Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Introducing Alvin Lloyd Masters

Introducing Alvin Lloyd Masters
"What from your inspires the music you today?" 
@vbehindw Twitter: click here

For each VBW Workshop we supplied participants with Beat CDs to inspire their writing.  There are a lot of cool stories in our program's history of incarcerated youth who changed the course of our workshop through their knowledge of music production.

The best volunteers coming from the outside were often those familiar with music or access to music equipment that could exchange knowledge with the youth... inside, the youth familiar with music production, instrumentation, etc. often assumed the role of peer teacher/guide and played a key role when it was time to go back to the unit to work amongst themselves.

We got a lot of flack sometimes from the facility for lending participants the equipment (portable audio recording tools, music software, CD players, beat machines, headphones, etc.) to practice their craft outside of the hour-long sessions that brought us together every other week.  After some convincing, the staff would agree to monitor the equipment's use by checking it out to youth that demonstrated good behavior and the need to use the equipment for workshop purposes.  On several occasions, the youth showed how important having access to the equipment was to their creative process and a means of reaching a goal (completing a beat, writing, collaborating, etc.).  The collateral reward was seeing how it would inspire other youth to show up to the workshop to learn, or simply to listen and celebrate what was being created by the active participants.

One of our first VBW q/a segments is with Alvin Lloyd Masters an American composer, pianist and instructor from the Atlanta area.  He connected through Twitter and posted a note about his Dream Inside a Dream composition that I listened to at the Bandcamp site... afterwards I listened to Cantando and then the Dark Mountains compositions.  His music reminds me of one of our participants who was  most skilled on piano.  The VBW youth was able to write and read sheet music and was self taught.  Over the years I met several youth who demonstrated true potential from what they were able create from the old and sometimes powerless facility keyboard that seemed to always need batteries or its lost adapter.  The keyboard served just as much time as the participants and had its own story too.

A couple of years ago we exchanged emails with a local musician and piano tuner who was willing to donate a piano to the facility.  There is a story of how that came together as well.  Around that time, the VBW participants and myself came up with a wish list of better equipment we imagined we needed to put together a "music area" in one of the vacant classrooms.  A keyboard upgrade, or piano (if possible) was suggested by VBW youth to allow those who knew how to play the chance to practice and learn.  When I arrived home I checked my email and noticed a random message from the local musician I mentioned earlier.  It was the first time I'd ever heard of this person and it left me wondering how I ended up on their mailing list.  The subject read "Pianos for Sale".  After an exchange of emails, he agreed to donate a small vertical piano (Wurlitzer spinet acoustic piano) to our cause.   We were eager to obtain permission from the facility for the donation considering our participants were knowledgeable of how to use it.  Informally, I was given the go if I could find someone willing to donate equipment.  We also connected with a skilled pianist in the community who was willing to provide free lessons pending approval from the facility.  After all was said and done, the proposal including the piano donation we secured was denied by the facility.  For so many years I've watched VBW youth turn the limited capability of a used keyboard into some really cool "beats" that left us wondering... "what if we simply had access to better equipment!?"

Listening to Alvin Lloyd Masters I think of the power of music.  Listening to ((Prelude Triste V))... its a track I look forward to sharing with VOWs and their families.  Though many of our participants may prefer the heavy bass lines & hit hats of a Hip Hop beat, there is a lot the composition by Masters communicates... It inspires a number of ideas for writing topics.  Whether it be a life remembered, the beginning of a journey towards paying for a crime, the thought of optimism, the art of thinking, or describing home (prior or during incarceration).  Though it sounds sad as the word Triste implies, there is a sound of peace to this composition as well... There is the also the sound of solitude... I'm reminded of the routine silence of a typical American detention facility and the "out of sight, out of mind" quality to their construction and location.

You can listen to ((Prelude Triste V)) by clicking on Alvin Lloyd Master's Bandcamp page: click here.  Please also visit the following Twitter post to read Master's response to our VBWq/a Tweet: "What from your inspires the music you today?" click here

Cover art of Dark Mountains by Alvin Lloyd Masters

Sunday, August 3, 2014

A Note about Voices Behind Walls q/a Tweet

A Note about Voices Behind Walls q/a Tweet
(VBWq/a*) Visit: twitter.com/vbehindw


Prior to registering Voices Behind Walls with a Twitter account, my impression of the social networking service was that it was a useless way of being inundated by commercial, mainstream, popular media junk.  I started learning how it worked after setting up an account for Hip Hop Alumni in 2013 and liked how the home link allowed for quick reference to people, programs and media I was interested in.  One of the first tweets I "favorited" was a notice from @MrChuckD which read "Unsung just aired a great feature on the life of Gil Scott-Heron also showcasing"Evolutionary Minded"album that re-imagines the music of Gil" ...I realized how useful this tool would become for connecting me to projects I wanted to invest my time and money towards...  and in the case of Mr. Chuck D's tweet, it may have taken months until I would've stumbled across Kentyah's Evolutionary Minded music compilation.  Since then, I've seldom heard anyone else make reference to it! 

I'm a sponge for information (always have been) and pretty much any social media tool I've ever used, whether it was my introduction to forums during the early part of the millennium or the world's introduction of MySpace, Facebook, YouTube... I've enjoyed how these interactive tools connect us to specific sources of info and networks that more traditional channels such as TV, newspaper, and magazine aren't really capable of.  It opened the floodgates (I'm reminded of a song by the Algorithms titled ((War at 120/80 (Floodgates))) to media allowing users to filter and connect with very specific sources of info they can share with peer groups and contacts.

In developing a Twitter for Voices Behind Walls @vbehindw, it's been a great learning experience connecting with so many social justice programs, advocates, and artist that are involved with creative expression, education, and issues centered around mass incarceration.  While I most recently got back on Facebook, I prefer how Twitter functions, especially on mobile devices and as an archive to post or find info relevant to work & study.
  
Today, I've decided to use our Twitter account @vbehindw to highlight specific contacts we're connecting with that agree to participate in a VBW q/a (Question and Answer).  Basically the 140 character question and 140 character reply will provide visitors with some background on a specific person, subject or program to promote what they're doing (whether its to a music page, film trailer, Amazon link to purchase a text, program website, etc.).  Over the past ten years, VBW's activities have involved different types of creative expression including music, education, history, poetry, film, Hip Hop culture, art, play writing, theater, photography, reading, scholarship, academia, chess, performance art, digital literacy, and mentorship.   

As a radio DJ in past years and a non-profit worker today, I've interviewed many people through audio, print, and person... I'm interested in utilizing social media with the similar goal of promoting people's work through a simple exchange of tweets that our followers can share.  I hope that if you're not on Twitter, you take the opportunity to sign up and follow sources out there that are attached to your work, education, and everyday learning.  Hopefully, including ours.

We will highlight and archive (label) VBW q/a's on this VBW blog page.

Peace.

#Lee, Co-Founder/Director #VBW


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