KC Cares: Rebel Song Academy is streamlining students to the center stage

Photo Courtesy of Rebel Song Academy

Writing a song and performing it yourself in front of an audience can seem daunting, but the kids in Art as Mentorship’s Rebel Song Academy have plenty of stepping stones to help them strut to the stage.

In the academy, it doesn’t matter if you’re 9 or 19—You’re getting guidance on the process of writing a song all the way through laying down tracks in a recording studio at the InterUrban ArtHouse.

“The main idea of Rebel Song Academy and what we try to do is give a snapshot of what it is to be an artist and kind of show the whole lifecycle,” Art as Mentorship Program Director Brandon Yangmi says.

That means deciding on the message you want to send with your song and also getting into the musical realities of chord structures, building melodies, and writing lyrics.

There are a few ways students can take part in the Rebel Song Academy—One is when Art as Mentorship brings it into their schools. Participating schools have included Synergy Services’ Youth Resiliency Center, Wyandotte High School, Alfred Fairfax Academy, and Mill Creek Alternative School. Some schools have them for a few days, some for 12 weeks, and no music experience is required to be part of the program.

Another way is signing up for either their summer camp or a day-long program that typically takes place in the fall. Perhaps the most extensive option is Art as Mentorship’s year-long fellowship that combines the weeks of the Rebel Song Academy with a more in-depth exploration of songwriting, recording, and production—They’re currently taking applications for the program at artasmentorship.org/rsa. This past year, about 450 students participated in the program.

Photo Courtesy of Rebel Song Academy

For Yangmi and other instructors, there’s a mental health component to it all that comes through “seeing them using music as a vehicle to have self-expression, talk about their emotions, open that door and that conversation, and get into some topics that they don’t feel comfortable talking about in everyday life,” he says. 

In fact, they wrote their curriculum with the help of an art therapist.

“It’s not something we strongly try to push on the students, like, ‘Hey, this is all about mental health, and this is what you have to do.’ It’s just something that naturally happens in the programming, and we’re mindful of it as it is happening,” he says.

Sometimes that self-expression can get into some heavy topics. 

“One of the students pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey, I wrote this poem. I want to share this poem with you.’ And the poem was written while they were sitting in a jail cell and had recently heard about their friend committing suicide, and they said, ‘This is what I want to write my song about,’” Yangmi says. 

He helped the high school student develop a song over several weeks.

“It was a beautiful moment to see them get in front of all their friends, family, and teachers and perform that song, sharing that experience in their life. A very, very vulnerable moment. And to see that room cheer them on and celebrate that person and their vulnerability—That was a very, very beautiful moment for me to witness and be a small part of,” Yangmi says.

Photo Courtesy of Rebel Song Academy

He claims that the biggest impact the program has is building a community for the students. 

“There are a lot of students that have graduated that I still see hanging out in bands, playing around town and are still really tapped into the community and people they met through the program. It makes me really, really excited,” Yangmi says.

Some, like Malek Looney, have turned around and become teachers and mentors for the program.

“It’s very easy for me to speak to some of these students in a different way than some of our other instructors because I’m speaking from the point of being in the program, understanding what it’s like being a young artist who is looking for community, looking for people to believe in what you do,” Looney says.

The program taught him a lot about having an artistic vision and how to make and fulfill goals to realize it. He currently performs with a band, but the first time he ever performed was during one of the program’s student showcases at recordBar.

“Being in the organization put me around a lot of veterans in this community and the music industry,” Looney says. “I think, without being around them and their knowledge, being able to pick up on how to navigate being an artist and business person—Without their guidance, I would have very much had a harder time.”

For more information on how to get involved with the Rebel Song Academy, visit artasmentorship.org/rsa.

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