Kid Rebels with Gail Sheehy

Activist song-writer Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary, brings the traumatized teenage survivors of the Parkland school shooting out of isolation and depression to put their souls on paper. Lyrics and spoken word burst forth. Beautiful voices are discovered. Raw emotions are transformed into musical prayers. In the first several hours an anthem is created: “Song for the Silenced.” Full album is forthcoming.

Parkland students are workshopping a song, “Wake Up America,” when, from the corner, a shy boy -- face curtained in curls -- explodes in a burst of poetry: “Cycles of violence, it all seems so mindless. Halls ring of gunshots and then they go silent. Darkness before us, children are dying, but we won’t be quiet: our voices are rising.” Two days of songwriting gave Jorgie Garrido back the power he lost during the shooting.Kid Rebels is a podcast designed to be listened to in order. If you're just landing here please go back and start with Episode 1.

Student survivors of the Parkland school shooting always have to be on guard. Something terrible could happen again, any time, anywhere. Keith Secola, father of Native Americana music, uses his power to coax people out fear and isolation in helping the painfully shy sophomore, Kendal Rivera, blossom from singing only in the shower to finding his gifts as a lyricist and vocalist. Lu Aya, poet activist, helps Kendal learn to channel the pain he’s swallowed into the beautiful words of “Transparent” and “Watering Can Full of Tears.”Kid Rebels is a podcast designed to be listened to in order. If you're just landing here please go back and start with Episode 1.

In the final chapter (for now) of the story behind the historical collaboration that gave birth to the musical arm of the gun violence prevention movement, Parkland students Sawyer Garrity and Andrea Pena draft lyrics to their March for Our Lives anthem: “Shine.” Together with record producer Kevin Salem, three other seniors put to music “Valentine’s Day,” a haunting ballad that chronicles the day of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas. And in “We Need,” Jorgie and the Parkland singers tell us, “We need prayers to turn into policy. We need action more than an apology…” Sheehy and Peter Yarrow discuss how the music -- and this story -- becomes even more important with news of a wave of suicides among Parkland survivors and a Newtown parent.Kid Rebels is a podcast designed to be listened to in order. If you're just landing here please go back and start with Episode 1.