FamFrequency Productions
Title: Music and Healing
Student Interns:
Noah Slade
Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions, Creative Arts in Therapy
Swathi Jayakumar
Drexel University College of Medicine
Academic Preceptor:
Clarissa Lacson, PhD, MT-BC
Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions, Creative Arts in Therapy
Community Preceptor:
Jonathan Edwards
FamFrequency Productions
Community Site:
FamFrequency Productions is a music and entrepreneurship fellowship serving Philadelphia high school students. Founded and run by Jonathan Edwards and Lanisha Otuonye, the fellowship empowers young Philadelphia artists to become financially independent and confidently pursue their art. The 15-month fellowship consists of an 8-week summer accelerator, followed by monthly sessions during the school year, and concludes with a second summer where the they learn mixing, mastering, and performance. The fellowship aims to prepare Philadelphia high school students for careers as music entrepreneurs by providing the artists with the skills, resources, and opportunities to build multiple income streams with their music.
Team’s Experience:
FamFrequency Productions (FFP) exists both as an academic fellowship and a community space for young artists in Philadelphia. The Bridging the Gaps interns’ work, which ranged from administrative assistance to community engagement and empowerment, related to both elements of FFP. They assisted in managerial tasks, resourcing, communication, teaching assistance, and media/blog development. The BTG interns built intentional relationships with the students by hosting one-on-one check-ins, running group cohesion and cross-relational empowerment sessions, and working with them on independent creative projects.
Reflections
My time at FamFrequency Productions was incredibly impactful for me as an aspiring Music Therapist. Throughout my time, I got to actively integrate MT practices into my work, utilizing my one-on-one sessions with the high-school group to create an open and explorative space where students knew they were being seen and celebrated and co-constructing Monday group-cohesion sessions with the alumni group to empower their cohesive efforts. Holding these kinds of spaces resulted in students sharing deeply and vulnerably about their identities, experiences, and aspirations. From these conversations, some students asked if we could collaborate on music that represented the insights from our discussions, while other students asked to use jam sessions to celebrate their work together. My time at FFP has allowed me embodied experience of music both as a source of therapeutic insight and as a medicinal practice for integrating such insights and has become foundational in my comprehension and practice of Music Therapy.
Noah Slade
The time I spent this summer working with students in the production fellowship cohort has been an eye-opening experience. Beyond witnessing their talent, this experience has shown me the importance of building spaces for adolescents to express themselves through the arts. The safe and open community here allowed me to create trusting and meaningful relationships with the students. Over the course of the summer, the students got more comfortable being vulnerable and used music creation as a powerful tool to process their emotions. I am grateful to have been a part of the team at FFP, and I hope the students continue to confidently express their truest selves through music.
Swathi Jayakumar
