, (President) Bush," he said, "what we feel in our heart."

When I was a child, I was told a variation of this story about the name "Sheboygan".

"Many different explanations have been made regarding the origin and meaning of the name ‘Sheboygan.’ Tradition says that an Indian chief resided at Sheboygan in the early part of the 19th century who was the father of a large number of daughters. Fortune, however, had not yet graced his household with a son. One day after returning from the hunt his wife ran forth from the wigwam to greet him and present him with a newly born babe. The stalwart chief looked at it sharply and (so the story goes) replied in a disgusted manner – ‘She-boy-(a)-ga(i)n!’ Although this tradition is very interesting, still it has no historic basis and must be discarded as the true explanation of origin of the name.

Most authorities agree that Sheboygan is a Chippewa word, but differ as to its exact meaning. Rev. E. P. Wheeler in an article on the 'Origin and Meaning of Wisconsin Place Names,’ declares that ‘Sheboygan’ is derived from Zhee-bo-I-gun, that which perforates or pierces; hence Zha-bun-I-gun, a needle. Joshua Hataway, an authority of some note, says ‘Sheboygan or Cheboigan of the early maps is from the Indian name Shawb-wa-way-kum, half accent on first ands full accent on the third syllable. The word or sentence, most likely Chippewa, expresses a tradition that a great noise, coming under ground from the region of Lake Superior, was heard at this river. Father Chrysostom Verwyst, a Franciscan missionary among the Chippewas of Wisconsin and Minnesota, aided by Vincent Roy, a Chippewa merchant, and Antione Gaudin and M. Gurnoe, two very intelligent Chippewa scholars, agree that Sheboygan is derived from jibaigan, meaning any perforated object, as a pipe stem. Louis M. Moran, a Chippewa interpreter, asserts that the term means a hollow bone or perforated object.’ This is the generally accepted meaning."

Source: Sheboygan City Directory, 1920.

Another view of the same topic:

"This word has an Indian origin. There are a number of words of two principal meanings from which it may have been derived. One series is said to mean any hollow object such as a pipe stem, reed, cane stalk, or hollow bone; or that with which one perforates or pierces through, hence a needle or awl. The other meaning refers to a passage away by water, or a river disappearing underground, or a noise underground. One authority claims that Indian word meant ‘send through’ and ‘drum,’ and referred to festive tribal occasions when the Indians carried their drums between Sheboygan Falls and Sheboygan and beat the cadence most properly suited to the event. There is also a tradition that a great noise coming underground from the region of Lake Superior was heard at this river. Other explanations offered are that on quiet days sound carried an unusual distance if originated at the mouth of the river, and one Indian chief said the name referred to the sound heard if one placed an ear to the ground near the mouth of the river. The Sheboygan River was named first, and the county and city were named after it."

Source: The Romance of Wisconsin Place Names.

http://www.sheboygan.lib.wi.us/pages/shebfaq.html

BTW, thanx for the ping. :o)

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