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Break-dancing, as performed by students from P.S. 140 on Saturday, has had a big part in the musical history of the Bronx.

  Students from Public School 140 performing as Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, with Khalil Wilson, center, as Lymon.

Youthful Twist & Dance To Old School Tunes 

Khalil Wilson’s braids bounced as he bobbed his head, snapped his fingers and sang a cappella, his high-pitched voice carrying across the ballroom. The cheers he drew from the audience were nothing new for a boy who has been singing since age 3 and once auditioned for a role in “The Lion King.”

Yet these spectators were excited about much more than Khalil’s precocious performing skills. It was the context of his performance that seemed most captivating.

Khalil, 11, and several of his classmates from Public School 140 in the Bronx were playing the roles of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, doo-wop sensations of the 1950s. Singing the hit “Why Do Fools Fall in Love,” these youngsters were a dancing, singing history lesson.

Bringing history to life was a prevailing theme on Saturday as students from several New York City public schools displayed exhibits and put on performances at the annual convention for the Organization of American Historians, which was held in Midtown Manhattan. This was the first time that students have participated in the convention.

Some considered it a breath of fresh air for an event that can be dull and insular, with scholars spending much of their time reading and discussing their work with one another.

“Now you’re bringing the student work into the convention,” said Mark Naison, a professor of African-American studies and history at Fordham University and an organizer of the exhibition. “It’s like saying history should not be in an ivory tower. History is a place where people can carry on a discussion, which goes from the university to the community college to the high school to the elementary school, and all of these people can communicate with each other.”

Professor Naison, a 61-year-old with round, thick-framed glasses and ruffled gray hair that is receding, perhaps best got his point across when he took to the stage.

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Bronx Principal Fighting To Give Students Arts Education

After this year’s city budget cuts, one Bronx public school is fighting hard to make sure its kids get a more well-rounded education – one where the arts takes center stage.

Third graders at P.S. 24 in the Bronx play music not in a music class, but in their regular classroom with their regular teacher, who happens to have been taught by the New York Philharmonic how to teach music in her reading and math lessons.

“It incorporates literacy. We put in poetry sometimes,” explained teacher Kerri-Anne Wallace. “It [incorporates] math because they see the tempo, and how it’s stretched out.”

This is known as cross-curriculum teaching, bringing art out of the band room and art room and into every classroom – par for the course at the Bronx school, where the arts are everywhere.

The school’s approach can even be seen in the hallways, where Principal Philip Scharper teaches the Charleston.

It’s not too surprising, since Scharper’s a former professional dancer who is also determined that P.S. 24 kids get the dancing, music, drama, and visual arts education the state requires in every grade school – something a recent survey found most city grade school students are not getting.

According to the Center for Art Education, the situation was only made worse by this year’s budget cuts.

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