On an early morning in the third week of June we packed a mixer, a pair of speakers, a microphone, and five mini-synthesizers into our car. We were on 270 heading west as the sun came up. By late afternoon we’d reached Detroit. We went there to participate in the Allied Media Conference and to present Beat Club, a digital music workshop that travels to neighborhood libraries and community centers in the DC area.

On Friday we set up our gear in a classroom in the Education building of Wayne State University. People began coming through the door. They headed for the seats but I invited them to stand around the table. As I demonstrated how to play the instruments, more people came in and joined the group. Everyone took a turn playing. Pretty soon a beat was going, bass lines were squealching, chords and notes began to come together. Grouped around their instruments, people laughed and encouraged each other. Freestyle raps began flying. Like any good party, it got too loud and after about half an hour we began receiving complaints about the noise from neighboring classrooms.

The next morning the streets around the campus were filled with marchers marking the 5oth anniversary of Martin Luther King’s 1963 march in Detroit. We set up at the campus conference center in a room designated as a play area for kids. Over several hours all sorts of people- kids, teens, adults – came by to play and ask questions. Parents snapped pictures of their kids making music. Eventually a nice man who was leading a session next door came over to ask me to turn the volume down.

I mixed down the recording from our Friday session and brought it to the temporary radio station set up for the conference so it could be broadcast. They were interviewing Quese IMC (who later hosted a great session). We left the next day, grateful to have met so many good people, both at the conference and in the city of Detroit.

Watch a vine of Beat Club at AMC2013 or listen to the recording