Our Mission
Inspiring Social Justice Through Artistic Collaboration
When we created the MAPS program, we focused on how best to make the world a better place by supporting our students in providing arts education opportunities. We wanted to bring them together to share their deepest feelings of joy, sadness, anger, love, fear, happiness, insecurity, loneliness, etc. without fear of retribution or judgement. Poetry, Music, and Visual Art have made that possible! They allow our students to create whatever they are inspired to and share those feelings out to the world. There are no bounds to conform to other than those of their own making. Putting the three art forms together through the MAPS program leads to a magical student convening of creativity, collaboration, community and learning.
The long standing MAPS programming objective was to place MAPS in our public schools for them to make MAPS their own as part of their curriculum offerings. After twenty years of operating as an organization, the exciting moment has come that our schools will now pick up that program responsibility. This website will continue to house present and future student collaborations and be the archive for all that has come before.
THANK YOU to all who have helped MAPS accomplish all it has!!
Tom Willits – Co-Founder
The Program
Music and Poetry Synchronized (MAPS) teaches middle and high school students of differing races, socioeconomics, cultures, and genders to write music and poetry and create visual art in preparation for a public concert at the end of the program’s spring term. Each MAPS class takes place through a partnership with two different schools in two different states and runs throughout a full year. In the fall semester, English students from one school create poetry from their life stories. In the winter/spring, those poems are then sent to the partner school, where music students spend the semester turning them into heartfelt original pieces of music. Both schools participate in creating visual art throughout the year inspired by the poetry and music.
In our increasingly hectic and driven world, it’s challenging for youth to feel heard and to find ways to express themselves. MAPS helps by giving them a voice through poetry, music, visual arts, and a shared experience. We hope to spark creativity and ignite a passion for human connection through artistic expression.
By sharing our stories and creating a common artistic expression —MAPS strives to bring people together to heal the historical narratives that divide us by race, class, gender, sexuality and so much more.
The other enhances the language, culture, and lived experiences of each student group through the marriage of poetry, music, and visual arts. With this, they forge long-lasting, educational, and deeply moving bonds for all involved.
Testimonials
“From MAPS I gained a variety of skills, which I can apply both within my future musical experiences and all future life experiences. A very key element given to me from the program was the life skill of sharing and building upon other ideas.
Mason Cheek
MAPS introduced my own poetry to me in a different way. The performers carried my voice in their own way using my same exact tone. I'm glad they were able to interpret my emotions and put it in a song, only to make the waves of emotion stronger. There's just something about a melody and the right words to ignite so many different emotions, even if it's my own piece.
Leyden Sanchez
"The music aspect of it is kind of like...pick some chords, throw them together on a keyboard or guitar...then start adding harmonies, and that's about it. It's like writing any other song–just with words that aren't your own."
Scarlet Ayliz