Shout It Out! Music Workshop

“Shout It Out” is a music, creative writing, spoken word workshop/residency, and interactive art experience designed for at-risk youth and adolescents. It serves as an outlet for enhancing self-discovery and creative self-expression while also promoting social engagement and protective factors to help minimize or eliminate risk factors. Participants are introduced to three basic poetry styles: couplets, quatrains, and limericks, and apply them to digital music and video production to create their very own unique music video. Using the forms of creative writing coupled with the infusion of music, participants can use this platform for creative self-expression and raising self-awareness that can be attributed to the poets and musicians of the 1960s. The workshop/residency has led to numerous music videos produced by participants at The Krause Center, Freedom Place, and Parks Youth Ranch. According to studies, community-based music lessons for disadvantaged youth can have positive biological effects on their brains.

Each workshop is different because there is a new group of clients at each facility on every visit. Initially, the participants are hesitant to engage, but after the ice breaker and some creative writing activities, everyone shares their thoughts and show a willingness to participate to some degree in their own way. This then leads to a song that we put into a complete video music production that we share on YouTube.

This program builds confidence and self-expression, enhances academic learning, promotes social-emotional learning, increases focus and attention, and introduces and encourages protective factors.

Teacher: Joseph Dixon