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Welcome to wayne&wax.org! This site is meant to serve as a central forum for all of the participants in the digital music project. Currently, the site features music from Roxbury and Cambridge, MA, Madison, WI, and Kingston, JA
The digital music program began in Roxbury, Massachusetts in the summer of 2002, and continues at the Neighborhood Technology Center under the skilled tutelage of Byron Logan. With the vision and support of Thaddeus Miles, who oversees several community-based computer labs, the digital music program fits into a larger initiative to draw youth into technology through creative expression, spurring the production of local media and encouraging the development of new imaginations and representations of self and community. Thaddeus's newest project is called MassIMPACT. One of its major goals is to facilitate the creation of digital stories--using computers to combine visual art, music, and spoken narratives--in community centers across the state of Massachusetts (and perhaps soon in Jamaica and elsewhere).
In January 2003, Wayne and Rebecca moved to Kingston, Jamaica to conduct a series of workshops in Jamaican schools, community centers, and prisons, combining digital music and web-design. They posted a regular weblog, or blog, of their experiences, including plenty of music and photos. Wayne and Becca conducted workshops at a number of schools in Kingston, including the St. Andrew High School for Girls, Camperdown, and Tivoli Gardens High School. They also became regular visitors to Innswood High School in nearby Spanish Town and at South Camp Rehabilitation Centre. Check the Kingston users-page to hear some music from the workshops in Jamaica. While in Kingston, Wayne also collaborated with local hip-hop and dancehall artists and conducted research for his dissertation on the relationship between dancehall and hip-hop, tentatively titled, "Routes, Rap, Reggae: A Hidden History of Hip-hop." Wayne and Rebecca moved back to Cambridge at the end of June.
Recently, Wayne conducted a summer series of digital music workshops at Washington Heights in Dorchester, MA. Check out some beats from the summer session here. And soon, Wayne will be offering a twelve-week, soup-to-nuts session at UTEC in Lowell, MA. On the users page, you can hear music from other individuals and institutions participating in the project. You can also find a set of lessons, based on Wayne's introductory workshops, intended to aid newcomers in making digital music using a program called FruityLoops. Please poke around.