The Great Unknown goes back to school

The Great Unknown isn’t just heading out on the road this fall; the band is also heading back to school. During the local quartet’s upcoming tour—which starts on October 22nd at the Appalachian Brewery Company, and includes stops throughout the Midwest—members of the band will participate in America SCORES, a national youth-development program that works with inner-city kids living in high-risk neighborhoods.

ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) have teamed up for a fifth year with America SCORES to bring musicians into under-funded urban schools that have little-to-no after-school programs. The band will work with third-to-fifth graders in Washington D.C., Cleveland, Milwaukee, and New York City. “I want to focus around the fact that kids can see themselves as important people, says guitarist and singer Todd Henkin. “I want to start it with each kid walking up to a video camera and saying, ‘This is my voice, and it’s important.'” The band plans to lead the students through a series of exercises—brainstorming, free-writing, guided conversations—gradually turning the ideas they suggest into songs. “We want to show them that anyone can do this. Writing a song and recording it—that’s something that everyone can do.”