Pharrell Williams has partnered with Amazon and Georgia Tech for a new initiative that aims to teach music coding to young students. This follows the multi-hyphenate’s launch of his non-profit Black Ambition in support of minority innovators.

The music education initiative will be called Your Voice is Power, as announced by his non-profit, YELLOW, and it’s going to be specifically training up middle and high school students — any students in the U.S. and Canada can participate. The initiative will include five teaching modules that offer practical coding skills as well as discussion sessions between teachers and students about racial injustice. Furthermore, Your Voice is Power will host a competition that gets students to remix Pharrell’s single “Entrepreneur.” Students will be required to create the remix using their own voices through Georgia Tech’s coding platform EarSketch.

Pharrell explained in a statement: “This collaboration between YELLOW, Amazon, and Georgia Tech is a celebration of Black creators and change-makers. YELLOW at its core believes that education is a pathway to success. Teaching kids future-ready skills like coding, especially those kids for whom opportunities like this have not been equally distributed, is how we prepare the next generation of entrepreneurs.”

The first-round competition of Your Voice is Power will kick-off on January 19, followed by the second round from March 15 to June 4.

Posted by:Staff