Next Week: Music Week at the Summer Program at Mid Town!

Next week there will be a music focus to the summer program (operating with support from an Explorations grant, through the WV Statewide Afterschool Network, and the Benedum Foundation). Monday the kids and staff will be doing some creative artwork expression with old vinyl records! I will also be helping show the kids this "ancient" form of music- the record player! Tuesday we will have a workshop with two Nashville musicians, Stacey Earle and Mark Stuart. They have previously performed a coffee house in our center in February. They are great folks, and travel the country performing probably over 200 shows a year. They have a Suburban with over 400,000 miles on it! They sing great duets, have an intriguing guitar style, write powerful and compelling songs. They are connected with many of the finest musicians in the Americana genre. That is at 2 pm. At 8pm that evening, they will again perform in a coffee house setting for the community. Donations received will support the Americorps VISTA projects at our site. I love their music so much, and am such a supporter of bringing great music to the Mid Ohio Valley, that I am personally sponsoring their performance through my "Tuck's Music Journal." On Wednesday, there will be a "guitar hero" or "rock band" video game contest and demonstration at the Center. That evening, I am showing 1 or 2 documentaries (depending on time, and how the audience is doing!!) on legends in the Americana music genre- Townes Van Zandt and Gram Parsons. This will be projected up on the wall to make a nice movie theater, starting at 7:30 pm. Lisa and Jim show movies steadily in this venue/ set up for their teen nights at the Basic Center Program "drop in center." We have also had family movie nights over time for the Partners in Prevention projects of the Mid Town Family Resource Center.
Thursday, we have a site visit from Jane Hange, who is the grant manager for the Explorations grants, and she will get to see what a great project is supported by this grant, with a creative bustling hive of activities for the neighborhood youth, and some great extended summer learning opportunities.
So, we will all be worn out by the end of this great week of activities!!!