Making Expression and Scholarship Heard, a Syracuse University student group, will be hosting a performance by beatboxer, musician and actor Chesney Snow Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at Schine Underground.

“Here is someone who has taken his art and made it into a profession — he travels around the world performing, he teaches this in schools, he’s an example of someone who’s an entrepreneur and an artist,” said Alexander Sammartino, the president of M.E.S.H.

M.E.S.H. is a group on campus that works with middle school and high school students in the Syracuse community. It teaches creative writing workshops through discussions of social issues. Sammartino, a senior dual philosophy and English textual studies major, said the workshops create a dialogue that gives the kids a voice through creativity. He said it is a way for the kids to express themselves and engage with their emotions on a topic in a non-destructive way.

Chesney Snow, who is based in New York City, is also a musician, an actor and an educator, teaching music and beatboxing at the Lavelle School for the Blind. Snow has worked as a teaching artist for over 10 years, reaching out to people of all ages in hospitals, juvenile centers, homeless shelters, community centers and schools, according to his website.

The show will be opened by local middle and high schools students reading and performing some of their poetry. Raul hopes that this opportunity will encourage the kids to pursue the arts. She said she hopes that attending an event planned and attended by college students will inspire the kids.

“One of the goals for our organization is to connect Syracuse students with the students in the larger community,” said Neha Rauf, M.E.S.H’s public relations chair. M.E.S.H does this by publishing creative writing pieces from students in the local area in a literary magazine once a semester. SU students will be able to meet some of these students at Snow’s performance Wednesday night.

Sammartino said the “super talented” Snow will show the kids they can combine their artistic talents with their career. He said Snow is the embodiment of the organization’s mission.

Sammartino also hopes SU students will take away three things from Snow’s performance. He hopes they will be entertained, become more aware of what M.E.S.H. is and what it has to offer but mostly he hopes that it will create a greater understanding of how important the arts are in education.

Rauf, a sophomore international relations and civic engagement dual major, said M.E.S.H. opened her eyes to the different issues facing people in the Syracuse community, particularly the children in the school system, and that she hopes the event could do the same for other SU students. Raul now mentors a student at a local school as do other members of M.E.S.H.

“Just to have that personal connection makes Syracuse more like my home,” Rauf said. Many of the mentees will be coming to watch and learn from Snow.

M.E.S.H. is already busy planning another magazine launch party for the local students in the fall semester and will be publishing another compilation of their work very soon.

Sammartino said working with the kids “has always been an incredibly humbling experience and a very inspiring experience.”

Published on March 18, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact Rachel: rcgilber@syr.edu