Now in its fourth year, Brooklyn Porch Music provides free intensive mentorship with professional musicians, poetry composition workshops, large group ensemble rehearsals, and performances in multi-generational community concerts. Participants develop skills as creative artists and learn how to build community through music. They are empowered through songwriting and performances alongside mentors and peers in underutilized public spaces. The program serves the racially, ethnically, and economically diverse neighborhoods of Flatbush and Kensington, and we prioritize youth from Title I schools who wouldn’t otherwise have access to music education. We firmly believe there is a need for music in public and accessible spaces (as well as musical education for children) that carries beyond the pandemic to contemporary life, as an essential tool to communicate and heal through ongoing modern crises and challenges.