Episode 237: Black Student Union Helps Herriman High Celebrate Iconic Musicians from the 1960’s and Beyond

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It was a project that was made for Black History Month at Herriman High School, and it had a musical twist.

On this episode of the Supercast, we introduce you to some members of the Black Student Union who organized an amazing display celebrating the accomplishments of iconic Black musicians dating back to the 1960s. Join us as we travel back in time, getting to know the talented artists and music that made history, as well as some recent recommendations.

I'm here with five of the students that are part of the Black Student Union here at Herriman High School. Why don't you introduce yourselves and tell a little bit about yourself.

Efrain:
Hello, my name is Efrain Villa Matos. I normally go by Effie. I have been a member of this club since its inception, and I am a musician and a student at Herriman High School.

Trace:
My name is Trace Pounds. I'm the president of the BSU. A little bit about myself is I'm an athlete. I do track and basketball and also like doing art and stuff.

Nigel:
My name is Nigel Feese. I do track with the president, and I'm also part of the social media team for the BSU.

Elsie:
Hi, I'm Elsie Rhys. I'm the secretary of BSU, and I play the cello.

Ariel:
Hi, my name is Ariel. I am a musician and an athlete. I'm part of BSU.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, you're all obviously very involved in a number of things at school. Tell me about BSU, what it means to you, how it started, all of that.

Student:
Sure, I feel like all of us have been friends ever since we kind of came to this school. So when Miss Codella kind of approached us to start a Black Student Union, it was something pretty inspiring to us because obviously being just not white in Herriman High School, we are kind of different. So having that safe space for us to just be able to hang out with our friends was incredible. I mean, us just being able to be ourselves together was really important to our tenure at this school, and so to me, this is something very important and something I love being a part of.

Student:
Yeah, that's the same thing for me. We're just having that safe space is just really useful, and like you can meet new friends, you can talk to people, and you can feel safe rather than you kind of just go out and you don't know what people are going to say or how they're going to treat you. Just having a safe space for people to meet and talk to each other.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sure.

Student:
Yeah, I like it just as a sense of community with people who are like me, and I just get to relate to.

Student:
Adding on to what they said, me and Ariel were from Brooklyn, so the difference in culture here was very shocking. Just having a community for us to be able to express ourselves and have similarities with other students, it's very comforting.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me a little bit about this display. Who was most responsible for the display here?

Student:
We all had our parts, and obviously I kind of just went over and assigned people, because we want to give them leadership opportunities and opportunities to have creative control. So we had all the decades listed that we wanted to feature, and then we were like, "Hey, I need to have like two to three people sign up for each of them." So I know that we had many different people, but my main one that I focused on that I kind of was a part of is the 2010s.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, let's go look at the 2010s. Is that Kendrick Lamar there?

Student:
Yep, Kendrick Lamar, yes. And we also wanted to talk about black artists and musicians, but also other things that they do. Because not only do they create music, but they also create a sense of community. I talked a little bit like Tyler, the Creator, how not only did he influence music, is he also streetwear and just kind of how people dressed in general. Where it's like music doesn't, it's not just music, it changes culture. So yeah, not only talking about things that they've done in music, but things that they other.

Anthony Godfrey:
What's your favorite album by Tyler, the Creator? Because I spoke with a student just the other day who was telling me about one I need to listen to.

Student:
Yeah, he has a lot of good ones. Some of my favorites, I'll probably say Igor.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's the same one they mentioned is Igor.

Student:
Okay, I'm a bit of a traditionalist and my favorite by him is Cherry Bomb, which is the least favorite by everyone else, but, I love it.

Anthony Godfrey:
So I start with Igor, and I go to Cherry Bomb. So I get the full range.

Student:
I would probably go to Flower Boy before I went to Cherry Bomb.

Student:
It's a more, it eases you into it, because his music is very out there. So Flower Boy is very avant-garde or whatever.

Anthony Godfrey:
So maybe I need to listen to all of his stuff. That's what you're telling me.

Student:
Yes, and definitely even watching like a video. When I was doing research for it, like watching video essays, I'm like, “Wow". There's like, it's a lot more depth to not only is he's telling a story, like even in his first three albums, last two mixtapes, he told a story about someone where it wasn't, it's not just individual albums standing on their own. It's like a whole story that comes together.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.

Student:
And I was mostly responsible for the 2000s, but I kind of like to talk about why we chose to do music as a whole. I mean, obviously, for Black History Month, a lot of people focus on like, a lot of the civil rights activists and a lot of the people who acted during slavery to help free the slaves. And that is an important thing, but we want to kind of stray away from that and show kind of the modern Black people. Some of the most influential people in our country have been these Black artists. And obviously, in the modern day, as a whole, like artists, musicians and directors, and influencers as a whole are some of the most important people responsible for like what we consume as a whole, and what we see every day. So we thought it was pretty important for us to shine upon some of the most influential artists of well, the past like seven decades or so.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sure.

Student:
I covered the 2000s. You know, I'll be completely honest, I'm not necessarily like the biggest fan of all of these musicians. But you know, we got Rihanna, Lil Wayne, Mariah Carey, there's Kanye West, Beyonce, I mean, you can't not know their names.

Anthony Godfrey:
There are some greats that came out of that era for sure. Tell me about these other areas. What is your favorite era? 2000s is not, tell me what's your preference?

Student:
Probably like 1000%, like either the 90s or the 2010s. I grew up in the 2010s and all my favorite artists are from the 2010s. You know, people like Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole, incredible musicians. And you know, I grew up listening to them and I was there for the release of some of the projects. So that was really cool.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, it means something different when you were there when they first came out. It's different to listen to it when it's new. Speaking of which, I was listening to things that were new in the 80s. Any 80s music that you particularly like?

Student:
Well, yeah, like the start of hip hop, people with Nas at the end of the 80s, who are like pretty much set the wave for like that. Also, like a lot of R&B artists, and like, just a lot of influential things. And although I can't like name all of them once I hear it, like, it's just, comes back to me

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, sure. Is there something that surprised you about music or that you discovered by putting these displays together?

Student:
Definitely just like looking at like, even though I really kind of focused on one even just reading through a couple of them, like, wow, there's just a lot of people that like I knew the names of, but I didn't know necessarily what they did and learning more about them. I was like, oh, that's that putting a name to the face in like a career as well.

Student:
Yeah, it's kind of insane how almost like the grand majority of the most influential artists across all these decades, were all black musicians, they really paved the way and led the culture and it's just, it's really cool.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you hope people take away from seeing this display?

Student:
Kind of just like acknowledgement to where it's like, what kind of how he said is like a lot of prolific artists throughout the years are black and just like realizing black culture and stuff and their influence on the community as well.

Student:
Yeah, I would just say like acknowledgement and appreciation for like artists throughout the decades and just like what they've done and the impact they've had.

Student:
Because you know, this is a little more than the music, right? To just like kind of see past just the music and really see the people who made it.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're here with the advisor for the Black Student Union. Introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about how this got started.

Vickey Codella:
My name is Vickey Codella and we started the Black Student Union last year. We got started a little bit late in the year, but we have really taken off this year. We've done a trunk or treat in October. We did a fundraiser for our school-wide Hearts of Gold thing. And then we did our setup for the Black History Month walkthrough museum for the students. We're just trying to be a big presence in the school and be of service and also have a strong voice.

Anthony Godfrey:
What impact do you want the club to have in Herriman High School?

Vickey Codella:
The kids who are a part of it, I just love watching them blossom into having a voice and feeling confident in who they are. So that's been really pleasant. And also like showing up for the Principal's Roundtable and just having a strong presence in the school, which is nice. And I just hope that the kids that are not part of the club can see that and appreciate their efforts and who they are.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thank you so much for everything you do. I know you're very active in supporting students in the BSU, and thanks for taking time with us today.

Vickey Codella:
Of course, thank you for coming.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us when we come back. We'll talk more about the talented musicians and familiar tunes that made history, as well as some current recommendations from high school students in the know.

Break:
Hello, I'm Stacee Worthen, Secondary Counseling Specialist for Jordan School District. Do you know all the ways Jordan School District counselors can help you and your student? School counselors play such an important role in our schools. They provide parents with resources to help guide their children in academics. They provide support with the mental and social well-being of students in our schools. And if you are in the process of preparing a student for college, or just beginning the conversation of higher education now is the perfect time to reach out to your child's counselor. We can assist with college applications and college readiness. I encourage parents and guardians to schedule an appointment and get to know your student's counselor. Together, counselors and parents can help develop plans and strategies for students to succeed long after they leave Jordan School District. Reach out! We're always here to help. You can find us and learn more at counseling.jordandistrict.org.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me your name.

Student:
I'm Brenden Schmidt.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the '60s display here.

Student:
So this one is Ray Charles. That's the one I did personally. He's like one of the most influential singers. And another song, this is kind of from the '70s, one of my favorite songwriters and singers, Donny Hathaway. I sang one of his songs at our cultural assembly at our school.

Anthony Godfrey:
Which one did you sing by Donny Hathaway?

Student:
It's called "Love, Love, Love."

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Student:
It's a little bit older. It meant a lot to me because he's one of my favorite artists and he puts a lot of feeling into his music. And even if he doesn't write it, he makes it his own music.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love Donny Hathaway. Actually, I love his Christmas music too. What's the song? "This Christmas." That's a good one.

Student:
Yeah, that's great.

Anthony Godfrey:
Since you chose to feature music for Black History Month, tell me what are, who is your favorite? I know you were each assigned a decade. Tell me about your favorite recording artist. I'm a huge music fan, so you got to tell me the artist and you've got to tell me the album that I need to listen to from that artist so you can expand my horizon a little bit.

Student:
Especially recently, Smino, he's one of my favorite guys to listen to. I've just kind of, I've especially started listening to music more and more in the past couple of years. And just like, he's been one of the artists that I've discovered recently that I just like.

Anthony Godfrey:
Is he new? Is he part of a group previously?

Student:
He's been in the industry for about like 10 years. He is a new artist. That's when he like kind of started becoming popular. He is part of like the alternative R&B movement that like people like Frank Ocean led, but he kind of spearheaded and put towards more of a bubbly kind of fun wave. Smino, incredible artist. I absolutely love him.

Student:
And I just love so many of his songs where it's not, it doesn't necessarily all sound the same. Like he does a lot of different things and it all sounds great.

Student:
I would say my favorite artist is SZA because I used to listen to her a lot when I was a kid. And growing up in Brooklyn, we used to listen to her all the time. And now being in Utah, it's like so different. So listening to her reminds me of who I am and where I came from.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's awesome. Now I saw SZA on the Grammys and she's really taken off. Were you listening to her in the early days?

Student:
Yeah, I listened to her before anybody else knew her. I'm an original fan.

Anthony Godfrey:
So what should I listen to first?

Student:
I would say Love Galore because my mom used to play it all the time.

Student:
My favorite artist is Quadeca, but I think a more relevant artist to talk about is one of my most influential musicians. His name is Slauson Malone. Interesting person, but he makes masterpieces. I think his albums are really experimental. I like how they take elements of like old soul records, but as well as mixing it with live instrumentation. He was previously in a jazz band called Standing on That Corner. And I like how he mixes bits and pieces from so many different eras to tell a story in the modern world. It's kind of scary music, definitely very experimental and not for the average listener. But if you're into weird stuff, you might like it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, great. Experimental for sure. What else?

Student:
My favorite artist right now, I've been listening to more music as well recently, but my favorite artist right now is Lucki. My personal favorite album by him is probably his first one. I generally forgot about it. But my favorite song is probably Count on Me 2. And I just like them because it's different from what a lot of people like now. And either that or Frank Ocean too. And Frank Ocean–

Student:
Even though he hasn't dropped recently, his music is still good.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, he is kind of an enigma.

Student:
My current favorite artist is uh, it's a Sleepy Hallow and Sheff G. There are two people that grew up around the New York area.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sleepy Hollow and Sleep G?

Student:
Sheff G.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sheff G. Okay, tell me about them.

Student:
Um, they’re just two people that grew up around New York. They just grew up together. I listen to their music a lot. I like it.

Anthony Godfrey:
And are they taking off?

Student:
Uh, yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Can I find their stuff to stream?

Student:
Oh, 100%.

Anthony Godfrey:
Is there a particular album or um, mixtape?

Student:
The newest one that I found is From the Can by Sheff G. And the other one from Sleepy is, I don't remember the album name, but he just recently dropped some new music.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm gonna have to do a follow-up with you guys after I've listened to all this stuff. Well, it's been a real pleasure talking to all of you. Uh, good luck with all of the remaining BSU activities this year. And uh, great job on the display. It's awesome talking music with you. And like I said, I'm gonna go back and download all these on title and get listening.

Student:
Thank you for your time. Thank you for putting us in the spotlight. We really appreciate it. Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.