Last year, Philly rockers The Great Unknown came to Milwaukee to work with kids at MPS' Hayes Bilingual to write and record a song as part of the America SCORES ASCAP Foundation Songwriter Residency tour. The track they wrote and recorded was released last spring on a CD.
This month, rapper Psalm One kicks off the annual tour – inaugurated in 2006 – in Milwaukee with kids at James Whitcomb Riley on the South Side.
Psalm One – a Chicago Public Schools alumna – will spend Sept. 26 and 27 at Riley, writing with the kids. Then, on Sept. 28, they will head Downtown to Tanner Monagle Studio to record the song.
When the kids return to school, Psalm One will repeat the process at schools in Seattle, San Francisco, Denver, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, New York and Boston before wrapping up in her Windy City hometown.
Psalm One has worked with America SCORES since 2008 as a poetry and soccer coach and previously wrote and recorded a song, "Going Smart," with a group of 8-11-year-olds from Reach Academy, and another, "Fly Imaginary Cars," with kids from Pope Elementary School.
She will also spend time at Rhyme School, the music mentoring program at Chicago's Avalon School, working with student musicians on incorporating rap into their musical repertoire.
I'll update you once the session has happened here in Milwaukee.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
