Youth in the Studio Booth: Youth Poetry and Music Production Studio Sessions
The Horizon Records provides free recording studios and workshops as creative tools to improve writing skills and develop strong youth leaders in the classroom and community. Through our community recording sessions, artists network, learning resources, and civic engagement initiatives , The Horizon Records is supporting a global network of change makers.
Through our project-based curriculum participants have various opportunities to learn music production, recording, engineering, poetry and songwriting, and entrepreneurship through learning music production and recording.
Horizon Records’ programs grant youth 100% ownership of their work as well as provide the education, guidance mentorship, collaboration, network, and resources to allow youth to authentically and safely express themselves, amplify their voices, educate society about socio-economic injustices, advocate for sustainable systemic change
In our Youth in the Booth workshops, participants learn to produce a beat using sound samples and how to write song lyrics using the word rhyming website rhymezone.com. In our 2023 February sessions, the youth participants aged 10-14 wrote the following lines about their school.
“It is your boi JB I go to school every day
I am going to get those good grades
I feel like I have been going to school for decades
And people still trying to through shade”
“My mind is my most powerful tool
Can never doubt my spark because my faith is my fuel
Cus I am a diamond more than a jewel”.
In another session in April 2023, youth were asked to process a difficult evident by describing how they overcame a sad experience through remixing their favorite song of that week, the final song they entitled, “Why” , below are the lyrics from three individuals
“Why you do me like that,
we you do me like that
We can make a song”
“After all I did you are so ungrateful
But im not going to be hateful
After all the scars I am grateful
Even though the wounds is painful”
“After all the scars they still going to be painful
But im still going to be grateful
I am not a hateful person
I am not going to be painful”
In our first year we partnered with the community and other community serving nonprofits, the Juvenile Law Center , Taller Puertorriqueno, Hip-Hop University, and WriteGirl. In our first year, we held 18 sessions and training workshops as well as produced more than 25 professional audio recordings, for 38 unique individuals .
Sessions Workshops”
Recording 101 :
Our recording trainings presents the fundamentals of the audio recording process, techniques, and the basic features of the recording studio through experience in the studio. Trainings are centered on a project-based learning model that emphasizes the completion of audio projects per class.
Audio Mixing and Engineering:
Audio engineering and mixing sessions provide experiential instruction by learning the basic tools and techniques of modern audio engineering, emphasizing the practical overview and usage of plug-ins, audio effects, leveling, and audio automation.
Music Production: Beat Making Composition, Arrangement
During the sessions’ music production component, participants create their own and collective works from a musical idea into a completed instrumental. Students compose their own music as they utilize beat-making fundamentals, music theory, and arranging techniques, as they engage with the technology and tools of music production.
Poetry and Songwriting:
Poetry and songwriting sessions introduce students to a diverse range of poetry, rap, spoken word and other literary work spanning multiple languages, time periods, and regions.Through selected readings and discussions, participants dusk off their own unique voice by writing collectively and individually .
In the these activities, participants not only cultivate a greater appreciation of poetry and confidence building, but also improve writing and analytical skills while understanding more about themselves, their past, and those of others.
In each session, individuals will learn the fundamentals of writing poetry, such as rhyming, structure, and the different forms of poetry. Through various rhyming, songwriting and spoken word exercises, participants will learn how to not only write and recite, but to also perform Spoken Word Poetry,
Entrepreneurship Development: The Artist's Way
Music business highlighting the skills and knowledge every independent and solo artist should know.
Participants will learn a series of objectives specifically structured around doing-it your self through learning the process of self releasing work as well as managing their own artistic and creative development by studying digital arts, marketing , brand creation, creating products merch, and mastering the knowledge of intellectual property protection.
In addition, these sessions provide an overview of the music industry, different roles, structures, and positions in the field as well as how to manage artists’ financial products, licensing, and copyrighting.
General Information:
Our Youth Poetry and Music Production Incubator centers youth voices and experiences in our programing with a specific aim to empower youth with the skills they need to sustainably actualize their personal, professional, and creative goals as well as to activate their potential. Our sessions centers youth voices and experiences by providing support and the skills needed to share their experience while protecting themselves from additional harm and trauma.
Our programs are structured to be a safe, nurturing, and comforting place for young people to explore their musical and writing interests as well as to cultivate self understanding and methods for productive self-expression. By learning and applying the fundamentals of audio recording, production, engineering, and writing, participants master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, prioritize self development and learn about literary history and contemporary life.