MeMA-Music
Inspiring and Empowering Youth

Remember When Music Served as a Rallying Call For Young People Who Led The Fight For Cultural And Political Change?

Music builds unity. Blues, Jazz, Folk, and Rock have all functioned as strategies to change social policy, fight social injustice, bolster courage, inspire participation, and foster community. Hip Hop has always been about social justice, giving voice to socio-political issues and racial injustice. Many protest songs became masterpieces primarily because they were integral to mass demonstrations for peace and social justice. Learning about our nation’s history through the eyes of poets and songwriters who expressed their anger and frustration through music can help students understand how history shapes people’s lives and the possibility that young people can make a difference in history.

Meeting The Needs Of All Students

Education

In today’s society, teachers are faced with the struggles of developing and reframing curricula to be more culturally responsive, relevant, and creatively engaging. Students need new ways in which to think critically and make reasoned decisions. This includes helping students succeed while working within mandated state standards and testing guidelines. Educators are working hard to develop arts-integrated lesson plans and activities that focus on improving students’ achievement levels, self-esteem, social awareness, and civic participation, all through a multicultural lens. MeMA-Music includes all of the above while also engaging students with pop culture.

Real-Life Learning

Students today are more connected and informed than any other generation in history. They know about racism, gender bias, hate crimes, suicide, abuse, police shootings, etc. So how are students dealing with this information? Do they understand it? Are they afraid to ask questions or talk to their classmates? MeMA-Music’s residency programs include engaging instructional resources and activities to use when teaching controversial issues. We developed a curriculum rooted in learning through real-life experiences in a safe and holistic environment to help students connect what’s happening today to the systems and patterns of the past.

Arts-Integrated

MeMA-Music offers schools standards-aligned residency programs grounded in social justice that integrate art, music, social studies, technology, English Language Arts, civics, and social and emotional learning in middle and high school classrooms. Our program, “Voice Your Soul,” teaches youth to recognize the power of music as a voice for social justice in our world. This is established by integrating music, lyrics, and videos with social studies themes, including liberation struggles and socio-political movements from the past to the present. Students learn from music with messages about social and political ills, race, the battle for equality, political, cultural, and economic social systems, and moral values.

Student Voices

By sharing the history of youth-involved activism and artistic expression, MeMA-Music encourages students to share their voices and participate in thoughtful dialogue that fosters civic and social awareness. Students are tasked to create and voice unique and powerful messages that articulate the changes they envision for the world. They choose meaningful social justice topics and artistic mediums to complete their projects and co-create with their peers while working to promote social justice. As a result, students realize their words can be persuasive and represent the voice of change, as others’ words have done so before them. 

Are You Passionate About
Arts Education, Music, Social-Emotional Learning, History, and Social Justice?

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Change a Student’s Life Today

With your generous support, we can offer our program to youth in underrepresented communities at low or no cost. 

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