Louisville.com
Published on Louisville.com (https://archive.louisville.com)

Home > Jecorey's Glory

Music [1]

Jecorey's Glory [2]

Posted On: 7 Aug 2019 - 12:53pm

Music [1]
By Staff [3]

This originally appeared in the 2019 Best of Louisville issue of Louisville Magazine. 
 

NyRee Clayton-Taylor [4] was named the 2019 Kentucky elementary teacher of the year for her creative-writing classes at Wheatley Elementary in the California neighborhood. One of her former students, 13-year-old DaVonn Pitney, recently performed with the Louisville Orchestra. The local musician Jecorey “1200” Arthur [5] made it happen. “It was amazing,” Clayton-Taylor says. “He has helped my students by always inviting them to perform on any stage he performs on.” DaVonn, who will be in eighth grade at Thomas Jefferson Middle School, attends Clayton-Taylor’s iRAP program, which uses hip-hop to teach kids about their history and themselves. DaVonn’s part of a group called Young Prodigies, whose latest song is titled “Black History Cypher.”

We asked DaVonn to pen a poem about Arthur, who’s also the music educator at Louisville Public Media.

 

Over 3,000 kids screaming out my rap name, “Stay Blessed, Stay Blessed, Stay Blessed!”

3 days, back-to-back, on the stage of Whitney Hall

The Louisville Orchestra playing in harmony behind me

Under the control of their sheet music and Conductor Teddy with his baton

There I stood,

ME

It was my moment and my time had come.

In my soul, my music

In my mind, my lyrics

In my heart, the words of Jecorey Arthur reminded me of my greatness

As my mouth opened, each syllable hugged the tip of my tongue

As the beat of the drums guided my feet to move in a back and forth motion across the stage

For 6 weeks

Practice

For 6 weeks

Lyrics

For 6 weeks

Feedback

For 6 weeks

Jecorey was my rubric

Working with me to ensure

Perfection

Working with me to ensure

Resilience

And most importantly, working with me to ensure that I had

The DRIP!

The Drip, that flavor that unleashes the lyricism that allows it to flow from heart to heart

Using only one lethal weapon —

The Beat

For this, I would like to thank Jecorey Arthur.

 

This originally appeared in the 2019 Best of Louisville issue of Louisville Magazine. Read more [6].

To subscribe to Louisville Magazine, click here. [7] To find us on newsstands, click here. [8]

Illustration by Shae Goodlett, shaedraws.com [9]

Tags:

  • Best of Louisville 2019 [10]
  • Jecorey Arthur [11]
  • 1200 [12]
  • NyRee Clayton-Taylor [13]
  • DaVonn Pitney [14]

Source URL: https://archive.louisville.com/content/jecorey-arthur-poem-music-davonn-pitney-young-prodigies

Links
[1] https://archive.louisville.com/category/music
[2] https://archive.louisville.com/content/jecorey-arthur-poem-music-davonn-pitney-young-prodigies
[3] https://archive.louisville.com/users/staff
[4] https://www.louisville.com/content/nyree-clayton-taylor-teacher-phillis-wheatley-school
[5] https://1200llc.com/
[6] https://www.louisville.com/content/best-louisville-2019-art
[7] https://www.louisville.com/subscriptions
[8] https://www.louisville.com/where-find-louisville-magazine
[9] https://www.shaedraws.com/
[10] https://archive.louisville.com/tags/best-louisville-2019
[11] https://archive.louisville.com/tags/jecorey-arthur
[12] https://archive.louisville.com/tags/1200
[13] https://archive.louisville.com/tags/nyree-clayton-taylor
[14] https://archive.louisville.com/tags/davonn-pitney