The New Black is... the new black.

The New Black was right under my nose the whole time – all I had to do was stop and take a look. Funny how that happens sometimes with the things in your community that really, truly matter.

I first heard about the New Black: Center for Music and Art, an all age music venue/recording studio, at the Alberta Recreation and Park Association’s (ARPA) youth symposium in January. The City of Calgary, Community & Neighbourhood Services, was there giving a presentation on their ‘Toast ‘n’ Jam’ program – an arts engagement initiative with a focus on teaching youth how to become professional musicians.

This symposium session caught my eye because of my role at as the Creative Cultural Liaison with ARPA’s ACE Communities. With my latest baby – the ACE ARTS Tour – soon to be on the road, it was increasingly apparent that music and youth was kinda becoming my thing. It was time, I thought to myself, to get some insight on the topic.

The focus of the City of Calgary’s talk was their transition to a more grassroots, community driven approach to the ‘Toast ‘n’ Jam’ program. Part of this transition was the city’s partnership with the New Black, a youth-friendly music venue in Inglewood. As I just happened to live in Inglewood and was now snuggly wearing my youth & music hat, I quickly put the New Black on my list of places to visit.

Flash forward four months and there I finally was, standing in the uber cool, yet still punk-flavoured New Black. Earlier that week, I had been jogging and stopped to tie my shoelace right in front of the venue’s slightly obscure front entrance. Ah ha, I thought! New Black now located – check one on the list accompli.

“It can be tough to find us,” says Darren Ollinger, one of the venue’s founder, “but that’s all part of the appeal to the kids who come here. It makes it like a destination just for them.”

Hunkered in a cluster of commercial buildings, with the Canadian Pacific Railway right in their back yard, the New Black is the perfect spot for music lovers of all ages to come and see live gigs, create music themselves, or simply hang out with their peers.

“The goal of the New Black,” continues Ollinger, whose day job is as the creative director of the X92.9 FM – Calgary’s alternative radio station, “is to provide a place where kids want to hang out and, just as important, a place where their parent’s feel they are safe to be.”

Oozing professionalism tapered with a grunge edge, the New Black offers its all aged clients a stage to practice their stuff (with a fully equipped music system and acoustic set-up) as well as a recording studio. Bring your own gear and rent the studio for $20/hr. Don’t have your own gear, then the New Black will provide it for a fee of $30/hr. These are rates that would make the average hockey parent turn green with envy.

Parents, of course, are always welcomed at the New Black and Ollinger himself has had chats with parents who have secretly come by to check up their kids.

“We tell parents that this is a place for kids to have a real life educational music experience. They can come here and either perform or just get a feeling for how it really feels to be a working musician,” says Ollinger. “This is what the kids said they wanted so we rose to the challenge and tried to provide it.”

The New Black is currently in the midst of becoming an incorporated non-profit society. Its existence comes from the fact that two guys, who loved music themselves, believed that every kid should have access to music. So fret not – even the non-jock, artsy-punks, wanna-be rockers, and music loving alternative kids can have a place of their own.

For more info on the New Black: http://www.thenewblackcentre.com/

When I hear the drum...

I could feel the drumbeat literally vibrating through my breastbone. A group of men sat around a large format drum, playing in unison, and I was in awe, taken back by the pure visceral sensation. Standing there and feeling the pulse of that drumbeat was easily the most amazing musical experience of my life.

This encounter with the drum took place last Friday at the Indigenous Sport Council Alberta’s (ISCA) conference. It was part of an award ceremony that the ISCA was hosting for young Aboriginal leaders in sport.

The MC had just explained that, in his culture, they recognized accomplishment not only with material items like awards but also with spiritual accolades through the drum. Afterwards, someone explained that the physical experience I had was intentional and that the drum was meant to mimic the heartbeat of the listeners. As I felt the beat in my chest that night, I understood the valuable tie that the arts had to the spirit.

Later that weekend, I attended the funeral of Ethel Wolf. She was the mother of Helen Zenith - my former boss and mentor who is now a much-respected friend. As her friends and family remembered Ethel’s life, they spoke of the strength of a young Jewish girl who survived the Holocaust and went on to brave a new life for her family in Canada.

One fond story of Ethel was how she advocated that we must always pay good fortune forward and celebrate the joy in one’s life. Charity didn’t count, she said, unless you tore the charitable receipt up. Ethel worked hard but always had time for her friends, her family, and the community. When I heard these words it was as if I could feel the drum vibrating again in my chest.

These two experiences gave me comfort this week as I moved through my days. I found comfort in the knowledge that we can still move pass the material world and celebrate our successes with something as powerful as music. And I remember the power of this spirit through the story of a young girl who not only survived the horror of the Holocaust but also travelled across the world to make Alberta her home.

When I was in Susa Creek for the last ARTS Tour recently, I was given a book created by the elementary school and their community, the Aseniwuche Winewak Nation. It was a book of prose and drawings dedicated to the power of drum. Here is my favourite poem:

“When I hear the drum…

My heart beats.

Beats its beat.

It sings along.”

When I personally hear the drum again… I will remember those who have went before me. And I will always remember to always celebrate the strength and the spirit of those who make a difference in my life.

My thanks to Principal Mark McGimpsey and the students at the Susa Creek School for allowing me to reproduce excerpts from their book.