Music has the power to inspire, heal, and transcend cultures. Watch this Facebook Live event with award-winning singer/songwriter Tim Baker, along with D’Ari Lisle and Mel Larkin, Founders of youth empowerment organization Darkspark . They discuss the power of music and pop culture as tools for wellness and how they help to create awareness and understanding around complex social issues.
About D’ari Lisle and Melissa Larkin
D’Ari Lisle is a professional producer, songwriter, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who has been a touring performer and front man in several Canadian bands for over 15 years.
Mel Larkin is a professional vocalist and songwriter. She has toured and performed in various projects for over 10 years, and worked as an arts educator since 2012.
The two developed the Darkspark program in 2016, which involves working with individuals, schools and communities to combine intergenerational and multicultural experiential learning with the pervasive power of pop culture.
Their team of recording artists, music producers, educators and filmmakers guide youth to explore the history of a polarizing issue from many perspectives using storytelling and experiential education, then to write, record and release pop songs and digital campaigns with a social purpose.
Darkspark puts youth at the centre of positive social change – as they find and express their own unique voices on an issue, youth are empowered through each step of the Darkspark experience to lend their voices to the change they want to see in the world.
Photo (c) Mike Sudoma/SOI Foundation
About Tim Baker
Tim Baker is probably best known as the writer and frontman of the much-celebrated Newfoundland indie-rock band Hey Rosetta!
After taking their sweeping, poetic, high-energy music across the world for over a decade, Hey Rosetta closed their doors in 2017, leading Tim to reflect, regroup and record his first solo album. “Forever Overhead” was released in April 2019, Rolling Stone calling it “Nostalgic and nuanced,…it nods to Jackson Browne…it’s buoyant, bubbling…worthy of Feist” and Dominionated called it “A glorious exclamation to the world that, yes, Tim Baker is on his own now, but no, he’s not going anywhere anytime soon”.
The last year has seen Tim & his new band playing all across Europe & North America to loyal fans and rave review. He is currently riding out the pandemic at home in Newfoundland, working on his old house, and his new album. He wishes he were riding high in the Arctic with all of you, on his 2nd ever Students On Ice Expedition.
Photo (c) Britney Townsend
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