SYMPHONY FOR A BROKEN ORCHESTRA

Does a room full of broken musical instruments mean the Philadelphia schools will go silent?

Not when Robert Blackson, the artistic director of Temple Contemporary—a center for exhibitions and public programming at Temple University—gets onboard, according to endnotes explaining the inspiration for the titular symphony, a music education nonprofit, and this book. The story opens with children, depicted with a multitude of skin tones and hairstyles, in classrooms and on the streets enjoying their instruments: “Philadelphia is full of NOISE.” Millward’s scribbly, digital illustrations and high-octane settings and colors have a childlike quality perfectly attuned to the subject. The sounds, rendered in black letters with yellow highlighting, dominate the designs; musical notes and bright squiggles pulsate across the pages. A young Black saxophonist bops along, passing a mural of Grover Washington Jr., but the sax is abandoned when the musician runs for shelter during a storm. The drummer sets down his snare to purchase a soft pretzel, and someone steps on it. A small child stuffs a sibling’s trumpet with toy animals, then comments that it “sounds like a fart.” But “just because / something is broken doesn’t / mean that it can’t also be beautiful,” and a performance using the discarded instruments is held—the fundraiser that occurred in 2017. Listeners can tune in on the Vimeo link provided. The concert and narrative conclude in a crescendo of joyful cacophony. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A splendid example of urban renewal.