Philadelphia program allows students to tap into healing power of music

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In 2015, Matt Kerr was fresh out of college and full of ideas — so many ideas that he made an 8-page plan. His main mission: to bring music instruction to incarcerated teenagers, as a way to foster expression and navigate emotions.

“It’s such a natural means of expressing what’s hard to say,” said Kerr. “It’s one of the things that we can both do as self-expression and also communal expression.”

Kerr added that music allows people to express their own emotions, but also to share those feelings in a group setting. 

That idea helped birth a Philadelphia program called Beyond The Bars. It has since expanded to community centers and schools throughout the city. 

“Music activates a lot of parts of the brain that aren’t activated just through talking,” said Brian Decker, a certified music therapist in Philadelphia. “It really activates all these different motor neurons … It’s very engaging in a way that talk therapy might not be for certain people.”

Decker says that music therapy can be effective for people who struggle with communicating. He said songs can make people think about loved ones, or unlock emotions that are otherwise hard to access. 

Beyond the Bars uses this connection to music to help students express themselves. “You can take these small things from music therapy and really help someone kind of see themselves and develop some more self-efficacy, some more confidence,” said Matt Jernigan, the program coordinator who oversees the curriculum.

This method has an impact on students. Jakeera, 17, has been involved in the program since 2023. “I had a really bad day at school and it was just a really depressing day for me,” she said. Then she went to the after-school program, and things changed for the better.

“We started playing keyboard. And then it’s just like all of that emotion just went away. And I wasn’t focused on it. So then when I left the program, it was just like, why was I sad?”

Songwriting has been a way to explore and process emotions for many students at Beyond the Bars, including Miguel, a 16-year-old rapper who goes by SZN.

“I feel like I’ve been able to understand myself a little bit more,” he said. “I’m normally a quiet person, but whenever I’m in this music mode I definitely feel more confident.”

When program coordinator Matt Jernigan comes into work every day, he sees students learning to express themselves through music, and it’s a reason for him to keep going and give his best. 

“We want to grow as teachers,” he said. “We want to give these kids what we might not have had. We want to give them experiences that we’ve always dreamed of. We want them to feel like they can keep coming back to get more.” 

This story was reported by WHYY youth correspondents Nora Dorn, Amelia Candeub and Miguel Perez. Special thanks to youth media instructor and mentor Cay Midla.