Have you heard of DJ Jimmy Bones? DJ Big Boi? How about DJ XIII? If you haven’t, you’ve got some catching up to do. These middle school DJs from Middletown participate in the Middletown Youth Radio Project (MYRP) that broadcasts radio shows every Friday from 6:30 to 7 p.m. The project matches University student tutors with teenagers from Traverse Square. Now in its third year, the project is now stronger than ever.

“The aim would be to give them their own space to express themselves, play the music they like, and involve them in the WESU community, which is literally in their own backyard,” said current MYRP head Maddie Neufeld ’12.

About eight University students work with the dedicated DJs to write, edit, and record stories, poems, and music. Each week, the students pick up their tutees from their homes in Traverse Square and prepare for the weekly audio show. Recent segments have ranged from interviews with University athletes, to movie reviews of “Inception,” to postulations on the existence of love.

Many of the most inspiring pieces are autobiographical music segments.

“The world is so different// I feel so bad // The whole thing’s gone so bad,” read the lyrics of one young DJ’s song, “Rap About Life.”

Another song “Krazy About You” tells another participant’s story about love: “I feel like a shame // I feel better when I hear your name // Every time I get caught up // I think that’s what’s up now // I feel free.”

The inspiring project is the brainchild of Mu Abeledo ’09 and Jess Jones ’08, who conceived of the idea while DJing their WESU Latin American radio show in the spring of 2007. Their first step was to hold a meeting with parents and their children in the neighborhood. Upon generating significant interest, Abeledo and Jones collaborated with the kids to record a public service announcement about the importance of traffic safety.

Abeledo and Jones returned to campus early in August of 2007 and ventured into Traverse Square. While walking through the streets, they recognized the kids they had worked with and invited them to the WESU station. After a whole week of meetings and workshops, the Wesleyan students and new Traverse Square DJs had successfully produced shows to fill 15-minute segments during the fall programming for WESU.

Implementing the program into the WESU schedule required time and dedication.

“It took a lot of meeting parents, making the rounds,” Abeledo said. “We hung out with them for hours in Red and Black Café and talked to them on their stoops while they waited for their brothers and sisters.”

Abeledo and Jones also found it challenging to calibrate a balance between guiding their DJ tutees and allowing them their independence.

“The original idea was for the project to be kid-run, but in practice, we didn’t know what kid-run would look like,” Abeledo said. “We had to figure out how to support them enough to be successful.”

As if those hurdles weren’t difficult enough to jump, there was also the issue of keeping the young DJs consistently engaged.

“The challenge was figuring out what the kids were energetic and enthusiastic about,” Abeledo said. “Sometimes it was a problem when they played video games in the radio stations; so, instead, we had them write a poem about their favorite video game.”

The project flourished in spite of the challenges Abeledo and Jones faced. In its first year alone, the MYRP DJs produced a number of original pieces—including an interview with Wesleyan alum Daniel Handler ’92, known by the pen name Lemony Snicket, and a series of Halloween-themed horror stories. By the start of the 2008-2009 academic year, Abeledo had witnessed the core group of eight kids become much stronger DJs, demonstrating improved confidence and spontaneity on the air.

Luckily, when the two MYRP forerunners graduated, a group of Wesleyan students from the class of 2012 took over the group.

“If we hadn’t stepped in our freshman year, MYRP could’ve dissolved,” said participant Harry Bartle ’12.

Today, MYRP—still the only program of its kind in central Connecticut—continues to improve and diversify its DJs and radio programs. Bartle is particularly proud of his tutees, who now go by self-proclaimed DJ aliases on air.

“We have a few really inspiring MCs,” Bartle said. “DJ XIII and DJ Jimmy Bones [Sean and James, respectfully] are working on a mix tape that will be hitting the streets pretty soon.”

The relationships between tutors and tutees are far from exclusively professional. Tutors and tutees work on homework, play basketball, and discuss everything from families to school dances. But one topic proves most popular.

“Girls are the number one thing we talk about,” said MYRP member Jake Schofield ’12, noting the currently all-male composition of the DJ group. “It’s amazing the kind of relevant advice you can get out of it.”

Tutors hope that establishing these kinds of interpersonal relationships will have a larger impact on the Middletown community.

“MYRP may continue to get rid of the whole Wesleyan-Middletown divide, because there’s such an incredible barrier,” Schofield said.

Ultimately, the Wesleyan students involved attribute the sustained success of the program to the tutees themselves.

“We’ve stuck with it because of the personal relations we’ve developed, because it’s really fun when Friday comes around,” Schofield said. “What’s more fun than music and kids?”