Venice Hosts Workshop for Los Angeles Youth

In South Central Los Angeles, it is common for youth to be classified as “at risk”. There is a fear that they are going to start down a “destructive” path, which they are going to end up in detention centers or worse jail. This has resulted in two non-profit organizations; Give a Beat and A Place Called Home to take action. At the end of February the two organizations teamed up with the Progressive House duo, Venice, to introduce youth in LA to the joys of DJing. Venice, a relatively young duo, coming together in 2014 was excited to partake in this program after being signed to Black Hole Records, part of AVA Records.

The workshop that they held was an initiative that has been in California by Give a Beat to get youth involved in music. For a short time, just an hour and a half, Alex Marrero and Gino Souto tapped into the creativity that laid dormant in these youth. The youth, the staffs of the organizations, and all others involved were open to describing the success of the program. All the youth were overjoyed to get involved and to try their hands with the programs Venice uses.

The artists were quoted as saying,

“The opportunity to give back and do something for these kids, even in the slightest detail of teaching them music production, made it completely worth it for us.” They were thrilled and honored to be taking part in the program. Part of them felt a little jealousy that they did not have this kind of opportunity in their own childhood. They admitted; “…we truly look forward to being involved in future projects!”

I am going to school to learn to work in the Non-Profit world and focus on working with youth. To me, this is amazing news. To see the artists that I listen to and the brand of music that I love reaching out to help youth, it is everything I look for in society. Hopefully more groups, DJs, and labels will begin doing this and help create the next generation of artists.

Below you can see the social medias for both organizations and Venice and then some photos, courtesy of Instagram, of the event.

VENICE Facebook | Twitter | Soundcloud | Instagram | Snapchat: VeniceEDM

GIVE A BEAT Facebook | Twitter | Soundcloud | Instagram | Tumblr