Yakima Herald-Republic Opinion: YAMA builds community through music
In our business, we’re big fans of words.
But most writers — if they’re being honest — would probably trade the ability to type words on a computer keyboard for the talent to play notes on a piano keyboard in a heartbeat.
Because music touches people in ways that words can’t. It expresses the pitch and rhythm of our very souls and conveys feelings for which there are no words.
That’s why it’s such a powerful learning tool for schoolkids. (Anybody still mentally turn on the old “My ABCs” alphabet jingle when you’re trying to remember if W comes before X? We rest our case.)
It might also be why Yakima Music en Acción has proven to be such a valuable after-school program for Yakima students in the past 10 years.
The YH-R’s Vanessa Ontiveros featured Yakima Music en Acción — YAMA — on her “Yakima Arts Talk” podcast (available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and in an article that ran in Thursday’s Explore section).
YAMA is based at Garfield Elementary School but it’s open to kids across the district. Co-founder Alex Pualani and a team of instructors lead three orchestras that include group and individualized rehearsals, lessons and classes in English and Spanish.
Before COVID hit, YAMA was serving more than 130 students. These days it’s more like 100.
Whatever the numbers, they round off to a circle that offers a supportive space where instructors emphasize personal growth and development.
“That,” Pualani says, “looks like some very intense music-making along with discussions about race, class, gender — just everything you need to be a conscious citizen in today’s world.”
And YAMA’s been around long enough that graduates of the program now come back to work with and mentor current students.
In short, YAMA has become a community.
Which is exactly the kind of thing that keeps kids in school, builds self-esteem and encourages good study and work habits.
We’re impressed with what YAMA is doing, and we hope the organization fulfills its goal of establishing its own headquarters someday.
YAMA produces tangible successes because it reaches students on levels that other classrooms simply can’t attain.
That’s the power of music.