A free after-school art and tech studio for students in grades 5-8 will run Tuesdays through March 27, from 4:30-6 p.m., at Hamline Midway Library, 1558 W. Minnehaha Ave.
Participants will write poetry and music in any style in an open-studio format with iPads and other technology available for use. Participants may bring their own phones, laptops, tablets or notebooks. This activity is free and no registration is necessary; just show up. Participants can attend one session or attend them all.
You can hear some of the work created in the fall 2017 sessions at https://wordandsoundlab.bandcamp.com/
Each session is coached by artists Becca Barniskis and Nick Jaffe. Barniskis is a poet, performer, filmmaker and arts educator who lives in the Hamline Midway community. For nearly 20 years, she has taught poetry to students of all ages and at all educational levels, from Pre-K to undergraduates to adults in public schools, libraries, and community centers.
Jaffe is a professional musician, audio engineer and Illinois-licensed K-8 teacher. He has taught music, digital recording, video and the physics of sound to students of all ages in schools and many other contexts for more than 15 years. Jaffe has worked for more than two decades in a variety of musical contexts, including as a sideman and bandleader for many years in the Chicago soul, hip-hop, funk world music and rock scenes. His educational guitar-centered YouTube channel, Justnickmusic, has more than 50,000 subscribers and 6 million views.
Barniskis and Jaffee co-authored “The Teaching Artist Handbook,” published by the University of Chicago Press in 2013.
