Teaching young people to play music – and learn more about their cultural heritage – will always be an essential part of what we do as an organization.

Ideally, the programs below demonstrate all the ways we work with each young person (and family) that we serve. We understand that all of these options will not be possible for every family, so we encourage you (or your offspring) to take part in any of the programs that make sense for your family.

For each young person, we want to:

• Help their family use a digital copy of our Layers of Heritage workbook, to help each student and their family do the slow, steady work of rooting themselves more deeply in their heritage, and ensuring that cultural traditions are celebrated and passed down. Heritage work is personal as well as communal, and it is foundational to our mission to celebrate music and heritage through an anti-racist lens.
• Deliver a regular (weekly or bi-weekly) program in their school. This may take place during or after school hours. Ideally, we collaborate with staff, PTA and admin in multiple departments of the school to help us ensure we are serving those who need us the most.
• Provide an instrument to students who do not have access. We have a stringed instrument library at The Rhapsody Workshop in downtown Seattle that grows every month as people donate guitars, banjos, ukeleles, keyboards, and a variety of (mostly stringed) instruments.
• Host potluck jam sessions that allow people to experience music as a social, communal activity in an environment where everyone feels they belong.
• Bring committed students to join us for a week-long intensive at the Pt. Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival every summer!
• Collectively work to build a community and culture where playing music is automatically a part of our daily lives, instead of something we have to go out of our way to make time for. We connect students to a constellation of masterful culture bearers from their region, and help create a social safety net around the most vulnerable members of our community.

We want to serve each young person throughout their K-12 experience, and when they are performance-ready, invite them to join our Songsters program and get paid gigs around town!

From there, students we serve can earn the opportunity to join our organization as interns or Junior Staff and learn a range of skills that will carry them through life, and help equip them for the economy that is emerging.

If you want to provide this experience for yourself, your child, or a young person in your life – please get in touch!

Simply email info@therhapsodyproject.org and let us know the ways in which you would like to get started!

If email is not for you, feel free to shoot us a direct message on Instagram.

Do you want to ensure these programs can continue to grow and expand? Become a Rhapsody Resonator today!

Again, the best way to get started and prepare for your work with us is to download and explore this workbook!

Also, feel free to copy / share this post – or the flier below – in your community: