EDUCATING AND INSPIRING THROUGH THE POWER OF MUSIC:
Connecting History, Literacy, Society, and Real-Life Experience

MeMA participants filming projects

MeMA participants writing song lyrics

For 14 years, MeMA-Music has served as a creative bridge across Chicago, empowering youth, young adults, and adults from communities of limited economic means. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we believe music is more than entertainment; it is a gateway to literacy, critical thinking, social awareness, and deeper understanding. Through the analysis of meaningful song lyrics, participants strengthen communication skills and explore diverse perspectives, opening into discussions of societal themes and personal reflection. By connecting music to lived experience, storytelling, and emotion, we help participants better understand themselves, society, and the world around them.

Through a unique blend of guided listening and creative expression, our programs help participants build confidence, deepen self-awareness, and express themselves with clarity and purpose. This same approach also creates a supportive space for those navigating personal trauma, including veterans, to reflect, process, and build emotional resilience through music.

Core Principles

Two Core Beliefs Guide Everything We Do

1. Music is a vehicle for personal expression and growth.
Meaningful songs give participants of all ages a way to explore ideas, reflect on experiences, and express their perspectives in creative and authentic ways.

2. People have the potential to create positive change in their lives and communities.
With guidance, support, and meaningful creative engagement, individuals can build confidence, develop skills, and gain the insight to grow academically, socially, and personally.

What Makes Us Unique

Industry-Rooted Expertise
MeMA-Music was founded by a music industry executive with over 20 years of experience working alongside some of the world’s most iconic artists. That direct connection to the music industry shapes how we integrate music, learning, and creative expression; uniquely engaging and authentic, not generic.

Music as a Rigorous Tool, Not Background Noise
We use music as a lens for critical thinking, not entertainment. Participants explore the stories, themes, and context behind powerful songs, then apply that thinking to their own lives and experiences.

Professional Mentorship
Our programs bring the real world into the room. We connect participants with working musicians, producers, and creative professionals who share how they use their craft for storytelling, communication, and navigating the world.

Who We Serve

MeMA-Music works with youth, young adults, and adults across Chicago through active partnerships with schools, after-school programs, and community organizations.

Bridging the Opportunity Gap
Many of our participants come from under-resourced communities where access to consistent arts and creative learning is limited. We design our programs to engage individuals who may not always thrive in traditional learning environments, using music as an accessible entry point into literacy, history, and personal reflection.

Meeting Participants Where They Are
Every participant brings their own story, and our programs are built to meet them there. Through music and creative expression, participants strengthen social-emotional skills, build self-awareness, and find the confidence to navigate life on their own terms, including those processing personal trauma, who find in these spaces a vital outlet for reflection and resilience.

Core Program Elements

Our programs are designed to bridge the gap between creative expression and academic growth. We strategically integrate literacy, social sciences, and technology/multimedia with civic engagement and social-emotional learning.

We believe that songs of social commentary do more than protest; they provide a mirror for the human experience. Through music, our participants learn to define their sense of purpose, identify with diverse perspectives, and find the resilience to navigate an ever-changing world. By examining our collective strengths and failings through song, we empower youth to transform their personal reflections into community impact.

Real-Life Learning Connections

Participants explore the meaning and context behind music to connect learning to their own experiences and the world around them. By linking ideas across subjects, participants find learning more engaging, relevant, and memorable.

Creativity & Self Expression

Participants write, perform, and create in a supportive space designed for honest self-expression. Through guided reflection, they strengthen their voice, sharpen communication skills, and find new ways to share their ideas.

Integrated Learning

We integrate literacy, history, civic engagement, and creative learning to help participants make meaningful connections across subjects. This multidisciplinary approach encourages deeper understanding and helps participants connect learning to the world around them.

Under her leadership, MeMA-Music has spent more than a decade partnering with schools and community organizations across Chicago to bring music-based learning to youth and young adults.

Meet Our Founder – Jeanne Warsaw

A trailblazer in the music industry, Jeanne Warsaw, a Chicago native, has over 20 years of experience working with iconic artists, including Janet Jackson, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Isaac Hayes, Lenny Kravitz, and many others.

She began her career at the legendary Chicago retailer Rose Records as a buyer and quickly advanced to become a Radio Promotion Assistant for Sony Records in New York. Over the years, Jeanne held leadership roles as Executive Promotion & Marketing Director for Sony Music, RCA, Elektra/Warner Bros., and Virgin Records, and later founded her own consulting company, JW Promotions.

Jeanne’s extensive experience in the music industry gave her unique insight into the power of music as a tool for engagement, learning, and meaningful dialogue. After leaving the corporate music world, she founded MeMA-Music, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to expanding educational and creative opportunities for individuals in underserved and under-resourced communities through innovative, music-centered programming.

For more than 14 years, Jeanne has developed original curricula and transformative programs that use meaningful music and creative expression to strengthen literacy, communication, and critical thinking while helping youth and adults explore history, society, and contemporary issues through new perspectives. Her work highlights how music can communicate ideas, influence perspectives, connect people, and deepen understanding of the world around us. Through partnerships with schools and community organizations across Chicago, MeMA-Music creates engaging learning experiences that encourage reflection, self-expression, and recognition of each participant’s potential to contribute to their communities and shape the future. This work extends to trauma-informed programming for youth and adults impacted by adversity, offering space for reflection and resilience through music.

Our Story

MeMA-Music grew from a simple but powerful idea: that music can do more than entertain; it can teach, connect, and inspire individuals to see themselves as thinkers, creators, and contributors.

Since its founding, MeMA-Music has evolved into a trusted arts-integrated organization serving youth, young adults, and adults across Chicago. Our programs meet participants where they are, using meaningful music as a bridge to literacy, critical thinking, social awareness, and purposeful self-expression.

Over the years, we have partnered with schools, community organizations, and specialized groups to create spaces where participants feel engaged, heard, and valued. In these spaces, music becomes a starting point for dialogue, reflection, and creativity. Participants explore how artists have used songs to reflect their times and share lived experiences, then apply those insights to their own writing, discussions, and creative work.

The name MeMA reflects both purpose and heart. It stands for Motive and Encourage Music Appreciation, and was also the nickname Jeanne Warsaw’s mother used for her grandchildren; a reminder that growth flourishes in environments rooted in encouragement, care, and belief in each person’s potential.

What began as a response to shrinking access to the arts has grown into a sustained commitment to human development. Today, MeMA-Music continues to provide consistent, high-quality programming in schools and community spaces, helping young people and adults build skills, confidence, and agency. Our programs create supportive environments where participants reflect, express themselves creatively, and grow — and for those navigating trauma, including veterans, that same approach offers a meaningful space for emotional resilience. Through music and artistic exploration, participants gain tools to better understand their own journeys and the world around them.

Through music, engagement becomes more than an activity; it becomes a pathway for participants to find their voice, honor their stories, and imagine new possibilities for the future.

Trusted by Schools, Community Organizations, and Funders

For 14 years, MeMA-Music has delivered long-term, arts-integrated residencies engaging youth and young adults across Chicago.

Sustained residencies that engage participants deeply over multiple years

Partnerships with educators and community leaders to create meaningful learning experiences

Collaboration with professional artists and creative practitioners to bring real-world expertise into programs

Supported by foundations and donors committed to arts and youth development

Our Partners

Voices Of Our Participants and Partners

Thanks again for having us at your last period class. I really enjoyed being an 8th grader in your program. I am positive that the 8th graders will be excited when they start their own projects. I can’t thank you nor stress enough how helpful this class has been in my first year in high school. While all the other freshman were having trouble understanding the new open discussions we were having in class and making connections to real life events, I was already a pro!!!
-Abu, Student

My favorite part of the MeMA program was that it helped me more understand society, and I can understand what’s on the news. I learned new things about my topic that I didn’t know before and learned new things in everyone else’s topics. –Cynthia, student

The MeMA program and project helped me develop a better sense of our society because I learned more about the past and how it was affected by the music made by the people of the time. It also helped me by telling me that you need to see what else is happening in the world and why you need to analyze and learn how things can be solved.
-Emily, Student

There was some really stunning work, and each piece illustrated how the students engaged with the material creatively and from their unique perspectives. The students must be so proud, and will likely never forget what they learned, both through their own work and from others. Thank you for bringing this excellent program to our school. History comes alive and becomes relevant and participatory, instead of something interpreted only by “experts” and merely received. With luck, the kids will carry the seed of recognition that we are all agents of history. Gwenan-Parent of MeMA student

I loved hearing my students with diverse learning needs singing lyrics to songs that were popular decades before they were born, and understanding why those songs are relevant today. 
Karen Jarosz, Stone Academy Special Education Teacher

A component that helped me a lot was your own weekly reflections really helped me put my opinions into words rather than thoughts. Listening to music was also useful because the music was inspiring and informed the people of what was happening at the time. The research was also a good component because it helped me understand more about the topics of today.
Nabeha, Student