Traditions and Transitions

If you’re new to the series, you may begin here.

The intergenerational connection can be one of the great things about being a teaching artist. You can be a literal bridge transmitting the traditions and techniques learned from your inspirations/elders to the next generation that has come to you for inspiration (most often stated as: “how’d you do that?). This is the latest in a series about my adventures here in Des Moines beginning in 2009 as a ‘renegade’ teaching artist. What that means is that I asked for access to North and East High school band rooms beginning in the summer to serve as a teaching artist working with young musicians and singers. Over the next 6 years, I worked with kids who were generally ‘off everybody else’s radar’ but as you see and hear these youngsters when given quality time and attention tell their stories as clear and true as anyone else.

Today we go back a few years to illustrate what can happen when you give motivated students the attention to explore their interests. Victor Gomez who I introduced you to previously (“I want to play Blues, not Metal!!) being a student of American music went out and found a decent mandolin. It was a great opportunity to hook up novice mandolin player Victor Gomez (L) with local “Gypsy Jazz” adherent, Dwight Deason. A great idea to get them together to do what musicians have always done to sustain the craft: talk instruments, play together and create moments that are really the ‘capillaries’ of culture. Inner circles where knowledge is passed.

Student and mentor Victor Gomez (L) and pro Dwight Deason discuss the fine points of the Mandolin.

The author onstage with students Forrest Mathison and Victor Gomez playing Victor’s Mando-Blues

Final workshop concert July 2012 North High School featuring (from left: Miles Schon, guitar Scott Dawson, drums Big Mike Edwards, vocalist, Dartanyan, guitar and Byron Wells, bass guitar.

Hear guitarists Miles and Victor burn it up on the student-composed anthem Access Denied

And speaking of Mandolin..Shadric Smith’s latest has mandolin and a heartfelt story to go with it. Give him a listen.

Iowa Writers’ Collaborative

Below is a list of the members of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please support their work by sharing and subscribing. Paid subscribers are invited to attend real-time events and occasional Zoom calls among our writers. Your support keeps this reader-only supported service going.

IOWA WRITERS’ COLLABORATIVE

The Roster of Writers

Nicole Baart: This Stays Here, Sioux Center

Ray Young Bear: From Red Earth Drive, Meskwaki Settlement

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Tory Brecht: Brecht’s Beat, Quad Cities

Dartanyan Brown, My Integrated Life, Des Moines

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Jane Burns: The Crossover, Des Moines

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, Roundup

Steph Copley: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Daniel Finney, Paragraph Stacker, Des Moines

Arnold Garson: Second Thoughts, Okoboji and Sioux Falls

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Rob Gray: Rob Gray’s Area, Ankeny

Nik Heftman: The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilia

Iowa Capital Dispatch, an alliance with IWC

Dana James: Black Iowa News, Iowa

Chris Jones, Chris’s Substack, Iowa City

Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Letters from Iowans, Iowa

Darcy Maulsby: Keepin’ It Rural, Calhoun County

Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa

Alison McGaughey, The Inquisitive Quad Citizen, Quad Cities

Kurt Meyer: Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Vicki Minor, Relatively Minor, Winterset

Wini Moranville: Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines

Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids

Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Jane Nguyen: The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Des Moines

Steve Semken, The Pulse of a Heartland Publisher, North Liberty

Macey Shofroth: The Midwest Creative, Norwalk

Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Jason Walsmith, The Racontourist, Earlham

Kali White VanBaale, 988: Mental Healthcare in Iowa, Bondurant

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

The Iowa Writers Collaborative is also proud to ally with Iowa Capital Dispatch.