The Urban Music Project, coordinated by hip-hop Artist, MC Trey, delivers music workshops for diverse and socially excluded young people with limited access to resources and opportunities, including education and employment opportunities.
The project
The program allows participants to write their own lyrics, create beats using computer programs and record their original songs at ICE’s Switch Multimedia and Digital Arts Access Centre. Upon completion of the program, a CD compilation with participants music created during the program is pressed and opportunities to perform live at the CD launch and various events are provided.
These music programs allow participants to express themselves in their own words, through a medium they enjoy, with current musicians, in a fun and safe environment.
Previous Urban Music courses include:
- Hip-Hop 101 (co-funded by SWSI Granville TAFE outreach)
- Hip-Hop 101.2
- Hip-Hop 101.3
- Suburban Sista Soundz 1 (co-funded by SWSI Granville TAFE outreach)
- Suburban Sista Soundz 2
- Island Beatz 1 (co-funded by SWSI Granville TAFE outreach)
- Island Beatz 2 (co-funded by SWSI Granville TAFE outreach)
- Afro-Beatz (co-funded by SWSI Granville TAFE outreach)
- African Soundz
One-off motivational skill-development and career information sessions with touring artists:
- Sessions with Spider (UK)
- Sessions with 4Corners (NZ)
- Music with Mystro (UK)
- Sessions with Champ (UK)
Music mentoring and recording project:
- DUETS (co-funded by the Australia Council for the Arts)
Suburban Grooves CD compilations and books include:
- Vol 1: Music with Mystro (2005)
- Vol 2: Suburban Sistas (2005)
- Vol 3: Island Beatz 1 & 2 (2006)
- Vol 4: The Urban Music CD and Subtext book (2007)
Beyond the project
Upon completing our music programs, some participants have gone on to study sound engineering, events management, returned to high school, gained apprenticeships and enrolled at various TAFE courses or have gained employment. Some have formed performance groups and have begun performing around Sydney. Some are working on albums and some have come back to ICE to assist on projects as paid assistants.
ICE is committed to maintaining contact with participants and continues to provide artist advice, employment and training opportunities.
The Vodafone ‘World of Difference’ Program
During 2006-2007, this program was co-ordinated by practising hip-hop artist, MC Trey, thanks to a World of Difference grant from the Vodafone Australia Foundation.
For 2007-2008, this program will continue to be co-ordinated by MC Trey, thanks to a Vodafone Australia Foundation Organisational partnership grant with Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE).
IMAGES
USEFUL LINKS
RELATED NEWS ARTICLES
African Soundz Returns | 23 January 2008
Heads Up! Hip Hop artists take their stories to the screen | 18 September 2007
Urban Music workshops for Fijian Youth | 31 July 2007
Hip-Hop Projections II - Sydney Writer's Festival | 28 May 2007
Making a world of difference | 9 February 2007
Hip-Hop 101: stand up and be heard | 8 January 2007
African Soundz set to sizzle | 16 November 2006
Suburban Sista Soundz conquer the Metro! | 4 January 2006
RELATED MEDIA RELEASES
Sydney Hip-Hop Artist Talks Human Rights in Austria | 22 October 2007
Local hip-hop guru nominated for ARIA | 12 October 2007
Free advice from music industry experts | 27 September 2007
Hip-Hop artists take their stories to the screen | 1 August 2007
Free urban music workshops for Fijian-Australian youth | 25 July 2007
More African Soundz for Western Sydney | 6 July 2007
Sydney Writers' Festival Events | 7 May 2005
Hip-Hop 101: A Class Act | 29 September 2004
ALL PROJECTS
Digi Diaries
»» ICE’s latest digital storytelling project engages young people from Muslim communities throughout Western Sydney. Digi Diaries aims to empower young people (aged 12 – 25) with skills to make and tell their own stories and share them with broader Australian communities through public screenings, forums and on the internet.More »
The Story Exchange 2009
»» In June 2009 ICE and Penrith City Council partnered to run a series of workshops for young people from the suburbs of Londonderry, Cranebrook and Oxley Park. Participants created photographic and digital stories that explore themes of neighbourhood strength, pride in place, local identity and passion for the environment.More »
East London West Sydney
»» An exciting new hip-hop theatre project led by artists from the hip-hop and urban cultures of the UK and Australia. These artists explore the urban experience and struggles, and share an emphasis on word flow, storytelling and place.More »
Fairfield Stories
»» Part of the ‘Digital Storytelling: Sustainability and Community Media in Western Sydney’ project, Fairfield Stories tells tales of journeys, love, struggle and hope as experienced by people of Cambodian and African backgrounds.More »
CREATE Media!
»» Create Media! is an exciting new project managed by ICE and supported by the Westpac Foundation. The project offers free targeted training and mentorship for young people from a refugee background. The training provides participipants with in depth knowledge of the A-Z of digital arts and business.More »
Parenting Stories
»» Sudanese and Central African families are invited to share their parenting stories in an exciting community media project which will open a discussion around parenting in Australia. It will look at the issues faced by recently arrived migrants as they deal with settlement, cross-cultural issues and the new legal context, as well as the resources available to assist them.More »
Urban Music Project
»» Music workshops for diverse young people in Western Sydney with support from the Vodafone Australia Foundation.More »
Changing Lives
»» Changing Lives is a project engaging Arabic speaking young people with digital arts and community cultural development. The project empowers young people with skills to make and tell their own stories and share them on the internet.More »
Ali Kadhim: Parkroar
»» In 2007, new media artist and parkour practitioner, Ali Kadhim, received an Emerging Producers in Community (EPIC) grant from the Australia Council to work at ICE for a year.More »
Lattice::Sydney
»» In February 2008, UK-based artist-led studio Proboscis shared their ground-breaking techniques and practices in social mapping with a select group of Western Sydney artists.More »
Sydney Arab Film Festival
»» The Sydney Arab Film Festival is emerging as an important event on the Sydney film and screen arts calendar. The 4th Festival screened from 10-13 April 2008 at the Riverside Theatres in Parramatta.More »
DigiTales
»» ICE is the first Australian partner in the global digital storytelling project – DigiTales. This collection of unique local tales made by Sydney’s emerging media talent is now online.More »
EMERGE Media Initiative
»» Working with Western Sydney’s small and emerging communities to build radio & communication capacities. More »
Connect OUT
»» Working with isolated communities accross Holroyd and Parramatta with hands-on information technology access and skills. More »
PARRAMATTA SCREENING
»» A three-year initiative to building film and screen-based arts skills and output in the Parramatta area. Bringing Parramatta to the screen and the screen to Parramatta.More »
Remembering Minto
»» ICE worked with residents and agencies to collect and publish the stories and memories of Minto – a suburb lost in urban transformation.More »
DIS/PLACE
»» Making art in exile: an innovative development program working with recently-arrived migrant and refugee artists. A partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art and Campbelltown Arts Centre.
More »
Originate
»» A mentorship program in community cultural development and digital media.More »
Youth Digital Cultures
»» A three-year youth digital arts and skills development project driven by creative and diverse young people from all corners of Western Sydney. More »
