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SankofaSongs: Local group works to diversify K-12 music education

Georgiary Bledsoe has spent her career boosting opportunities for children to learn about music from the African diaspora at school.

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Georgiary Bledsoe, co-founder of SankofaSongs
By
Sarah Lindenfeld Hall
, Go Ask Mom editor
Georgiary Bledsoe has spent her career boosting opportunities for children to learn about music from the African diaspora at school. She launched BUMP the Triangle, a nonprofit that uses the cultural assets of African diaspora music to empower kids. As founder of BaobaoTree LLC, she provides schools with the tools that teachers need to teach music of the region. And, in 2020, she co-founded SankofaSongs to continue to support music teachers in their work to broaden the music that they present to their students.
SankofaSongs will host a virtual summer institutes from July 22 to July 24 that's designed for teachers, including homeschool teachers and parents, to learn ways to help their students discover all music. Bledsoe, a mom of four and grandmother of eight, holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Duke University. I checked in with Bledsoe to learn more about her work and this month's summer institute. Here's a Q&A.
Courtesy: Georgiary Bledsoe
Go Ask Mom: What's the mission of SankofaSongs?
Georgiary Bledsoe: The mission of SankofaSongs is to cultivate outstanding Africentric music education practice. We do this by producing events that nurture K-12 music teachers and support their instruction.
GAM: You'll be hosting a virtual summer institute this month. What's the goal, and who can attend?
GB: The Summer Institute is dedicated to culturally relevant music education strategies for teaching music of the African diaspora. The 2021 Institute does this through the lens of Scott Joplin’s grand opera Treemonisha. The institute features three days of speakers, panels, workshops and experiential learning led by an amazing faculty of acclaimed scholars and educators. If you are a music teacher or arts administrator who serves PreK-college students, this Institute is for you! That means public, private and charter schools, homeschools, school districts, ensembles, nonprofit organizations, faith-based organizations, higher education and state education agencies. We have a morning track that’s for everyone, plus an afternoon track that is specific to classroom music teachers.
GAM: What do all kids miss out on when they don't learn about all of the musical traditions of American culture?
GB: Thank you for posing this important question. I think there are three critical gaps in music education that we don’t generally think about.

The first gap is identity. When we place the music of Europe above the music of America, children get a limited view of what they’re capable of. And they miss out on the opportunity to know the fullness of what it means to be American.

The second gap is knowledge. When we give short shrift to the African American parts of American music, we unwittingly blind our children to a whole range of cultural knowledge and meaning that is critical for operating as citizens of our country and our world. They miss out on the opportunity for a complete and balanced education.

And last but not least, the third gap is culture. When we ignore the vast storehouse of African American musical works, styles, people and meaning, we handicap our children and preclude them from deep wellsprings of musical, social and spiritual experience. Identity, knowledge and culture are all important to helping children grow in their understanding and in finding sustainable solutions to the kinds of challenges we face right now in the public arena.

GAM: Learning about all kinds of music is important for all kids, but what happens when Black children don't see and hear the sounds of their culture and homes at school? We hear a lot about the importance of schools having books with Black characters so that Black children can see themselves. Does the same go for music?
GB: Indeed. The same does go for music. We call it culturally relevant pedagogy. It means ensuring that children see their culture reflected back to them in positive and meaningful ways in the educational setting.

In music education in particular, we often overlook the fact that white children have frequent experiences of their heritage in the music classroom and children of color do not. Children of color experience the absence of their heritage as an indicator that their heritage and they themselves are lacking in value. This is especially true when teachers unwittingly or overtly label students’ heritage knowledge as aberrant or undesirable.

When students of color internalize these ideas, it negatively impacts their engagement, learning and lives. It must also be said that when white students internalize these ideas, it negatively impacts their view of others and their ability to value them and communicate effectively.

GAM: What are your hopes for the future of SankofaSongs? What other programs and work do you hope to accomplish?
GB: All teachers can access our generative approach to teaching regardless of personal experience and background. We are aware that many music educators do not identify as African American. We welcome everyone. We want to help teachers be conscious of their own personal and musical identities and leverage that in the service of students.

Nurturing and supporting teachers is the heart of SankofaSongs, so once we get past the pandemic, my co-founder Dr. Sonya White Hope and I want to build community - in person. We want the Summer Institute to grow into an annual event hosted in multiple locations. We envision establishing local lab schools in tandem with the summer institute. We also want to establish partnerships that facilitate intergenerational music-making of many kinds.

SankofaSongs is just one arm of my work. BaobaoTree LLC is the primary vehicle for my vision of Africentric music education. We provide professional development workshops for schools and school districts. We publish K-12 curricular materials, including ensemble arrangements, lesson plans and pedagogical materials. And we partner with universities to certify BOSS Teachers - culturally proficient music educators who will “bear our SankofaSongs.”
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