Hip-hop music program in Kent helping Black youth address, improve mental health

KENT, Ohio — A new program launched in the Kent City School District is helping Black boys and men address and improve their mental health. But they don’t just do it through words, they also use music to find a light in the dark.

“We’re cheering each other on the best way we can,” said K’vyayer Hill, a junior at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Kent.

Hill is enrolled in the Cope Dealer Initiative, a recently launched mental health awareness workshop at the school.

It is a 10-week program designed to address the areas of mental health that affect Black boys and men and offer them healthy ways to deal with stress.

“The show really fits into your life because you can take some of the really cool stuff and techniques that they use for mental health and just apply it to our lives,” Hill said.

Archie Green, hip-hop artist and founder of the non-profit organization “Peel Dem Layers Back,” created the show. It is based on his most recent album ‘Cope Dealer’, released in July 2021, which talks about the trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety faced by many black men.

“Then it turned into this course syllabus where we talked about the content of the album. We review these songs, we analyze these lyrics and then we apply them to the lives of these young people. Then they take what they’ve learned and apply it to their musical art form,” Green said.

Green said the program received partial funding from the Cleveland Foundation. He said counselors at Theodore Roosevelt High School asked him to do a workshop for Peel Dem Layers Back at the school, and four black male students spoke with him afterward, inspiring him to introduce the Cope Dealer Initiative to school administrators.

Now, six weeks into the show, the students are creating their own original mixtape that they will eventually perform in front of their classmates and the community.

Green said the musical aspect allows them to open up in ways they never thought they could and with someone who completely understands them.

“These young black men may look at me or another black man talking about these feelings. It gives them permission to be vulnerable, permission to really tap into those emotions that are inside,” Green said. “It’s about bringing out those kinds of emotions that lead to creating or bringing out something that’s been there all along. And that’s the power of music, the power of art, but also the power of communicating with someone who looks like you.”

Hill is excited about creating the mixtape, but even more so about how the show has helped him focus on his goals and find community and camaraderie with his peers.

“I’ve gotten so close to people that I didn’t think I was going to have such a strong bond with on the music side and outside of music,” Hill said.

Green said that Peel Dem Layers Back hopes to partner with more schools for the Cope Dealer Initiative. Those interested can visit their website or email [email protected].

Jade Jarvis is a reporter at News 5 Cleveland. follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Y Instagram.

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