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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 #childhood inspires the music you #compose today?" click here.
Cover art of Dark Mountains by Alvin Lloyd Masters
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