It’s Friday evening, and young folks are trickling into a Mitchell Street building to play chess. Tables are set up with chessboards, where one attendee is eyeing his strategy to capture a rook. More kids are hanging out in an adjoining recording studio, creating a song. A graffiti style mural with a pawn and a king surrounded by musical notes covers one wall.
This is Hip Hop Chess Club, an all-ages event every Friday from 5-8 p.m. that combines the genre’s irresistible rhythms with the intricate game. It’s hosted by Your Move MKE (1670 S. 11th St.), a nonprofit dedicated to mitigating youth poverty in Milwaukee’s South Side.
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The club is Your Move’s flagship program and dates back to sessions held at barbershops in 2018. They wanted to “build a place to bring young people together and provide a safe space,” explains program director Sam Vasquez. “Chess can be comparable to life; there’s a lot of things you can receive into it and teach kids besides the fundamentals of the game. … We add a hip hop element to connect with kids because it’s popular.”
“If we can build these skills early on, we’re helping set them up for success,” adds Johnathan Ireland, the program’s chess coach. He says they let attendees pursue their interest, whether that’s games or music. “We try not to push them, so if they want to play different games or they want to make beats and record in the studio, they’re free to do that, but we’re here as resources.”
Your Move MKE’s work goes beyond the chessboard; the nonprofit organizes other free programs throughout the week that give youth a place to learn new skills.
“Thursday nights are our Restorative Justice Cyphers,” Vasquez says. A cypher is a freestyle session where rappers improvise before handing the mic to the next person. “The kids come in and we talk about different things they’re going through. There’s usually a main subject or a theme, and we correlate that into the music that we’re making.”
Other programs focus on meditation, health and fitness, tech skills, urban gardening and engineering, community organization and more – all backdropped by fresh beats.
