By Aaron Allen
Seattle Medium
The Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, with its deep mahogany wood trim, tile flooring and white walls were reminiscent of early 20th century school architecture, built in 1917 it is the type of building you see in vintage black and white photographs of your grandmother’s elementary school class photo.
Inside the center, sits Thaddeus Turner and Daniel Pak, founders of Totem Star – a music mentoring program for young people – as they look through the glass window that separates the two rooms of their intimate studio while engaging with a student.
Totem Star, a unique non-profit program designed to enhance the self-esteem and talents of young people to prepare them for life through the power of music and art, takes the raw talents of musicians and students interested in learning music and teaches them the foundations of music theory, music production, from songwriting and studio production, to performance and promotion and applying it through showcases and real-life scenarios.
According to Turner and Pak, Totem Star take music theory and culture and empower youth, in particular, children of color and children with troubled past and channel their energies using music as the conduit for life changes.
“Totem Star is about building relationships with these children and building their trust and them trusting us with their voices, with their songwriting, with their stories, their lyrics and melodies and then helping them produce it,” says Pak.
A native of Seattle, Turner is one of the Pacific Northwest’s most established and talented musicians in Seattle’s iconic music scene. A Graduate of Garfield High School in 1984, “Thad” as he known has been playing music for as long as he can remember. Influenced by such musicians and artists as his father and brother, Prince, Sly Stone, Steve Arrington, Turner went on to flourish as a premier musician with a resume that includes stints with Digable Planets, Steve Arrington, Ice Cube, in addition to his former band MakTube.
“My personal musical experiences began in church playing with my father and brother,” says Turner. “In high school, I played in both Stage and Jazz bands. Some of my early influences as a musician were James Brown, Sly Stone, BB King.”
“But I would have to say my major influence in my music was Prince,” continued Turner. “So following in that example to become a multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter it really appealed to me,” continues Thaddeus.
Pak’s journey to music possessed a very different path. Hailing from Hawaii Pak’s initial goal was to secure a degree at the University of Washington (UW) in Metallurgical engineering. After graduating from the UW, Pak was offered a job in his field, but his love for music led him to turn it down.
“I was offered a job as a nuclear engineer,” explains Pak. “I sat down with a job recruiter in Pearl Harbor and I turned it down in about three minutes. I told them no, because I had already made the decision that music was going to be my life.”
Pak went on to start a successful reggae band named Kore Ionz. He later went on to perform with some of his greatest reggae heroes like Steel Pulse, The Wailers and members of the Marley family.
The two eventually crossed paths in 2008 as they were both mentoring students. Turner through Rock School and Pak through The Service Board and Arts Core. The two launched Totem Star in 2010 with a handful of students and a dream to make a difference.
“I didn’t seek it out, it found me. The whole idea of starting a non-profit just kinda fell in our laps,” said Turner. “In the summer of 2010, we worked with ten youth who just got out of juvenile detention and we worked the entire summer started with ten and ended with ten and that was the beginning of Totem Star.”
Since that time, 1100 students have come through those studio doors and have been impacted and made an impact in and on this small but significant program.
One such student, Sharmaine Tillmon, a nineteen year old graduate of Rainier Beach high school, she discovered an environment that promotes self-expression, work ethic and not fearing stepping out of her comfort zone and discovering her potential for achievement.
“I met Pak when I was a part of the Hip Hop Residency program here at the school,” said Tillmon. “We had rehearsal at the Thelma DeWitty theater in the Youngstown Cultural Arts center and Pak came in and said you should come and visit the studio. I came to the studio and he was very welcoming.”
“From there we started to learn the business and culture of music myself and others and ever since it just felt like family,” she continued. “There was a comfort zone and sometimes they would push outside of the comfort zone, and the one-on-one attention given to students is one of the most valuable assets of a program that taught me learning how to be better in all that I do.”
Both Pak and Turner describe themselves as “Teaching Artists” as they have taken Totem Star and have worked with dedication and love of the art of music and through their mentorship, impacted the lives of young people and giving them a platform to express and liberate themselves and their self-esteem and discover achievement.
“I started mentoring young people and I fell in love with it. I realized there was a need for the arts,” said Pak. “Working with my first group of kids was the first time I ever heard that these young teens in high school never had music, never had a jazz band and they wanted to learn how to play a guitar.”
Totem Star is providing precedence in the proof of how valuable music and the arts are to learning. Thaddeus Turner and Daniel Pak work diligently to enhance the lives of young people, utilizing the extraordinary talents they were gifted with and the magic that is music and handing that heritage to a new generation that because of a lack of empathy these programs have been stricken from schools across the United States.
But in this corner of the world, Seattle possesses on of the most storied histories in music and its influence is organic and Totem Star is the product of Seattle’s music tradition and taking that tradition to educate and better the lives of Seattle’s youth.
