The state budget continues to be a sticking point in Sacramento, and who knows if all of the bailouts will leave Washington with any money for arts education.
Those situations mean there are more reasons than ever for Los Angeles community members who simply march ahead with grassroots efforts to engage youth with music — an art form that has been a living, breathing archive of historical identity for African Americans.
In this case, music means everything from old spirituals and big band jazz to the P. Funk era and the innovative beats of the late J Dilla. Music is viewed as a hub that connects each generation to the next, creating a context by which blooming musicians springboard. Music is honored as a community adhesive that has stood the tests of time, turmoil and various transitions.
All of that is getting tougher to do these days, with many public schools shutting down music programs to compensate for the state's budget crises — and the current gaping whole in public finances presenting another wide-open threat to the lifeline that the performing arts provides to various communities.
In response, teachers have held rallies. Parents have hit the streets with signs and catchy slogans, and Billy Mitchell, jazz musician and composer, has answered the call of duty by offering free music and audition workshops through his Scholarship Audition Performance Preparatory Academy (SAPPA).
"It's hard to understand how the educational system could remove the very programs that help kids' development ... It was hard for me to comprehend," Mitchell said.
SAPPA workshops, which include keyboard
and percussion lessons. Also pictured (right):
Billy Mitchell, jazz musician and founder of SAPPA.
Started in 2002 by Mitchell and a group of local instructors and musicians, the academy offers an array of courses to students through its workshops, including beginning keyboarding and percussion, music theory, principles and history. It also acts as a go between for youth and existing music and art education programs. In conjunction with music courses, SAPPA assists youth with applying and preparing for auditions and interviews. In 2007 alone, the program served more than 17,000 kids in Los Angeles County.
"Our goal is to reach the 90 percent of kids who do not have the resources to be exposed to music or audition classes," Mitchell said.
For Mitchell, SAPPA is more than a resource for underprivileged kids to learn music theory and principles. It's a means by which future generations can inspire and be inspired to question the status quo — which he sees as an infrastructure that often handicaps creativity.
"Without creativity you don't have leadership. You don't have people who are going to challenge the system." he said. "If we can get kids to alter their perception through music, we can change the inner cities."
Robert Lesoine, Master Teacher for SAPPA, said that many African American and Latino kids are hungry for music and that the workshops gives an otherwise neglected population an opportunity to be exposed to basic musical training.
"When I first start some of the classes the kids are reluctant, which is about self esteem ... But six months later, they're shouting out their names," he said. "Whenever I leave those classes I feel like I'm rejuvenated and that I'm doing what god has asked me to do."
SAPPA also has partnered with several charter and public schools, Pasadena Parks and Recreation, L.A. Cultural Affairs and other organizations.
While the program is open to all kids and youth, it especially targets its outreach on the African American community.
Juanita De Vaughn, chairperson for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Academic Cultural Technological Scientific Olympics (NAACP ACT-SO) — which works with ninth through 12th-graders in cultivating an appreciation for music and the performing arts — credits SAPPA with educating thousands of youth about music and its historical context.
"SAPPA is an excellent organization," De Vaughn said. "It's very important, because a number of young kids these days don't know how to use instruments, but Billy teaches and trains kids who want to produce and create music.
"He brings a lot of groups together to provide the kids with the know how as well as training them to perform for an audience...he is one source that we can reach out to get students involved," De Vaughn said, adding that some of the kids SAPPA has trained have gone on to universities and higher education music academies.
Though Mitchell says he feels the level of artistic development has decreased and scores of youth are being "dumbed-down" by popular culture, he remains optimistic that with the help of parents and the black community, change will soon come "one child at a time."
"This is about maintaining and stopping the destruction of cultures," he said. "A lot of our responsibility comes right back to us."
KEEPING MUSIC ALIVE — The Scholarship Audition Performance Preparatory Academy (SAPPA) serves communities in Southern California as an outreach and training program that identifies youth in underserved communities and connects them to existing music and arts education programs. SAPPA also provides music workshop programs in selected areas and, although this program is for all young people, it is currently focusing on communities with the highest percentage of at-risk youth.
For more information about SAPPA and a listing of workshop courses and locations, visit www.Sappa.net.
India Allen is a writer at the L.A. Watts Times.
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