A nonprofit in Boston is using music to change young lives and a special person is being honored at their fundraiser this weekend.
As you walk through the Hamilton-Garrett Center for Music & Arts in Roxbury, you'll notice there's a special type of energy. Every space, both indoors and out, is filled with the sounds of music. This year the nonprofit is celebrating 25 years.
"We started out with a ministry actually, and the congregation known as Charles Street AME Church, which is a prominent African American congregation here in Boston," said Gerami Groover, the executive artistic director of the center.
"They started out with the intent of preparing youth in the church, in the community, to learn the music of the Black church. Many youth, just like myself, we come to church on Sundays, dragged by your parents, not really interested in what the preacher is saying. We're looking at what's going on in that band section, what is the organist doing? What is the drummer doing? And how can I learn a little bit of that?" Groover explained.
Now, it's grown into a marching band, youth choir and a drumline for college students, which Groover describes as the pathway to phenomenal Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
Currently, the program has a relationship with The Marching 100, the marching band of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), but they are open to forging relationships with other HBCUs, too.
"Just growing up in New Orleans, a lot of the things we were doing, I grew up seeing it. And a lot of terminology and things like that, it was a big part of the culture there. So, I'm teaching students who have never seen a marching band before. They don't know what the culture is. [I'm] building them up to understand and introduce them to that world. It is very exciting," said Trevon Sullen-Trotter, the marching band director and alumnus of Berklee College of Music.
What does he enjoy most about it?
"The moment when they finally get it," Sullen-Trotter said laughing. "It might take a couple of weeks. It might take a month or two. When I blow the whistle and I tell them to play and it finally comes together, that's what makes me get up in the morning."
But what he's teaching them, he said, really goes beyond the music.
"We're really teaching them life skills and we're teaching them to push through when things are difficult," Sullen-Trotter said.
The Hamilton-Garrett Center for Music & Arts doesn't require students come with any prior experience.
"We just ask families do they have a love for music? Do they have an interest in it? And that's all that we require for them," Groover said to Cole.
The team is preparing students as young as 4 years old, and as old as 24, to see themselves as positive producers of the culture and not just consumers of it.
"And to see themselves as musicians and leaders of the next generation of Black music," Groover said.
The talent and spirit of the students will lead them to the big stage this weekend, for Hamilton-Garrett's annual benefit concert at the Berklee Performance Center and they're going to have a very special guest.
"On Sunday, October 18, we're so excited to honor Adam Blackstone, who is really leading the space of live music within Jazz, R&B, gospel and hip-hop," said Groover.
"It's exciting to share this with children, especially inspiring youth of the Hamilton-Garrett organization. Also, for kids to see people that look like me, look like them, Black and Brown children that are allowed to dream big, trust God and know that anything is possible," Blackstone told WBZ.
Adam Blackstone is a bass player, musician, Emmy Award-winning music director and Grammy Award-winning writer, who's worked with some of your favorite artists like Rihanna, Jay-Z, Janet Jackson, Alicia Keys, Shakira and J. Lo.
This year, Blackstone was inducted into the Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame and was also named to the EBONY Power 100 list as a 2026 Music Innovator. But even with his many honors and accolades - if you ask Blackstone - it's the kids who are special.
The young musicians recorded a music video with Blackstone too, for their first single, a special rendition of "Lovely Day" by Bill Withers, on their debut album.
"The students didn't even know Adam was coming," Groover said with joy.
"I was thankful to take the time out of my busy schedule to even get to Boston to show them that their work is not in vain. And people like myself, appreciate them. Just like they appreciate me, I appreciate them right back and I wanted to give back and show that by showing up for kids," Blackstone said.
This center for music and arts is as much about chords and counting as it is building community. That's what keeps the kids and adults coming back.
"The most important thing is being able to connect to something that is beyond you, you know. Just the feeling of having purpose in life. It's really cool," said Ace Allen, a 20-year-old musician with the Hamilton-Garrett program.
Groover invites everyone to become part of the community at Hamilton-Garrett.
How can you do that? By spreading the word about the program, attending the benefit concert or donating to the nonprofit to help keep the program going.
