Before he grew up to be an educator and rapper in St. Louis, Byron Waters — also known as Zeus Rebel Waters — remembers what it was like being a kid and listening to his mom tell stories about his great-grandmother, who could not read.
Waters’ mother helped out his great-grandmother everywhere she went. She encouraged her son to read frequently.
“My mom read to me a lot as a kid, so much where I was just like ‘No more books, Mom.’ …. It’s like if I wanted to do anything, I had to read a book first.” That lesson, and passion for reading, stuck with him. Waters went on to make words a part of his life as a rapper and, for a time, as an educator at a trauma-informed school with Every Child's Hope. Last year, Waters created Reading with Rappers, a program that helps kids overcome the challenges of learning to read.
Building literacy skills at a young age can pave the way for the rest of a child’s life and into adulthood. An Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count report found that in 2022 only 30% of fourth graders in Missouri could read well enough to use their literacy skills to learn other subjects.
Waters not only wants to promote literacy, he wants to show others that rappers or musicians don’t have to be perceived in a negative light.
“I think the perception of what a rapper is is not always highlighted as a great thing, just because of the media and because of the things we see on TV,” Waters said. “So, I just feel like why not put the culture in a positive light [with the program].”
Keeping a child’s interest is an important aspect of the program. Waters uses different ways to relate to students to promote how reading is truly important. He shared a story about one of his students wanting to be a professional athlete. He told them that in order to sign a contract they will have to know how to read it first.
Waters also relates to the students by reading a lot of books from Black St. Louis authors. It is another way to show the kids that somebody from their community is doing something big and promotes literacy.
“The book that I like the best that we’ve been reading is called 'Rock What You Got,'” Waters said, referencing the children’s book written by Aja La'Starr. “You rap the book as you’re going and it’s really cool, the kids really enjoy it.”
In addition to the Reading with Rappers program, Waters wants to build a mobile library and travel to “book desert” communities with little to no access to libraries. He plans to hand out free doughnuts and books to the community, so they can enjoy a treat and a good book at the same time.
“We want to come straight to your doorstep, straight to your neighborhood. If you can’t get to the books, we’re going to bring it to you. We want to make it where an adult can get a book with their child, read and get a doughnut,” Waters said. “I just see [this] being incredible … Hopefully what we can do is have this in different cities across the country.”
For more information on the Reading with Rappers program listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Ulaa Kuziez, Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Jada Jones is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
