Riffs & Raps — A Community-Based After-School Jazz Program for At-Risk Youth
 |
|
Saxophonist and "Riffs and Raps" co-leader Arni Cheatham and his students check the video as they rehearse for the program's closing performance at the Dudley Library last May. |
 |
|
"Riffs and Raps" co-leader and trombonist Bill Lowe does some last-minute coaching for the final performance. |
Riffs & Raps is an innovative after-school program that engages young people in exploring the life of their community and their own creativity through the medium of jazz. Designed for at-risk middle-school students in underserved communities and led by two master teacher/performers selected for their extensive experience developing jazz curricula and their inspirational skills, the program provides students with a growth experience that changes their perceptions of themselves, their community, and the learning process.
What distinguishes Riffs & Raps from existing arts outreach efforts is its strong community focus. The program is delivered to young people where they are — in a library branch, community center, school, or other neighborhood setting — and the content is closely tied to the history and contemporary life of their community.
Because it employs multidisciplines — spoken word and visual art as well as music — and multimedia, the program is suitable for musicians and nonmusicians alike. A series of hands-on interactive workshops keeps all the participants actively engaged, and a closing performance puts the students up front as part of an ensemble with their teachers and other professional musicians.
Riffs & Raps can be adapted to the needs of different populations, partnering organizations, and venues while the core philosophy and curriculum remain constant.
Early Partnership with the Boston Public Library
JazzBoston developed the program model for Riffs & Raps in 2007 - 2008 in partnership with the Boston Public Library, funded by a $5,000 grant from the BPL Foundation. A pilot program was conducted during the spring of 2008 in the Library's Dudley and Codman Square branches by Arni Cheatham and Bill Lowe, two highly respected and dedicated jazz musicians and educators. During four weekly workshops, two groups of roughly 10 students each engaged in games, exercises, and mini-presentations requiring intense participation. For example:
- In early sessions, students used straws to understand the way the saxophone reed works; made their own rhythm instruments, then played them; and performed simple body and voice gestures in response to a trombone to learn the basic element of jazz solo/conversation.
- In the Name Song game, students used a video projection of a keyboard and a fairly complex set of manipulations of the alphabet and the chromatic scale to create melodies from their own names.
- After some preparation in the technique of taking oral histories, students conducted and recorded an interview with a professional musician living in Codman Square, in which they asked very probing questions and absorbed a wealth of information about jazz in Roxbury as a part of jazz in the wider world.
For the final performance, held in week 5 and entitled "Stories with Music/Music with Stories," the students, backed by Cheatham, Lowe, and a three-piece rhythm section, performed stories they had created based on photographic images of their neighborhood, personal narratives, and pure flights of imagination. Their pride was visible, and the audience of family, friends, and neighbors was deeply moved. Click here to see snapshots from the workshops and the closing performance
JazzBoston and the Boston Public Library are exploring possibilities for delivering the program through additional branches over the longer term. With more time and access to more sophisticated equipment, the core curriculum developed in 2008 can easily be expanded by deepening work on selected components and adding new ones, in particular, video recording.
Invitations to Extend the Program in 2009 - 2010
Following the successful completion of the BPL pilot program last spring, JazzBoston was invited to partner with two well established and highly regarded nonprofit organizations, Music & Youth Initiative and Citizen Schools, to adapt Riffs & Raps to their own platforms.
Citizen Schools operates a national network of after-school programs for middle-school students that has become a model for re-imagining learning and strengthening communities. In the city of Boston, where it was founded in 1995, the organization operates 11-week "apprenticeship" programs out of eight public schools and has worked with more than 8,000 low-income students. With Citizen Schools' support, JazzBoston is currently seeking funding to introduce Riffs & Raps in a Roxbury and a Dorchester middle-school during the 2009 - 2010 academic year and then replicate the program in underserved communities citywide as quickly as resources allow.
Working through a network of Music Clubhouses in Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCA's, and other community based organizations, Music & Youth Initiative provides underserved young people with after-school music education and enrichment programs designed to build their self-confidence and interpersonal skills while fostering their appreciation of music. Each clubhouse typically serves hundreds of low-income youth. With support from M&YI's founder and executive director, JazzBoston has secured funding to bring Riffs & Raps to the music clubhouses at the Blue Hill and Dorchester Boys and Girls Clubs next fall and is seeking funding to repeat the program in the spring term.
If you would like information about supporting or sponsoring JazzBoston’s Riffs & Raps program for at-risk middle school students, please click here.
JazzBoston Team Members
In addition to Arni Cheatham and William Lowe, the JazzBoston team responsible for developing and extending the Riffs & Raps program includes Pamela Seigle, Executive Director of Courage & Renewal Northeast, former Library trustee, and member of JazzBoston's Advisory Council; Emmett G. Price III, Chair of the Department of African American Studies at Northeastern University, JazzBoston board member, and a leading authority on hip-hop culture, the youth generation, and Black Music of the United States; and Pauline Bilsky, JazzBoston's Executive Director.
Photo Gallery
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
This show contains 5 photos. Click on the image to advance more rapidly.
