Baltimore Community Fellowships
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Baltimore, Maryland
2005
In creating the Follow Your Dreams studio, Michelle Blue has given the kids of her Baltimore neighborhood a much-needed creative outlet. Recognizing that many young people in the area dreamed of becoming recording artists, Blue opened the small studio two years ago.
Several young people have recorded songs and a compilation album is in the works. The lyrics lay bare their lives.
"The whole purpose is to allow them to express themselves," says Blue. "These kids could be doing so many different things that might get them in trouble."
Her OSI fellowship has allowed Blue to expand the program and she now offers classes in the basics of the music business and in the history and theory of hip hop. "It's just taken off like a rocket and going full-speed ahead," Blue says of Follow Your Dreams.
One thing Blue did not envision was the popularity the studio would hold for young people in the neighborhood.
"I thought these kids would go on and leave after a while," she says with a laugh. "But I can't get rid of them."
