Kids Get Toe-Tapping History Lesson at Blues Schoolhouse

Most folks know the House of Blues as a raucous Sunset Strip music club. But when the joint’s done jumpin’ and the last reveler has gone home, the House of Blues becomes a schoolhouse.

Three days a week, the club functions as a multimedia classroom and museum to introduce local students grades five to 12 to the music, art, literature and history of the blues. The schoolhouse program was created by the International House of Blues Foundation in 1993 and first held in Los Angeles in 1995. Similar programs take place in other cities.

There’s a note of excitement in the air when eighth-graders from L.A.’s Thomas Edison Middle School arrive at the Blues Schoolhouse on a recent morning.

“Usually we just go to museums, but this is something different,” student Gladys Moreno says.

The lesson begins with a tour of the club’s folk art by guide Mark Broyard. Unlike most museum exhibitions, the art at the House of Blues is meant to be touched. Many of the paintings, sculptures, collages and murals are made with inexpensive finger paints, Magic Markers, sequins and glitter--all familiar supplies to children. Andrew Wood’s portraits of musical greats like Bessie Smith and James Brown beam down from the restaurant ceiling as the children take turns touching the bottle caps that decorate the bar, created by artist Jon Bok.

“This is not fine art because the artists were not formally trained,” Broyard explains, pointing to a painting in mud by Jimmy Lee Sudduth. “The artists used whatever they could get their hands on to create these forms of expression.”

The students snake through this beer-tinged space to the main stage, where they are greeted by two women in African dress. L.A. actresses and storytellers Ellaraino and Gwyn Gorg present the history portion of the program.

Gorg begins by calling on the class to shout out favorite styles of music.

“Rap!” one boy yells.

“R&B;,” another chimes in.

“Alternative,” responds a girl in the front row.

“All the music you mentioned is influenced by the blues,” Gorg explains. “African American people born in this country are responsible for the creation of the blues. It’s American music that’s rooted in Africa.”

The two women play different roles in dramatic vignettes, riveting the children’s attention to the difficult history of the slave trade. The stories continue through emancipation, the great migration when slaves moved north after the Civil War, and the Jazz Age, with an emphasis on introducing the group to African American inventors. The actresses relate the experiences of slavery to modern-day struggles with drugs and racism.

The Blues Schoolhouse concludes with a live performance of the music that binds the historical tapestry together, from African beats to spirituals, work songs to freedom songs, jazz, blues, rock ‘n’ roll, rap and hip-hop. Bass guitarist and lead singer Sheldon Strickland and his band, Black Coffee & Jam, engage the young audience in a call-and-response as Gorg and Ellaraino accompany the modern-day instruments on African drums.

By the time the band moves into jazz and blues, the students are drunk with the beats. Strickland finishes with a rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.” There isn’t a toe in the place that isn’t tapping.

As the students pour outside into the afternoon sunlight, they pepper the air with comments like “Cool!” and “That was the bomb!”

If only school were always this fun.

For information on Blues Schoolhouse tours: (323) 848-4832.