"Let the Music Play"

On a ride home from tutoring a couple nights ago, I was bragging to some of the FLY Youth about how great Banneker was/is as a school.

Banneker, I pompously argued, produces lawyers, doctors, and scientists.

Yeah but what about artists and writers? they, a pair of twins, challenged.

Hah! A guy from Banneker has written three books.

A guy, they said, emphasizing the singular.

Then they stumbled on a more compelling reason not to be an Achiever (really, that’s our mascot).

Why would we want to go to Banneker? So we can grow up to be Rhonda?!

They burst out into laughter that spilled out the window, and I was chucklin, too. Not just at their stone cold diss--teenagers are so good for the ego--but also at my secret truthbut also at my secret truth that would not gain me cool points:This weekend, I’ll be supporting their school again at “Let the Music Play,” a fundraiser featuring raising talent from Duke Ellington School of the Arts, as well as established singers Anthony David and Nimat.
founded in the 70s by current School Board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz.

The event, co-organizer Curtis Midkiff says, will take guests on a “journey through art, music and the visual.”

Explains Midkiff, young people have a lot to say. The performing poets will speak on current events such as violence in DC, poverty and Hurricane Katrina.

Let the Music Play emerges as a fusion of personal commitments to youth, the arts, social justice and community network from the “synergy” between Midkiff and partner Bobby Cato. Both manage independent ventures—Midkiff’s Smokin Grill Promotions, and Cato’s urban lifestyle webzine Urban Eckoz –but knew a collaboration was in the works. Stockholm1976, a monthly social event that raises funds for DC-area non-profits sparked their imagination, creating Grassrootz Tuesdays, a “happy hour with a purpose,” to bring together young professionals and community organizations. The happy hours raised funds for Hurricane Katrina Victims, DC Scores, and Tamika and Friends.

Still there was a personal desire to support art and music programs. Cato remembers scarce resources limiting his lessons plans when he was an elementary teacher, and Midkiff sees music as a unifying force to uplifting communities. Grassrootz Tuesdays expanded from a night for one charity, to an evening of poetry, music, and art for a DC high school.

Why Ellington? “Why not Ellington?” Cato responds. The school is “fostering the next generation of artists, poets,” adds Midkiff.

But isn’t Ellington well funded already?

If so, not entirely from the city, says the website. Though Ellington receives the standard per-pupil funding as other schools, an Ellington education costs more than an education at another public school in the city because of the arts curriculum. The school must raise additional funds to provide the art lessons, dance classes, technology, music instruments students need to develop their talents. The Ellington Fund, created the same year as the school, exists to raise funding.

“People think Ellington has a lot of money,” says Cato, “but it really doesn’t.”

Midkiff elaborates there are still programs within Ellington that need more financial support to offer higher quality programs, like the Literary Media program, Curt explained. The sponsors would like to take the students on field trips for greater exposure. A plan called for an activity fee to finance the trips. Not all students can afford the extra costs, so raising funds ensures greater access.

Perhaps more importantly, choosing Ellington as a beneficiary was a strategic decision that looks forward to the next fundraiser.

The Ellington name, Midkiff and Cato anticipate, will attract the crowd that lesser-known Smokin Grill or Urban Eckoz wouldn’t, and create a following who will attend future events for Ballou, Eastern, Anacostia and other DC high schools with anorexic art budgets yet equally talented students. Says Cato passionately , this event is a “launching pad to showcase schools where no one cares until someone gets shot,” referring to recent homicides at Ballou and past shootings of high school students on DC streets.

Their target, ultimately, is the underserved school.

And why the passion? “I just love the kids,” says Cato, who is a former elementary/middle school teacher and mentors five boys aged 8-15. “I understand what happens if you don’t have [creative] outlets…but you are hella talented.” Not having outlets for creative expression “causes boys to displace aggression and become deviant. So I’m trying to help my youngin’s who are crying to write it, sing it, rap it.”

Testament to their “synergy,” Midkiff explains a similar perspective. “We all have a responsibility to support…and sustain the schools.” Acknowledging community activism is an “individual decision you have to make,” Midkiff and Cato commit to “create opportunities for involvement.”

“Hopefully,” Cato sums up, “people will understand that it’s imperative that we start to build, to make [the events] part of the community. Do something!”