Battling to be Heard

Using the work of Keith Gilyard (Voices of The Self) and Victor Villanueva (Bootstraps) as models for interrogating his own development as a writer of color, Cagnolatti explores the way Hip Hop influenced his rhetorical education in the urban and militant environment of a Los Angeles magnet high school. Through his detailed analysis of the E.M.E.R.G.E. (Elevated Minds Embracing Righteousness and Gaining Equality) collective he joined in high school, he provides an in-depth and passionate model for how teachers should use Hip Hop forms such as battling, freestyling, and ciphering to shape their approach to college composition instruction and community engagement.