Hey DJ! Vinyl workshop for Teens and Tweens

Community Room at the Hudson Area Library
Mon April 29 @ 3-5pm
Tues April 30 @ 3-5pm
(no Wed)
Thurs May 2 @ 3-5pm
Fri May 3 @ 3-5pm / pizza party 5-7pm

Back by popular demand, Sarah Van Buren (SVB) returns via Shaker Museum to facilitate another Youth DJ Workshop for ages 9 – 16. This four-day intensive will include a series of studio days with a final performance when our newly trained DJs take the stage for the whole community to enjoy. Participants will gain knowledge and skills related to analog music-making, a collection of their own vinyl records, and a chance to take home their own record player (based on workshop attendance).

Today’s kids are instantly attracted to the idea of DJing. Although that usually means swiping around on a smart phone or clicking around on a computer, the origins of DJing are very analog. Kids who learn and practice DJing with vinyl records (including all kinds of sound experimentation therein) develop fine motor skills and learn about musical concepts such as rhythm, melody, tempo, and pitch. This workshop is open-ended, encapsulating all genres of music and sound experimentation.

It may lead to dancing, it may lead to grooving, it may lead to an “aha!” thinking moment. It will definitely lead to collaboration and cooperation as kids share equipment, music, and ideas. Overall, we’re all along for the ride, because it’s going to be really fun.

The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing (a.k.a. Shakers) were a Christian utopian community that arrived in the Hudson Valley nearly 250 years ago. Spreading as far west as Ohio and as far south as Florida, Shakers made important contributions to religious thought, progressive causes, music, craft, agriculture, and industry in the 19th and 20th centuries. A Shaker community still exists in Sabbathday Lake, ME, today).

Music was central to their communities, and they were known colloquially as “Shakers” because of their worship through intense dancing and song. They were also early adopters of technology, such as this crystal radio that Brother Irving Greenwood built (with purchased headphones!) more than 100 years ago, which are a part of Shaker Museum’s collection.

Shaker Museum stewards the most comprehensive collection of Shaker objects and archives in the world and is currently building its future location in Chatham, NY.

Sarah Van Buren (SVB) is an artist, educator, sound maker, DJ and raver based in Stottville, NY who works with music, sound and collaborative performance to investigate buried histories, communal ritual and collective resonance. Currently working on community outreach and public programs at Shaker Museum, Sarah started a DJ school in 2019 which evolved into the Hudson Valley-based DJ collective Community Rave Network, and is co-founder of the NYC-based video/party/performance collective CHERYL. She has been co-curator of Basilica Hudson’s 24-HOUR DRONE since its inception in 2015, and is certified in Deep Listening® by The Center for Deep Listening at RPI.