On April 5th, 150 high school students from four Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) schools will be joining Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Stevie Van Zandt at the GRAMMY Museum® for a special field trip event taking place from 12 noon – 4:30 pm.
All participating students are enrolled in LAUSD’s “An American History of Rock and Roll” US History Course, which was created by Van Zandt’s nonprofit education organization Teachrock.org.
The course is an immersive exploration of popular music and US culture from the birth of the Blues in the 1940’s through Grunge and Hip Hop in the 1990’s. The course is currently offered at 11 LAUSD High Schools.
Van Zandt will be joining students from Bravo Medical Magnet High School, Fremont High School, Linda Marquez High School, and San Pedro High School for a workshop hosted by GRAMMY Museum’s Education & Community Engagement Manager, Schyler O’Neal, exploring the art of songwriting through a deep dive into Van Zandt’s song “I Am A Patriot.”
Later that day, students will be offered another GRAMMY Museum education workshop, as well as an opportunity to tour the museum while participating in a video scavenger hunt developed especially for this event.
Stevie Van Zandt offers the following about his forthcoming songwriting workshop at the museum:
“My intention when writing the song ‘I Am A Patriot’ in 1983 was to restore the true meaning and dignity to the word ‘Patriot’ which has been co-opted and misused by the extreme right wing of our political spectrum for decades.
We are the only country on Earth that is not a mono-culture of common traditions, but a country based on the seeds of enlightened ideas. ‘Patriot’ is a word that represents those bedrock ideas and ideals and transcends political parties.
That is why it is more important than ever to learn our history in civics classes rather than on biased TV shows or from the willfully ignorant that populate social media.”