...So I'm developing this project which is going to go live in 2010.
What I want to do is get a group of under privileged young people in London out to Southern Africa to work with a group of young people in Botswana on a long term (and ultimately self sustainable) music project, which will allow them the chance to explore each other's cultures and music.
To give you a bit of background, I do quite a lot of work for a company here in the UK called RollingSound. One of our more recent projects has involved converting a London bus, The Lab, into a mobile studio which travels around Lewisham borough and goes to local estates providing multimedia and music courses to many 'hard to reach' young people who wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to access industry standard equipment and great teaching. A lot of the time we are working with kids who have dropped out of school or been expelled and aren't really doing much with their lives. Other times, we are working with gang members, youth offenders or young people who are at risk of falling into criminal activity. The aim is to get them involved and engaged with something creative as a means to explore their issues and ultimately get them back into some form of education, training or work.
...SO with all this in mind, my idea is to convert a transit van into a mobile studio which we can get out to Southern Africa. It seems to me that in Botswana, like London, there is a whole wealth of talent where music is concerned. The approach to music, in general, seems to be very intuitive - we grow up singing and dancing (especially in rural areas), sometimes playing instruments - but maybe don't necessarily have the technology as widely available which allows us to record the music. Many of the young people I have come across in London take a totally different approach, and influenced by urban underground music and hip hop, really focus on beat making and sampling which relies on music software and computer technology. In London, and the developed world in general, there is far greater access to this kind of technology, and I would hope many of the London young people would be able to impart this knowledge to young people in Southern Africa in order to collaborate successfully when they do their workshops.
I think it would be really interesting to see how the two groups of young people interact. I think, at a surface level, the two sets of young people face very different challenges socially and culturally, but may in fact have quite a lot in common. At the very least, it is the start of cross cultural dialogue and a chance for each set of young people to broaden their understanding of their respective cultures. ...After all, music IS supposed to be the universal language and I'm sure we can all learn something new from a project like this - both about ourselves and others.
...It's going to be hard work... but I really can't wait to see what happens! ...Now I've just got to get the funding to make this happen! :lol:
I'll keep you posted!
Tam x