TeachRock, the open education resource launched by Stevie Van Zandt, has announced the members of its newly formed Artist Council.
The Artist Council will include celebrated musicians Erykah Badu, Common, Sheryl Crow, Peter Gabriel, Norah Jones, DJ Khaled, Skip Marley, Darryl McDaniels, Melle Mel, Margo Price, Rhapsody, Gina Schock, Marty Stuart, and Taboo. Artist Council members will participate in lesson plans, engage with their fans to help shine a light on TeachRock, and connect with students and educators.
TeachRock provides free, standards-aligned resources to help teachers, students, and families succeed. It was launched by Stevie Van Zandt with the Founders Board of Bono, Jackson Browne, Martin Scorsese, and Bruce Springsteen.
“This Artist Council is the culmination of the outreach we’ve engaged in since establishing the Rock and Soul Forever Foundation and its TeachRock.org program over 10 years ago,” adds Stevie Van Zandt. “It’s an important step toward our long-term goal—keeping the arts a vital part of public transformative, and effective methodology for new and future generations, ultimately leading to drastically improved high school graduation rates.”
“Our dream is that one day every artist will take the opportunity to visit a classroom, whether locally or on tour, anywhere in the world, and participate in a lesson plan using our curriculum. By adding the 14 talented musicians making up the Artist Council to our network of 60,000 teachers and 19 partner schools, we have made a significant step toward making this dream a reality.”
TeachRock has launched a special initiative celebrating the 50th Anniversary of hip hop and Black Music Month with Darryl McDaniels, DJ Khaled, Melle Mel, and Taboo in the role of professors for a day. These artists have contributed their firsthand accounts to “The Roots of Hip Hop,” a classroom resource that explores the origins of hip hop culture and highlights the ways young people impacted the art form.