Julia Williams

Editor-in-Chief

Art as Mentorship — a 13-year-old, grassroots organization — was founded by Historic Northeast resident and Making Movies Lead Singer, Enrique Chi. 

What originally started out as a one-week music camp within the Mattie Rhodes Center parking lot (148 N. Topping Ave.) has flourished into a full Rebel Song Academy programming ecosystem, serving over 400 students per year. Art as Mentorship was born out of this music camp to help administrate the program. 

Holding two, 12-week semesters per year — one in the fall and one in the spring — these free songwriting and production classes are open for young people interested in music with no prior experience required. Application is required to participate and around 12 participants are selected by a needs-based panel. While there is no limit to how many times an individual can apply or participate within the program, an individual most in need of the resources would take precedence. 

Currently, Chi, along with Rebel Song Academy, is wrapping up a week in Washington D.C., where they were invited to expand their footprint and participate in the Smithsonian FolkLife Festival — an annual festival of cultural heritage where artists, musicians and storytellers come together on the National Mall, according to its website. 

The Rebel Song Academy and Art as Mentorship’s role within this festival, Chi shared, was to represent the music industry’s strong reliance on mentorship and collaboration. While at the festival, they hosted songwriting workshops, where attendees collaboratively wrote a song in under 45 minutes and their Mobile Recording Lab studio sessions to allow festival participants to make and record music right on the National Mall in Washington D.C. on Sunday, July 6, Art as Mentorship’s Rebel Song Academy students and mentors performed at the Smithsonian FolkLife Festival’s main stage. 

“This is the first time Art as Mentorship has traveled with kids and is doing programming full on,” Chi shared in an interview, Saturday. “It won’t be the last; the beauty in what we’re doing is connecting the community to outside folks.” 

Within the last month, Art as Mentorship has additionally joined as a member of the Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, continuing to expand its connection to its roots as it prepares for “Celebrate AMERI’KANA Music & Arts Festival.” 

What started out as a once-a-week concert within the parking lot of the Mattie Rhodes Center, moved to Knuckleheads Saloon (2715 Rochester Ave.), which Chi shared is where the idea for AMERI’KANA began. 

As Art as Mentorship is a nonprofit organization, its leaders were searching for fundraising methods and grant opportunities. Chi shared they ran into initial challenges as many of the grants they looked at applying for required an organization to be established for at least three years. However, as a musician himself, a commonality between Chi and the fellow music teachers was  knowing how to put on a concert. 

Now preparing for its third year at The Concourse park in Scarritt Renaissance neighborhood, Celebrate AMERI’KANA works to serve as a mechanism to fundraise for and uplift students in Art as Mentorship’s youth programming — as well as for neighboring organizations including Jerusalem Farm and the Latin Education Collaborative (LEC), among others, to showcase the neighborhood’s year-round efforts right in their “backyard.”

“It’s a service to the community to build something beautiful,” Chi said in an interview. “Different cultures have a different understanding of the human experience. Everyone participates in that global story.”

Though this festival evolved from a parking lot, Chi shared that Art as Mentorship’s original mission and meaning behind the programming has not changed. 

“Using music as a way to heal and include folks together in a time when we need that more than ever,” he said. “It’s a journey to make communities feel invited and every year, adding ways to make the community feel invited.”

Those interested in joining Art as Mentorship or the Rebel Song Academy are encouraged to send in their applications for the fall session. Art as Mentorship additionally hosts weekly “Drop-In” nights at its studio — offering a safe place for all ages to come by, hang out and work on music. Summer hours for Drop-In are from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday. 

Throughout its 13 years, Chi shared one of his favorite aspects of the program is seeing the progress from participating students.

“Seeing young people, the light will go on for them, for some of the youth it’s realizing their voice matters,” Chi said. “Watching that moment click and they are celebrated for their vulnerability.” 

For additional information on Art as Mentorship — including its upcoming Celebrate AMERI’KANA Festival on Saturday, July 26— visit: https://artasmentorship.org/.