As a longtime teacher at the Flint School of Performing Arts and program director of the FRYE (Flint Rocks Youth Empowerment) Music Camp, Julie Hugunin has no problem reaching young people who are learning to express themselves through music. Young musicians need places to perform to hone their craft, though, and that part can be tricky.
That’s where Ken Van Wagoner, owner of Good Beans Café, and his annual GOODSTOCK event, come in. Each year, Van Wagoner invites professional musicians and artists to perform on the lawn outside of Good Beans in what has become a tradition in Flint on the weekend after Labor Day. In recent years, a large part of that event has also included space for musicians from the Flint School of Performing Arts and from the FRYE Camp to get an opportunity to perform in a professional setting in front of a live audience.
“Finding kids that are interested in performing arts, that’s no difficulty at all,” Hugunin said. “But finding venues that have the proper space and the resources for kids to perform is not easy. Ken from Good Beans is actually a very skilled sound engineer. He has a PA all set up. All we have to do is bring the kids’ instruments. It is immeasurably helpful to have partnerships with people like him who are not only willing, but enthusiastic, about helping. And it’s a great thing I can point to for the kids to say, see, there are people out there right here in your own community who believe in you!”
For Van Wagoner, the partnership is beneficial for reasons that are both heartfelt and practical. Inviting young musicians to perform at GOODSTOCK ensures that parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and others will come and watch the kids they love get an opportunity to perform, which brings in an audience for other artists and musicians who perform at the event. But for him, it is also important to help create the next generation of local Flint talent that will perform at events in the city.
“There’s a community of performers that perform constantly. There’s stages for them everywhere, they have to work to get ’em, but they don’t have to look hard,” Van Wagoner said. “Young or inexperienced performers or new performers who don’t have that opportunity struggle (to find stages) and I had this thought in my head, someday some kid’s gonna get a question asked, so how’d you get your start? And they’re gonna say, ‘I remember the very first time I ever performed was on this GOODSTOCK stage,’ you know? And I’m hoping that I’m giving them at the very least a memory of that. So on that level, it’s simple. I love to provide that for them.”
FRYE is a 5-day camp for kids ages 10-16. During those five days, they learn to play instruments, form bands, write songs, create their own logos and merch designs, and at the end of the camp, get to perform on the stage of Flint Local 432. GOODSTOCK has given the students a second opportunity to perform, in front of audiences that include more than just family and friends.
Alan Mason has attended the FRYE Camp for several years and is a part of a band called Arrow. Mason has performed at GOODSTOCK more than once now, and Arrow has even stuck together and continued practicing together after the camp ended this year.
“I like making music,” Mason said. “I like performing at the end of the week and writing the song. It’s stressful because we only have a week to write one song, but it’s actually really fun.”
When asked their musical style, Arrow members described it as, “… that’s a very good question. Like, like fun metal?” And Hugunin said the genre-bending styles the kids in the camp come up with are a favorite part of the experience.
“Arrow is a little more metal or hardcore, Killshot is kind of folk/indie, Strych Nine Soup is very theatrical, they’re a bunch of theatre kids,” Hugunin said. “Retail for Another Time, they call themselves ‘midwestern emo.’ Their song is about Black Friday Shopping but from the perspective of an employee. Screaming Goat Lake called themselves, ‘basically Green Day,’ so they are punk. And then the Dragonflies would be more pop.”
Hugunin has limited time with the kids during the FRYE camp, but encourages the participants to tap into their own experiences and musical interests. She’s often floored by the depth of the lyrics and stories they come up with in a short period of time.
“A lot of their lyrics this year were very timely, very social justice-minded,” she said. “I remember hearing from the kids in Killshot, ‘we were afraid to go a little political because we didn’t want to get you in trouble.’ Oh, no no no. If anybody wants to come after you for being political, they have to go through me first.”
The music is only part of the goal with these programs, though. Harper Lord, who is a member of the Retail for Another Time band, said that “getting to make new friends” was her favorite part of the camp this year.
Gray Howell of Arrow praised the camp because, “It’s given me a chance to make music. I’ve always loved it and I just love playing. It’s my favorite thing to do.”
Hugunin also enjoys the contrast between the FRYE students and the FSPA students and the chance for them to get to know each other. She and her colleague David Lindsey, the voice department chair at Flint School of Performing Arts, work with two age groups of musical theatre students, and GOODSTOCK also featured soloists who did woodwind instrument and piano performances.
“What I really like is that my two different groups get to see each other,” she said. “FIM (Flint Institute of Music) does a pretty good job of community engagement, but they don’t hit the same sort of market that (FRYE) does. And vice versa, so I feel like GOODSTOCK is an opportunity for these kids to see other opportunities that are out there that they might otherwise not have known about. FRYE is a very different animal from anything that is offered at FSPA because they’re very much more traditional music training. And it (GOODSTOCK) is about getting these kids into rooms with people that they’ve never known, coming out of their comfort zone, realizing that they have a voice that has value and that they can collaborate with other people and make something brand new and offer it.”
That mentality is exactly the spirit that inspires Van Wagoner to continue putting on GOODSTOCK events. This year’s GOODSTOCK also included performances by Deonta Gaddy Jr. and Larry B and the Boomers. Food vendors included Yvette’s Tacos, The Local Grocer, and Paula’s Ice Cream Truck. In addition to Van Wagoner and his volunteers, GOODSTOCK is also supported by the Greater Flint Arts Council’s “Parade of Festivals” program, which is funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
“I’ve loved doing it,” he said. “It was always community driven. It was always hyper-local, performance driven. I’ve always been about supporting community and culture. I just felt that was an obligation I wanted to fulfill and give back to the community.”
The platform has also been appreciated by the students Hugunin works with.
“Every year that we’ve done it, we get more and more kids that make sure they’re available for GOODSTOCK,” she said. “For the very young kids, it’s also just a great way to be involved in the community. I like getting the kids to see other places in the city and supporting businesses that are community-minded like Good Beans Cafe.”
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