HISTORY
Writing Our Rhymes Down (also known as Project W.O.R.D./ The W.O.R.D. Project) was one of the first (if not the first) hip-hop literacy programs in Montreal. Originally founded as the satellite branch of a Torontonian organization called Literacy Through Hip-Hop, W.O.R.D. split off from LTHH and became an independent organization under Lynn Worrell’s leadership in 2008 in order to better meet the increasingly differing needs between the Toronto and Montreal programs.
In 2015 W.O.R.D. secured funding from Réseau Réussite Montréal’s Adopt-A-School program to create a state-of-the-art recording studio that is still in use today. James Lyng High School has fully rebranded as an urban arts high school with a strong music program and several alternative-learning programs, to the unambiguous benefit of its’ students. This transformation would have been impossible without W.O.R.D.’s contributions to the recording studio and overall artistic culture, as is evidenced by our continued close relationship with the James Lyng music department.
As a result of our fruitful collaboration with James Lyng High School, W.O.R.D. was approached by John F. Kennedy High School in 2017, and another branch of the program was born! That year also heralded the launch of W.O.R.D.’s original Artist Residency program, which supported youth aged 18-25 in the creation of their own original E.P.s.
Today the CJE-NDG is W.O.R.D.’s fiduciary partner and enhances the services we offer to our students, by providing tutoring and literacy services and having access to counsellors. This partnership contributes to W.O.R.D.’s sustainability as we continue to operate in James Lyng studio during the school year, and NBS during the summer!
W.O.R.D. was awarded its first-ever grant from the Canada Council for the Arts in 2011. These funds went towards hiring 2 artist-educators from the interationally-renowned Canadian musical collective Nomadic Massive. Butta Beats and Lou Piensa provided W.O.R.D. with invaluable expertise and experience, and the success W.O.R.D. had with its artist-educator program soon expanded dramatically.
In 2013, W.O.R.D. leadership, along with Dr. Bronwen Low (of the Department of Integrated Studies in Education (DISE) at McGill University), and the administration at James Lyng High School were awarded a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to transform James Lyng High into a school for the urban arts. W.O.R.D. was invaluable to the success of this project, as W.O.R.D. programming already incorporated both urban art (hip-hop) and artist-led education. Butta Beats and Lou Piensa used hip-hop as a bridge to reach students in English, French, and even Science class, while street artist Turtlecaps incorporated his art form into the Geometry curriculum. These artist educators were a centrepiece of the research— they normalized an art-focused approach to alternative learning and revolutionized James Lyng High School. Additionally, the findings from this research project created such a ripple effect that W.O.R.D. successfully advocated for the creation of a permanent music program at James Lyng High School, which is now a cornerstone of the school.
Unfortunately, W.O.R.D. had to shut down all in-person programming during the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting school shutdowns. Instead, W.O.R.D. collaborated with the CJE NDG to publish the first-ever Creative Toolkit—a DIY guide to songwriting and album-creation for youth who wanted to practice their art while all community studios were closed.
W.O.R.D. was luckily able to return to James Lyng High School in the fall of 2021. With the return of in-school programming truly underway, W.O.R.D. took the opportunity to optimise the Artist Residency program, by formalizing a collaboration with NBS Studio.
