Project RUSL

Picture dump from Project RUSL Showcase. Here's to everyone who helped make this event a SUCCESS! Stay tuned for restored school libraries in these partner districts! With thanks, Dr. Kafi Kumasi, Project RUSL Director

On 4/20/22, Project RUSL fellows visited Detroit School of Arts school library media center, administered by Karen Lemmons, WSU-SIS distinguished alum. Karen has dedicated decades of her career to providing library service to students and staff in Detroit Public Schools. Great librarian tips and tricks were shared along with absorbing the aesthetic gems in this beautiful library space. Thanks Karen for being a lovely and gracious host!

As a head's up, VTDITC: Hip Hop Studies at Virginia Tech's 36th seminar series event is happening this Thursday (4/21) from 7 to 9pm in our lab (True School Studios - 103 Media Building).

Our 5th Annual Beat Battle & Music Production Workshop will feature guest scholar Dr. J. Rawls (Ohio University's Patton College of Education and legendary producer/DJ/MC) as well as 13 of the region's best Hip Hop music producers.

What even is a beat battle? Check out this highlight video from a few years back.

Can't make it to True School Studios? Don't trip, we plan to stream the event via Zoom and our page too.

Many thanks to our sponsors Sweetwater and MPCStuff for supplying 1st & 2nd place prizes again this year!

Craig E. Arthur (he/him)
Head, Community Engagement | Liaison to Sociology, VT Engage, & SOAR
Program Chair, VTDITC: Hip Hop Studies at Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech University Libraries
560 Drillfield Drive, Newman Library 317 (office)
True School Studios, Media Building 103 (lab)
Blacksburg, VA 24061 | [email protected]

Kristen: May your light and love for cultivating young readers carry on through Project RUSL and your fellow cohort.

SIS remembers student Kristen McLean Kristen McLean, a fellow of the School of Information Sciences’ Project RUSL: Restoring Urban School Libraries, died January 14, 2022. She was a sixth grade English teacher at Michigan’s Harper Woods Triumph Middle School.

A dream deferred. Still much work to do. I'm
Sorry this happened to one of our alum in the school library program who is really trying to promote social justice program in her school district - Traverse City. Important reminder of the need to fight racism in all its facets on this MLK day.

TCAPS MLK Installation Destroyed At Ashton Park One of four Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) installations designed to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day was destroyed at Ashton Park this weekend, with one or more individuals completely removing 17 signs that were installed throughout the park featuring pages from the storybook

Project RUSL fellows at Wayne State University, School of Information Sciences under the direction of SIS Associate Professor Kafi Damali Kumasi visited West Maple Elementary observe their Model School Library Program with School Librarian Carrie Betts

Our Project RUSL fellows attended their first state school librarians’ conference, aka MAME in Kalamazoo Oct 13-15. We shared the hip hop ethos undergirding the training the fellows are receiving which is grounded in Dr. Kafi Kumasi’s InFLOmation model for supporting youth’s culturally specific information behaviors in the library. Dr. Kumasi also received MAME’s President Award for Excellence. Kafi Damali KumasiDeMaciiio

Pushing forward on behalf of students right to literacy via certified school librarians
Kafi Damali Kumasi

Schools tackle lack of librarians - Detroit News Dearborn Heights - As a handful of students at Hillcrest Elementary School made their way into the school library, ready to get their hands on some books, a certified librarian was there to guide them for the first time in three years.

The viral videos are a perfect example of the InFLOmatuon model I created to help library and information scholars and practitioners understand and support the brilliant information creation behaviors Black people express in their everyday digital practices, which are grounded in Hip Hop.