The Inner City Recreation and Wellness Program is happy to announce its newest initiative! Called the Underground City Project, we’ll be creating a compilation album of artists from Central Edmonton. Over the course of about eight months, album contributors will work with producer Taro Hashimoto to create music reflecting their feelings, experiences, and perspectives. The artists will be from Boyle Street Community Services’ Youth Unit, and will have the opportunity to learn from Boyle Street staff, as well as talented mentors from the wider community.

Partners include Professor Michael B. MacDonald of MacEwan University; Trevor Belsher and the Mercury Room; Heart of the City Music and Arts Festival; and CJSR FM 88.5. Funded by the Edmonton Arts Council, this is the next phase of creative output coming out of Boyle Street Community Services’ Multimedia Lab, the most recent completed project being the short film City Embers.

The hope is to make participation in this project as inclusive and accessible as possible. Please consider this announcement a call for mentors to lead workshops on different stages of the creative process.For more information, please contact me at rkafara@boylestreet.org.

Rylan is the Program Coordinator of the Inner City Recreation and Wellness Program.