Teen Empowerment

AROUND HEAR, POP-UP #1: Teen Empowerment

January 30, 2017

Dan and I visited with a group of youth and their leaders at Teen Empowerment, an organization that “provides low-income, urban youth with the opportunity to find their voices, hone their understanding of the social problems they face, and the develop the skills they need to create change in their own lives and in their community.” This group has their headquarters on the second floor of a cool, old firehouse on Broadway, right in the heart of East Somerville. 

Upon our arrival, this group of friendly, funny young people and their leaders welcomed us into their routine introductory activities. Seated in a circle, we all went around and talked about music and musicians that are important to us. There was a lot of variety in the teen’s answers: hip-hop artists, classic pop stars like Michael Jackson, iconic Dominican singers, Mozart. Choices were made based on a particular message of a song, some sense of connection to a life of an artist, the way a particular song helped them feel motivated, calmed, or focused. 

After that opening conversation, we moved on to a game of what I call “Rhythm Machine”, in which someone makes an ostinato using some body or voice percussion, and each consecutive person adds some complimentary rhythm, using some other human sound. The objective is to make a shared groove out of different, interlocking sounds, but the result was pretty chaotic, and resulted in a lot of laughter. It seems they are working on this game. Stephanie, the leader of the exercise, concluded with a discussion about what it means to “participate.” Questions that arose during that conversation were: what does it mean (during this game and in general) to join? What does it mean to initiate, and how do you feel in an initiating role?  In your life, when are you a leader, and when are you a joiner? These felt like great warm up activities to lead into music listening. 

Dan and I played Dvořák's Four Romantic Pieces, Op. 75, and welcomed the members of the group to close their eyes, get comfortable, and notice their emotional, physical, and creative responses to the sounds they heard. Following the performance of these four short works, the teens shared with us some of their reactions: one listener said that for him the piano represented everyday life, and the violin represented the emotional roller coaster that is the life experience. Another listener said that listenig to the music gave her time to reflect on what had been a challenging time in her schoolwork; as she listened, she was able to realize and appreciate her own intellectual growth. Another listener said listening made her thankful for “old things”, such as pieces written in 1887, such as people gathering together to listen to live music.

After describing how our passion for music, Dan and I invited the teens to talk about their own passions. We heard about sports, visual art, writing, shoes, math, connecting with friends and family. As Teen Empowerment affiliates, these youth meet many hours every week to address problems they identify in our Somerville community, including: drug and alcohol abuse, gentrification, and relations with police. Dan and I wondered aloud if our musical visit seemed useful and relevant, considering their lofty goals. They assured us that our visit was a morale boost during these cold, dark days at the beginning of the year. “When you started playing,” said one boy, "I started giggling. I had no idea it was going to be so beautiful."