By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
EAST VILLAGE — The start of the fall semester this year at a local elementary school doesn’t just mean a return to multiplication tables and grammar lessons — it also marks the release of a full-length album by the students.
"Songs From the East Village" was recorded last year by kids at the East Village Community School to celebrate their diverse student body.
The album, which will be officially released on Sept. 20, consists of a collection of tracks recorded to document the students’ shared immigrant experiences. The project grew out of the effort of parents and school administrators who saw an opportunity tell the students’ stories while also encouraging them to explore their musical talents.
"The product is beautiful," said EVCS assistant principal Bradley Goodman, 36, who was instrumental in getting the project off the ground and helping raise money to record the album. "The process of creating it was the truly galvanizing part."
The 19-song album includes traditional ethnic songs ranging from Jewish and Puerto Rican to Tibetan and Nigerian — all drawn from the backgrounds of the school’s 200-person student body.
Renowned Irish singer-songwriter Susan McKeown, who features prominently on the album and has a daughter in third grade at EVCS, said she came up with the concept after hearing a parent sing a traditional Spanish lullaby at the memorial service for a student who died.
"I realized what a rich cultural resource we were and what an array of musician parents we had," said McKeown, 43.
What began as an extra-curricular activity for the students soon evolved into an album after some other musically inclined parents got involved and began teaching the students their native styles.
The students learned lyrics in everything from French to the African Igbo language, and the school eventually secured studio time to record the results.
The finished project tells stories of everything from shopping for fruit on the streets of Dublin to an encounter with a tiger in India.
"You could tell they were so proud to tell their stories and share their music. It’s very validating," said Goodman, noting that funds for the album’s production came from a combination of online donors and the school’s parents’ association
"It started as a seed idea, and it sort of became this tremendous thing through its own momentum."
On one track, two students who spent part of their youth in war-torn Baghdad sing a traditional Iraqi playground chant dating back to the 1920s.
The lyrics to another track recount a Nigerian native’s anticipation of getting to eat rice on Sunday.
In between are songs performed in traditional Spanish flamenco, American folk, English, Jewish and even spoken-word styles.
"I think music is the way that cultures tell their stories, and music is the way that stories are told in diaspora communities," said Goodman, who added his 4-year-old daughter has already memorized lyrics to many of the songs.
"Certain core pieces are preserved. One of the ways they’re preserved, and one of the most powerful ways, is through song."
The album is already available to download online, and McKeown said the school is working with local merchants to sells the CDs in neighborhood shops.
EVCS will celebrate the official album release on Sept. 20 with a discussion and performance at the Lower East Side's Tenement Museum — a space that teaches about immigrant history and is the perfect venue to unveil a project of this kind, McKeown said.
"It reflects who we are, but it reflects what the U.S. needs right now — more diversity," she noted.
The album will also serve to remind people that even a small New York City school like EVCS can speak for the experiences of a worldwide population.
"It didn’t start as a sort of preservation project, but it sort of became that," Goodman added.
"What we’re doing is also preserving that slice of our community for people to listen to and learn from forever and ever."
