In cooperation with the Schering Stiftung, the theater “Hebbel am Ufer” (HAU) realized in 2008 a project with the Turkish rap star Ceza, who is known to a wider public through Fatih Akin’s music documentary “Crossing the Bridge – The Sound of Istanbul.” Ceza is admired by his fans for his extremely fast rap style and for his critical texts that reflect his precise social observations.

For one year, Ceza held monthly workshops and open mic sessions with teens who where chosen by a jury composed of local scene experts and hip hop stars. In a theoretical part of the workshop Ceza gave an introduction to the basic principles, the history and the meaning of hip hop as an interactive and integrative culture and presented the different rap styles. In addition the teens learned how to write their own texts and to perform professionally on stage. On November 18, 2008 the participants gave a presentation of the results of the workshops in a great show at the HAU.

The workshops aimed to strengthen the self-confidence and critical skills of the teens and to encourage them to develop their own artistic expression for their ideas and opinions. Furthermore the participants got an exciting insight behind the scenes of a theater that evoked in many of them a great interest in further participation in cultural projects.

The Schering Stiftung supported the project as part of its efforts to promote the potentials of children and teenagers, to strengthen their interest in culture and to enable an intercultural dialogue.