After-school program brings youth together through music

Dec. 7—Kids in MidCity Excellence are making friends and learning about music as part of an after-school drumline group.

MidCity Excellence provides several after-school programs for kids and adults from preschool to 12th grade. The St. Joe Junior Stixx program has around 15 to 25 kids who play drums on various sizes of trash cans.

Artistic Director R. Robert Warren leads the kids through drumline routines, which he said creates an inviting atmosphere that keeps kids off the street.

"It keeps kids involved, it gives them something to do," Warren said. "And what greater than to beat on something?"

The program gives 11-year-old Zander Culp something to look forward to after a long day of school.

"When I know there's trash can band, I know there's still going to be something fun to do when I get home to listen to the wonderful beat of drums," he said.

Culp said the St. Joe Junior Stixx is interesting because new routines are added each time they play, and he gets to make music with his friends, which makes it more exciting.

"I've made some life-changing friends, which I think is a good thing — really good thing, like my friend Kingston and some other friends," he said. "And it just makes me more happy knowing that there's someone else here that I know."

Listening to the wonderful beat of drums is what made 11-year-old Kingston Garcia fall in love with the instrument.

"It sounds good when you really get used to it," he said. "Like when you really fully learned it, you can really hear it, and then you start memorizing it."

Learning to play the drums was a challenge for Garcia at the beginning, but he said when he performs in front of audiences and hears the applause, it serves as a reminder of how far he's come.

"You feel proud of yourself because you practice hard and, then when you go to performances and stuff, it feels really like it paid off," he said.

In addition to the drums, kids in the program play basketball and participate in other games inside the gym. St. Joe Junior Stixx member Zia Bell, 7, enjoys spending time with her friends.

"I like MidCity," she said. "I like when we go to the gym and play."

The St. Joe Junior Stixx serves as an extension of the St. Joe Stixx, which uses real drums. Junior Stixx uses trash cans since they are easier to use and carry for smaller kids. Warren hopes to get lightweight drums that will allow both programs to perform together.

"It'd be great if I can do drumline with big kids and small kids with small drums and big drums," he said. "That'd be really great. That's kind of the future, but for right now, they eventually will graduate into the (St. Joe Stixx) drumline."

Warren taught high school band and choir, but he also has experience as a vocalist and with playing the keyboard and some saxophone. Sharing knowledge of music and music etiquette with the kids in the program gives him a sense of fulfillment.

"I'm just kind of giving back my talent and pouring into the next generation," he said. "You don't know which one is going to be that next drummer or which one's going to be our next singer, and I love what I do."

Kimberly Warren, CEO and founder of MidCity Excellence and R. Robert Warren's wife, said giving back falls in line with the organization's mission of preparing kids and teens for their transition to adulthood through the performing arts, mentoring and career development.

"We want to expose them to many different possibilities for success," Kimberly Warren said. "And we also want to bring the world to them and push them out to the world because we do know that they are destined for greatness and not failure."

Kimberly Warren said people often find success because of the mentors that support them.

"It's labor-intensive sometimes trying to figure out how we speak the language of the generation of today," she said. "However, it is very rewarding when you see your kids walk across that stage or when you see them go back to school after being truant for several weeks."

One of the Warrens' goals is to keep MidCity Excellence free. The first year they opened, they tried to charge a dollar a day for kids in the after-school programs. However, they realized that it was a lot for a family that may have multiple kids.

"We would like for them to be able to take advantage of the performing arts, which is drums, band, instruments, singing, dance and theater," Kimberly Warren said. "We want them to be able to take advantage of that. A lot of people say we're an at-risk program. I think we're a program that is cultivating youth."

The St. Joe Junior Stixx is performing with the St. Joe Stixx Drumline and the Kansas City Chiefs' KC Rumble Drumline on Dec. 14 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Faith Family Worship Center at 604 S. 20th St.

"You can come out, and you can see them," R. Robert Warren said. "It's going to be great, it's going to be awesome."

You can enroll a child or donate to MidCity Excellence at visitmce.org.