Workshops for Schools

I’ve been facilitating workshops using poetry and hip hop in schools since 2006. In that time, I’ve had the privilege of working with hundreds of students and I’ve witnessed music and poetry empower them to express themselves and make sense of our world.

The powerful feedback I’ve received from students and teachers for this work has encouraged me to take this work to more and more schools and universities in many different countries.

Past workshop topics include bullying, prejudice/racism, civil rights, genocide, religious festivals, body image, ecology, faith, prayer.

Here’s what some of my clients have said:

Mr Yahya and Mr Silverstein were an asset to the spiritual enrichment programme. Their unique approach to prayer proved to be a fresh and exciting one for our students.
– Aviva Golbert (Head of Jewish Studies, Immanuel College)

We were very impressed by the enthusiasm and engagement of our pupils with the entire session, and with the quality of the poetry they produced.
Flora Hoori (Teacher, Bishop Stopford’s School)

The workshop engaged with every single pupil, and many of them performed better in this session than they usually do in regular creative writing classes. 
– Melanie Shutz (Head of Jewish Studies, King Solomon High School)

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Mohammed and Daniel…were able to coach and coax talent out of the entire class and got them all to appreciate poetry and its inner workings. Their ability to integrate poetry into the curriculum and get the best out of the young people is exemplary.
Bryan A Anderson (Programme Manager, Paddington Arts)

The quality of poetry created by the pupils was outstanding…The sensitive approaches used by Daniel Raphael and Mohammed Yahya really engaged the children. They discussing world religions and researched the experiences of their families, from many different countries around the world, and then helped the children to channel their stories into high-quality poems and raps.
– Mary Connolly (Teacher, Earlham Primary School)