Students from Renaissance Arts Academy took over the air room April 29 at KBOO. Twelve students from Pulse of Portland Music Project (POPMP) took the opportunity to air their commentary projects for our KBOO listeners. Students had produced pieces that took on such topics as media consolidation, the effects of music on teen sex and use of drugs, music and war, music piracy, political messaging, and their favorite musicians. The students also interviewed Jacque Dixon who is a teacher on the Marshall Campus by day, and who by night is local hip hop star J-Kronic. In addition, the show highlighted the music composed by 2 fellow students, Anna and Ismael.
Renaissance Arts Academy is one of the small schools on the Marshall Campus in the Lents neighborhood and home to the Pulse of Portland Music Project. POPMP is a grant project designed by Judy A. Rose in collaboration with Judy Arielle Fiestal from KBOO. The project connects the local music community with Ms. Rose's students by having musicians visit her classroom to perform and be interviewed. Through the funding of the Portland Schools Foundation, the students have a lab of Macintosh computers and are learning interviewing and audio editing skills to develop their radio pieces.
The audio for the interview is here, while the audio for the song "Inside" by Anna is here.
To learn more about POPMP and listen to other audio pieces the students created, check out:
www.prx.org/group/pulseofportland and www.pulseofportlandmusicproject.com.