Young Jefe & $Gone$
Just an afternoon at the library documenting a freestyle to some beats. This year, thanks to Mr. Groove we've been able to set up in El Paso again. Young Jefe was the first to participate. He has a lot of positive energy and is committed to showing up and encouraging others to participate. He also most recently graduated from high school, class of 2015. Hopeful he learns to channel his talent and ideas through the power of the pen more often. His partner in rhyme, alias $Gone$, was introduced to the VOWorkshop for the first time this week.
VOW or Voices Outside the Walls (a component of Voices Behind Walls/VBW) is is focused on recording creativexpressions with equipment that's been donated to us outside of detention (VBW started inside of juvenile halls). We also exchange resources such as the Beat Within magazine, free composition books, and pass out instrumental music CDs to motivate the writing process of participants. Aside from that we check in on the latest music videos, discuss our latest listens, and exchange notes on plans for education, employment, etc. A project site location like the library or university also gives us the chance to promote reading. We also have our own books that we lend out. Short term, the goal is to help each participant develop their own mixtape project for them to share with their peers, family, and community. Long term, the idea is to create a space to learn, document voices, and for mentorship. The creativexpression we record and document includes all musical genres, stories, and voices.
Check us out on twitter.com/vbehindw
Keywords + Tag = Voices Behind Walls | VBW | Voices Outside the Walls | VOWs | poetry | creative expression | creativexpression | Rap | Hip Hop | music | recording | Young Jefe | El Paso | $Gone$ | beats | instrumentals | literature | creativity | books | The Beat Within | education | employment
