National Sawdust’s Student CoLab, In Partnership With El Puente Beacon Leadership Program May 29 At National Sawdust

Student CoLab is National Sawdust’s flagship education program for middle school composers and artists in partnership with El Puente Beacon.

This performance is the culmination of a three-month program in music composition, songwriting, spoken word, and visual art for young people at El Puente Beacon Leadership Program in Williamsburg. The program features Juana Luna, Teaching Artist. This multimedia concert features new music, voice, guitar, violin, as well as visual art projection, all written, designed and performed by students at MS 50.

Student CoLab aims to engage young people in this idea by using the power of music to inspire interdisciplinary art-making which reflects their own experience of the world, impacting both their lives and the lives of people within their community. Our partners, El Puente Beacon Leadership Program, is a pioneering youth leadership development organization that bridges the worlds of health, education, and the arts with activism and community empowerment.This journey of artistic discovery and self-expression empowers young people to have a voice on issues that affect them, while also enabling them to explore and fulfill their potential as creative beings.

Student CoLab is led by teaching artist Juana Luna, cantora, and songwriter. In addition to being a musical freelancer, Juana is a songwriter and teaching artist for the Lullaby Project and Big Note Little Note, both at Carnegie Hall NYC.

Teaching Artists and Performers: Juana Luna, lead teaching artist, and vocalist Ayanna Williams, assistant teaching artist Pala Garcia, violinist Federico Díaz, guitarist Sofia Quirno, visual artist. Student composers: Joshua Drysdale Maya Drysdale Eniah Middleton Genairis Toribio Isis Swan.

At National Sawdust, we believe that artistic expression empowers us all to create a more joyful and just world. We curate and produce music and artistic works rooted in curiosity, experimentation, innovation, and inclusivity. We present our work by engaging communities of artists and audiences at our state-of-the-art Williamsburg home and on our digital stage.

Learn more at NationalSawdust.org.