Bay of Quinte, ON – For the grade eight class at Quinte Mohawk School, music is more than a form of entertainment: it’s educating and empowering students to make a difference in their communities, both at home and across Canada. The class has been working with Darkspark, an arts education program that uses songwriting and recording to engage with 12 and 13 year old students. Through a grant from the Ontario Arts Council, Darkspark has spent three weeks writing, producing and recording a full EP with students on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Reserve. Darkspark arts educators and musicians have worked with the students on a project named “Four Direction.” Together they have created a 5 song EP entitled “The Problem.” Each song on Four Direction’s EP deals with the myriad of issues affecting Aboriginal people across Canada. Cycles of abuse, residential schools, and missing and murdered Aboriginal women are just a few of the topics covered by the grade eight students as they learned to express themselves through the medium of music. The songs are poignant, powerful, and were crafted with the intention of inspiring change within the students’ communities and across the country. Four Direction’s EP “The Problem” will be released onMarch 10th, and is available for pre-order at fourdirection.ca. Each week until the release, one video and one song from the EP will be released to the public in hopes that listeners will share with their communities to support the positive change sought by Four Direction. All proceeds from the EP will benefit the Native Women’s Association of Canada’s missing and murdered Aboriginal women’s fund.
For full details and project blog, visit www.fourdirection.ca
Melissa Larkin Darkspark mel@darkspark.ca
Laura Voskamp Bay of Quinte laurav@bayofquinte.ca
