One Drop (The Bad Poem Song) – live from the 6 On The Square virtual series.

I wrote "One Drop," using the words from eight Washington, DC high schoolers who took part in our music and songwriting camp last week. It was our third year running the Cassiopeia Academy for Music Performance and Songwriting (C.A.M.P.S.), and our first in the virtual space.

It's hard to fully articulate what the week meant to me. It's still settling. But getting to see young people, with so much heart, boldly try to make sense of the world and this moment through music, left me with a whole lot of hope.

The camp began on a Monday with blank notebooks, and on Saturday, 42 hours of zoom meetings later, each camper performed two brand new original songs for friends and family. Songs about love, race, equality, growing old, and pineapple pizza. You can watch the full performance here, it's not Netflix, but perhaps, you too, will find a little hope and levity.

On another note, if you're missing sports like me and looking for a way to spice up your virtual hangs, we invented a sport to be played on zoom! It's called SOCK BALL – video tutorial below.

Jenner

PS. In the words of one of our campers, "2020 was already 401 years too late." – Oliver Spiva, 18 years old.

Sockball Tutorial

Live in July

Monday July 6/7th TBA – The Open Door – Sisters, OR – 6pm *limited space, reserve a table.
Tuesday July 7th – Livestream with Music My Mother Would Not Like Concert Series – 5pm PT / 8pm ET

Virtual Songwriting Retreat, August 7-9th.

Take a long weekend to write a song.
Our virtual Music and Songwriting Camp worked better than I ever could have imagined. A few grownups even expressed interest. We thought we might brave the world beyond high school, and are putting together a songwriting weekend for all ages and all levels. Let me know if you're interested.

Online Music Lessons

Natalie and I are still taking on students for online guitar, mandolin, & piano lessons. Message me if you're interested.

Fox Recommends
Some learnings on inequality edition

Krista Tippet interviews Eula Biss "Talking about Whiteness."

"My overview of Jim Crow and slavery left my 4-year-old worried about what it meant for him to be white, what legacy he had inherited. "I don't want to be on this team," he said with his head in his hands. "You might be stuck on this team," I told him, "but you don't have to play by its rules."
"I fundamentally believe in fumbling your way through a conversation about race. We have to allow ourselves to have inadequate conversations, not think we have to begin by getting it right or perfect."

Baratunde Thurston's TED Talk on deconstructing racism. In this profound, thought-provoking and often hilarious talk, he reveals the power of language to change stories of trauma into stories of healing.

Robin D'Angelo's 20 minute talk – on what does it mean to be white in a society that proclaims race meaningless.

Krista Tippet interviews Resmaa Menakem , "While we see anger and violence in the streets of our country, the real battlefield is inside our bodies."

"Trauma decontextualized in a people looks like culture."
Imagine I'm thirteen, lost, white and poor. And the reason why I'm poor is these little Mexican's keep coming over and taking my job. The reason why I'm poor is because these black brutes, who the only thing they can do is jump and play football and sing and dance, are taking my job. And I'm the rightful air. This is a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. It has a culture, it has a music, it has symbols. This is a story that thirteen-year-old can latch on to."
"All adults need to learn how to soothe and anchor themselves, and that so many of the things we've done in this culture especially around the invention of whiteness, inhibits people from developing the full range of being a grownup."

And...Fiona Apple's "Fetch The Bold Cutters." – Her new record received a seldom seen 10 out of 10 on pitchfork. It's truly like nothing else. The first track in particular, "I Want You To Love Me" is filled with so much love and rage, a rather unbelievable performance.

PS.

"No one marginalized group has ever successfully advocated on behalf of themselves –alone – to enact change." – Cameron Hough

June 2020: One Drop (The Bad Poem Song)