Quinn – The Last
Youth on Record, the only program of its kind in Colorado, provides music production classes to students in residential treatment centers. This visionary program is inspiring students – and their teachers – throughout the state!
“Nathan (founder of Youth on Record) has brought a great, positive energy to class. Students have been able to express themselves through the use of their own music, which for them is a healthy, therapeutic and a lifelong coping mechanism.” - Tanya Houle, teacher, Devereux Cleo Wallace Treatment Center
by Nate
Getting ready for the new day, I ran across a folder from our first group of students at Deverux. Written on the front of the folder was a “performance schedule” from last summer’s Larimer Sidewalk Arts Festival, where four of our former students sang, rapped, and danced. It begged us to debut some of the music from the group with which we are currently working at Devereux. I would like to say, that we again are most proud of those with whom we work, their dedication, determination, and willingness to try something new, with the intention of becoming more diverse individuals. Here, world, is a sample of some of the music with which we are surrounded by daily.
by Nate
We are in full swing, at capacity at all of our schools, and steadily implementing our lesson plans. The students are remarkable, picking up the program with surprising ease, the youngest group being no exception.
We began the week at Devereux Cleo Wallace, introducing the first of three lyrics classes. The students were introduced to a couple of different rhyme schemes, ABAB and ABBA, and their assignment was to write lyrics using each. Afterward, the students took turns on the microphone saying the lines that they had just written. It was an impressive display of ingenuity and confidence, with almost all of the students participating. Once all the students had had their turn on the microphone, the session continued with the students free-styling until class time was over. The room was electric with excitement and promise. It was the first time many of the students had used a microphone in the class, and it seemed to empower those who stepped up. Many of the students in this group have recorded each week, and we are noticing great improvement in their cadence and eloquence. It was the first week for a few students, and their acclamation to the class has been greatly helped by those already participating. We, as an organization, have always hoped that the senior students would assume leadership roles, but this group has done so without prompts on our behalf. Whats more, is that the new students, with this direction, are already making some impressive music.
A couple other neat things transpired this week at Devereux: one, we began a dialogue regarding censorship and the rights of the students to say what they want. At Youth On Record, we are committed to working under the specific guidelines of each of the host facilities, yet, we are also committed to creating a space in which the students are able to express themselves honestly. Because we encourage the students to record lyrics, often times prior to lessons on lyrical content, there are times that they say things that perhaps may be offensive to those who are unaware of the context of our program. More often than not, the students, once the subject of censorship arises, will censor themselves, yet this is also an opportunity to explore these issues, not only with the students, but with all of our partner artists at Youth On Record and Flobots.org. We, in lieu of a lesson for next week, will have a class discussion with this group of students, exploring the topic of censorship. We will then take what we have learned from the students and incorporate our findings into the discussion we will have the following day at our staff meeting, regarding the same subject. Then, we can bring our conclusions to each of the programs we work with, thereby formalizing our efforts into policy.
On Monday night we had our third lesson with the Savio House. These students were able to finish, or almost finish, their first group of song,s which they were then able to burn with the hopes of possibly recording lyrics next week. This group is a lot of fun and we look forward to continue working with this group. Our youngest group, in many ways, is the most impressive, we think, due to their age. We believe that this is because they are yet to be defined by a particular social group, and therefor open to all possibilities musically. The students at the Shiloh House are picking up a very complicated program, with relative ease. Each burned a CD at the end of class. They were stoked, and it was a great way to end the week!
by Nate
We have had an unbelievable year, thus far, working with the youth of Colorado! In January, we begun classes at two new campuses, Shiloh House Littleton and Savio House. Each class has between seven and ten students, all of which are highly energetic and enthusiastic in their participation. The laptops, that we acquired over the break, allow us to reach students who we were unable to before, including enabling the student’s in the after school programs, which we do under Flobots.org‘s Arts to Action program, to actually produce songs of their own.
We are refining our teaching methods, each week, according our classroom experiences, and against the successes of other organizations similar to ours. It has been fun to revise and then test our modified approaches to teaching, knowing that each attempt at improvement translates directly to our student’s successes. There are a number of challenges that working with our specific population mandates we face: coordinating lesson plans with a constantly fluctuating attendance, managing the student’s interest and behavior during class, maintaining interest while assuring the process of learning is progressive, and managing the interruptions during class from other staff and students, among others. We understand that these challenges are not unique to this population and embrace them for the elevated sense of accomplishment success with these students brings. We are consistently reminded of the struggles these students face and applaud each of them for their commitment to their treatment. The level of production, participation, and dedication to their personal, artistic vision, is truly inspiring. The students with whom we work teach us as much, if not more, than we teach them- from perseverance to forgiveness, from the willingness to explore personal insecurities to helping others who face challenges like their own.
We look forward to a magical spring and summer! The music is great. The growth is real. The feeling is contagious.
