Skip to main content

My Youth on Record Podcast


I have been inactive on my personal blog for way too long! Just so much going on professionally, personally, that it has been hard to prioritize this blog. Hoping to be better going forward, perhaps inspired by this crazy pandemic time we are in.

This is a blog post I started working on quite a while ago. Last year I had the pleasure of participating in the My Youth on Record podcast series. Youth on Record is a wonderful Denver organization that engages local working musicians to work as teaching artists in local public schools, the goal being to engage youth that would otherwise be in danger of dropping out. They also put on an annual community Block Party that would be happening very soon, and obviously can't happen this year, which is why it may be on my mind. This event has become a tradition with me and my daughter Esme - one year she even got to go up on stage with me as I made some remarks. It is a wonderful, inclusive, family-friendly celebration for the community.

YOR and its programs also provide employment for indie musicians. And their facility - housed in a Denver Housing Authority mixed-income development, also houses robust after-school programs, including a state of the art recording "Youth Media Studio." A couple of years ago they launched a podcast series - with support in part from Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, called My Youth on Record, with Shawn King from Devotchka as host and Stephen Brackett from the Flobots also involved. The series, however, is almost entirely engineered and produced by the youth involved in the program, giving them fantastic real world experience. The theme of the series is getting successful musicians to talk about their early musical influences, the first song they wrote, the first time they performed, etc. In my case, they wanted to talk about what influenced me to go into the world of producing, enabling, and funding the arts, and especially my love for music. It was great fun to do it, and really inspiring to work with and be interviewed by these immensely talented young people.

In recent weeks, YOR has pivoted to do a series called My Youth on Record - Interrupted, talking
with musicians about how their personal, professional and creative lives have been transformed by the coronavirus.

You can check out my podcast episode here "On puce uniforms, the arts & NYC as a teen" You may even learn what was the first concert I ever attended...

With YOR Executive Director Jami Duffy, Stephen Brackett and some of the MYOR team



Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Greatest Sacrifice Arts Workers Make for the Arts

With all the financial challenges arts workers are facing these days - struggling to balance the budgets of their organizations, or dealing with salary and benefit cuts on compensation that was modest to begin with - it is easy to view the sacrifices people make to work in this field as being entirely financial. Not to minimize the financial sacrifices - they ARE significant - but I would argue they are probably no more significant than a wide array of professions where people choose to devote themselves to the pursuit of "making the world a better place". This includes early childhood workers, teachers, social workers, the whole world of NGOs working in challenged communities, both domestically and abroad. And the sacrifices all these workers make are also not just financial. We all work long hours, and often under trying and unglamorous circumstances (though to outsiders arts work can seem glamorous). No, I think the more significant - and unique - sacrifice arts worke...
27 comments
Read more

A life of cycling... [Updated 8/24]

Like many people in these pandemic times, I have been bicycle riding more than usual. The closed roads in City Park have made it our go-to location for family cycling. I have been cycling as my favorite recreational activity to stay fit and sane. Finally, now that I am able to work in my office (new space that lends itself well to COVID-safe working) I am able to take a route that is almost entirely on the partially closed 16th and 11th Avenues, so I am also commuting by bike almost every day. This has gotten me thinking of my long history with bikes, and thought it might be fun to reflect on my life in cycling. Do not remember when I first learned to ride. I remember perhaps at around the age of six my father trying to teach me to ride, doing the "run alongside holding onto the back of the seat then letting go" thing but he had little patience, and I was probably a difficult student. He gave up and so did I. I remember a couple of years later - I was perhaps 8 by this time -...
Post a Comment
Read more

Inside/Outside - Art by Prison Inmates and Ex-Offenders

Leon Jesse James, "Space Modulator", acrylic on board. SCI Graterford The Art in City Hall program of the City of Philadelphia has just opened a new exhibition, INSIDE/OUTSIDE - Art by Prison Inmates and Ex-Offenders . This is a wonderful, powerful, and thought-provoking new show and I encourage everyone to see it. It is open until October 29th, on the secod and fourth floors of City Hall. More information is available here . The show involves participating artists from SCI Graterford, The Philadelphia Prison System, Art for Justice , Snyderman-Works Galleries , Connection Training Services , and the Mural Arts Program 's Youth Violence Reduction Partnership Guild Program, as well as local ex-offenders. Thomas Schilk, "Beetle", melted plastic spoons, paint. When I came to my position in 2008 as Chief Cultural Officer, one of the appeals of the position was the fact that the administration of Mayor Michael Nutter viewed the arts as being integral to virt...
6 comments
Read more