Urban Art Beat NYC

OUR GOALS
• To provide underserved youth with innovative opportunities in the arts, during and after school
• To emphasize the positive and productive power of music, art, and Hip-Hop in local communities and the world
•To foster a connection between local working artists and disadvantaged
youth through creative collaboration
• To inspire academic achievement by engaging students in an alternative
learning environment
• To provide teaching experience for working artists
• To foster respect, self-worth, and individual identity through artistic expression

OUR OBJECTIVES

• We will run music and art based workshops in schools throughout the boroughs of New York City.
• In addition to songwriting, song structure, beat making, sound engineering, visual art, graphic design, and performance, students will learn about the history and heritage of Hip-Hop, encouraging pride in and ownership of their work as artists.
• Artists and teachers will meet outside of the workshop once a week to assess the progress of participants.
• The curriculum will be modified as needed to reflect the ongoing development of programmatic best practices.

WHAT WE HAVE DONE SO FAR

A Few Facts we are particularly proud of…

• We have created and performed over 70 new and original songs, 15 songs created for an annual College Board scholarship contest
• Our Mentor to Student Ratio has been kept to 1 mentor per 5 students or better.
• Guest mentors from different fields make frequent appearances to run specific workshops, keeping the curriculum exciting and relevant.
• We have put on 25 total shows all over New York, including; NBC Studios, 92nd Street Y,  Kips Bay Homeless shelter, Carlito’s Cafe in Harlem, Ravenswood Community Center with our Queens’ sister program, “Optimus Academy”,  and, our local “Spot,” The Bruckner in the Bronx.
• We have a high student retention rate:  half of the students have remained in the program since they started, Over 67% of the students remain in the program for 2 or more seasons (compared to 47% average retention rate for NYC public school’s minority youth ). Many of the experienced participants help coach the new participants.
• Our participants win awards. 3 students earned College Board scholarships through songwriting and poetry competitions. 2 of our students won poetry slam competitions at the 92nd Street Y using material they developed while in Urban Art Beat.
• We added Graphic Arts a separate component, and the participants were able to display their work at our song showcases. In the fall we will add beat making to our variety of workshops.

Additional Benefits
The most important results of our programs are an increase in knowledge, self-confidence and the ability to collaboratively create a unique vision.  Urban Art Beat’s student participants report that the reflective experience is a powerful tool that dramatically increases both their self-awareness and self-esteem. They also describe the collaborative structure as having a major impact on their peer-to-peer communication skills. The anecdotal evidence, self-reported through surveys by the Urban Art Beat community members, is not the only indication of the program’s evolving efficacy. The attendance patterns that emerge in our early statistical collection mirror the students’ statements that participation in UAB programming improves the frequency of their school attendance, their involvement in other extracurricular activities, and their ability to engage positively within the classroom.

THE STORY Our central program, From the Block, Out the Box launched its first season in the spring of 2006. The 8-week after school Hip-Hop workshop at South Bronx Prep (a 6th – 12th grade school) culminated in two performances, one for the middle school and one for friends and family at Carlito’s Poets Café in Harlem. Local emcees guided 20 sixth and seventh graders through the creative and technical process of songwriting. Working in teams, (one mentor to three or four students) the mentors collaborated with students to create an original song. Our student/emcees learned song structure, delivery and performance. Students wrote songs around the theme of Change…change in their lives as they begin adolescence, change that they would like to see in the music they listen too, as well as change they hope will come to the neighborhoods they live in.

In the fall of 2006, UAB expanded the workshop to include high school students. The volunteer mentor base doubled! The second season of From the Block, Out the Box focused on the theme of Choice. Students wrote about the negative and positive consequences associated with the choices that they make. The final shows, both at the school and at The Bruckner, were highly energized as the middle school students, high school students, and mentors, all shared the stage.

In the spring of 2007 we expanded our program once again. Thanks to very generous equipment donations, we built a small recording booth in the music room at South Bronx Prep. In order to support our participants academically we provided incentives for students to perform well in school. Students that improved in their studies were invited to join us on fieldtrips and had the privilege of recording their own original song.