Jazz Power Institute for Artists and Educators

Jazz Power Institute
For Artists and Educators

Overview

Jazz Power Institute is the professional training branch of Jazz Power Initiative for artists and educators interested in teaching jazz in a culturally authentic way through multiple modalities of music, dance, theatre, and writing. Attendees experience workshops covering a wide range of age groups from grades preK-12, to college students and adult learners. The Institute is held each summer at Lehman College in the Bronx, the week after July 4th. Registration is available in the spring prior to the Institute.

Participants from a wide range of experience in the field are welcome, including college students who are relatively new to teaching artist work, as well as educators and artists with a decade of experience or more. Jazz Power Institute provides a safe and challenging learning environment, where breakthroughs are made in understanding the jazz arts in a more comprehensive, personally relevant and engaging way.

The Institute is produced by Jazz Power Initiative, the uptown NYC based non profit organization and was started by a core team of dance scholar, choreographer and producer, Shireen Dickson, guitarist, author and music professor Tom Dempsey, Jazz Power Initiative co-founder, author and educator, Clifford Carlson, and jazz musician, educator, Jazz Power Initiative co-founder, managing and artistic director, Dr. Eli Yamin. To date, Jazz Power Institute has brought together over 180 artists and educators providing CTLE credit to DOE teachers and certificates of completion to independent artists interested in teaching jazz across disciplines of music, theatre, dance and writing. Guest faculty include the award winning author James McBride, Sweet Honey In the Rock co-founders, Carol Maillard and Louise Robinson, and choreographer Mercedes Ellington. The Institute is currently offered at no cost to participants thanks to the support of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts and Lehman College Department of Music, Multimedia, Theatre, and Dance.

Past themes:

EMPOWERMENT AND CONNECTION THROUGH JAZZ AND AFRO LATIN JAZZ

• Empowerment and connection through Jazz and Afro Latin Jazz (2024). How does the legacy of the African diaspora manifest in the musical language of jazz and Afro Latin jazz? How can this language be sourced as a force for empowerment and connection for our students?
• What is the BLUES (2023), where does it come from and how can it be an unstoppable learning tool for students of all ages to connect with their own voice, cultivate social emotional knowledge and wellness, and draw strength from their community and the African and African American roots of jazz and blues music?
• JAZZ FUTURE (2022). How can student engagement with jazz create new pathways in learning about music and the arts in general while stimulating personal growth?
• ADAPTABILITY (2021)
• LIBERATION (2020)
• POLYRHYTHM (2019)

Topics:

• Jazz Power Tools, African American culturally rooted practice for teaching and learning jazz across the curriculum.
• Teaching jazz and blues singing in elementary grades in a culturally authentic way.
• Teaching jazz and blues singing in middle grades using classic repertoire and Jazz Power Musicals.
• Afro Dominican and Afro Cuban jazz.
• Making art with Sweet Honey in the Rock co-founders Carol Maillard and Louise Robinson.
• Barry Harris Community Choir Concepts and Repertoire
• Jazz music and dance history.
• Storytelling, dialogue with jazz heroes,  and re-harmonization with author and musician James McBride (The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store).
• Integrating jazz with storytelling and teaching middle school ELA with author and educator Mick Carlon (Riding on Duke’s Train).
• Functional voice technique.
• Somatic Voicework, the LoVetri Method(tm).
• Teaching blues guitar for beginners using open tunings.

Contact Jazz Power Initiative:
Call 917-818-1759
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