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WATCH: DC middle and high schoolers make video about gentrification

The group belongs to the Hip Hop Architecture Camp, a program that exposes underrepresented youth to architecture, urban planning and economic development through hip hop culture.

WASHINGTON —

A group of D.C. students are determined to diversify their communities. Their first step -- is creating a music video to raise awareness on the impact of gentrification in the District. 

The students belong to the Hip Hop Architecture Camp, a program that exposes underrepresented youth to architecture, urban planning and economic development through the lens of hip hop culture.

The camp is a one week program aimed at “increasing the number of underrepresented populations in the practice of architecture while simultaneously creating a new approach to architecture and design,” according to their website. 

RELATED: Is gentrification good or bad for DC?

The program accepts middle and high school students with limited availability in each city including Riverdale, Md., Washington D.C., Boston, Massachusetts and St. Louis, Missouri. 

While attending the camp, students work with urban planners, designers, activists, architects and hip hop artists to help create a new vision for their neighborhoods. The students learn how to make digital and physical models of their new communities and mix and master their own music video to explain their designs. 

“Black neighborhoods reducing drastically we need to find a way to help our community,” one student rapped in the music video for the Washington D.C. camp.

The 2019 program was held in the District Architecture Center on 7th Street in Northwest in February. For more information on the program, visit their website

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