James "Curley" Cooke
 Founder and supporter of Blues in the Schools  Passed away from a long battle with cancer. He will be remembered by so many for what he did to build this organization and for all the kids who were touched by his music and teaching.

Help us make a difference in Kid's Lives!

Pacific NW Blues in the Schools is a 501-C3 tax exempt non-profit organization in the Greater Seattle area that is one of the most successful and comprehensive "Blues in the Schools" programs existing in the US today.

Our programs are taught by professional blues musicians and teachers from the Northwest, and we offer our programs to local public school systems, private schools systems, community centers and institutions. Pacific Northwest Blues in the Schools seeks to provide a positive alternative activity for the youth of the Northwest, with many of our programs conducted during "prime risk," after-school hours.

Blues in the schools mission statement:

The mission of PNBIS is to design and deliver an interdisciplinary musical experience for students that, through playing, singing and writing Blues, will also teach them the history and heritage of this original African/American art form.

PNBIS will accomplish this mission by.

1) Implementing a comprehensive program of music instruction using a team of professional musician/teachers. Students will learn the structure the skills necessary to play, perform and write the Blues.
2) Showing the role of Blues as one of the roots of American music
3) Providing the opportunity for ongoing instruction and performance to maintain interest and skills.

PACIFIC NORTHWEST BLUES IN THE SCHOOLS
112 NW 159th St Shoreline, WA 98177
www.bluesintheschools.org
Email: Annette Taborn taborn@bluesintheschools.org Call: 206-679-4113

December 2008
Pacific Northwest Blues in the Schools (PNBIS)
Report on 2008 summer and fall programs:
From: Annette Taborn 206 679-4113 www.bluesintheschools.org
To: Board of Directors and Friends of PNBIS


Summer and fall have been busy for the Blues in Schools teaching team of Curley Cooke and Annette Taborn with help from Al Rowe and Alice Stuart. We conducted programs at the Washington Correction Center for Women (Purdy Prison), Louis Braille School for the Blind, Zion Prep Academy, Centrum Country Blues Camp, Springwood Youth Center and Dunlap Elementary School, Springwood Youth Center and individual lessons at The Secondary Academy for Success (SAS).

This year was our third year at Purdy Women's Prison and once again it was a very successful program. In a letter from Washington Correction Center for Women Superintendent Douglas O. Cole he stated that "The offenders who have participated in your programs praise the way your music has helped them build confidence, teamwork and most importantly, self esteem. Blues in Schools is not only educational but, inspirational. We ask that you please consider future programs at our facility".

Louis Braille School for the Blind in Edmonds WA is a school for blind and autistic children. Our programs there consisted of 4 one day mini concerts with lots of student participation with some hands-on with guitar, harmonica and percussion and hand clapping from the students. We taught simple versions of some of our usual Blues in Schools songs like "Louie Louie", "Baby what you want me to do" and some Ella Jenkins songs with rhythm exercises. This is our 2nd year at the school and we have developed great working relationship with the staff and students.

At Zion Prep we joined the summer school already in progress and held a 3 week workshop that culminated in a Blues in Schools addition to the summer schools final concert attended by the entire school, parents and administrators. This summer was our 2rd year at Zion Preparatory Academy.

The Centrum Blues Camp classes focused exclusively on the poetry of James Langston Hughes put to blues music. We taught a daily class on Langston Hughes and rehearsed 5 song/poems on harmonicas and vocals, upright bass, guitars, violin, accordion and even a washboard. We had a great little group started and we performed at the camps participant concert at the end of the week.
Curley received a call from Phil Wiggins (Artistic Director @ Centrum) thanking us for our participation at Centrum. He stated that the new addition of the Langston Hughes workshop was an exciting and valuable addition to the Centrum Country Blues Camp.

Dunlap Elementary School
We returned to Dunlap, in south Seattle for our 3rd and most successful program yet. We worked with 4th graders on blues history introductions to songs, singing, song writing, harmonicas and percussion. We also taught them James Langston Hughes poems that we turned into musical songs. The 4 week program concluded with a school concert attended by the whole school and many parents. The principal and staff have been and continue to be extremely supportive and enthusiastic about having Blues in Schools at there school.

Springwood Youth Center in Kent is a beautiful new facility in a low income apartment community; that serves over 700 children, many of the students are considered "at risk" head start age through high school. The population at Springwood is close to 100% immigrant refugees. PNBIS was asked to provide a music program to the existing summer school and this falls after school program. We are currently working with 15 to 20 children 3 to 4 days a week.
Curley has been meeting with Springwood staff and volunteers over the past few weeks developing a strategic plan for a 2 year music program.

Secondary School for Success (SAS) - Curley and Al have been teaching one on one guitar and bass lessons to students off and on throughout the year.

*Next year we plan to continue to focus and build on our blues history teaching, songwriting, the Langston Hughes poetry/music project and develop a local blues and music history program. We will also continue with our base program of vocals, harmonica, guitar, drums, percussion and stage presentation.

*We have been researching local artists and NW based music and plan to begin adding a local music aspect to each of our projects; artists we plan to include are Earnestine Anderson, Quincy Jones, Ray Charles and Jimi Hendrix.

*we have been increasing our number of programs and students reached significantly over the past 2 years……..


A Recent letter sent to us by the Seattle Public Schools.

Dear Curley and Annette,

Thank you so much for the time you spend in my special needs classroom this spring. Your program was the highlight of my student's year. Many of the staff and students in the school said that the performance was "the best assembly ever" and staff mentioned that you should take the kids on tour! I saw such an increase in their self esteem in the classroom and within peer interactions. One of the students said, "I feel like a rock star!"

This opportunity was especially meaningful for us as we have seen a decrease in funds for the arts in our schools. This was such an amazing opportunity and we can't wait to work with you again.

Sincerely,
Special Ed Teacher
Seattle Public Schools

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The Blues in Schools program is exactly the kind of outreach into the community that I wish were being done all over America. It is so important to let kids know about the incredibly rich contribution that Black music has made to so much of the music we love today. I salute the work Annette Taborn and Pacific NW Blues in Schools is doing to help build self-esteem and appreciation for this wonderful heritage. -- Bonnie Raitt