"Off the Table is a video-web series that happens every Wednesday via an arts elective class offered by Vocal Music teacher, Cava Menzies." --Trevor Walton, 7th grade
Oakland School for the Arts is a creative school full of talented writers, singers, instrumental artists, you name it. One way those talents are displayed is on Off the Table. Off the Table is a video-web series that happens every Wednesday via an arts elective class offered by Vocal Music teacher, Cava Menzies. This series is very unique and deserves more viewers. Plus, there are so many talented students who work on the series.
First off is Cava Menzies. Menzies is the creator of Off the Table and has been doing it for two years. She had the idea of highlighting the original artistic work that students were creating outside of the classroom at OSA.
"I was really curious about bands that students were in," Menzies said. "Who they were collaborating with, the kind of original music they were creating, and just what the sound of the artists coming out of our school was."
She didn't want to limit the class to just instrumentalists and vocalists, so she opened it to include as many different kinds of art pathways as possible.
"I wanted any student that played music to be able to go on the show, like a Visual Artist that also plays guitar, or a writer that loves to play drums," Menzies said. "I loved the notion of a student-run class that was multidisciplinary. The fact that various art forms could work together to create content was enticing to me. And I loved the show on NPR, Tiny Desk Series. Our class is modeled after that show--but for youth specifically."
First off is Cava Menzies. Menzies is the creator of Off the Table and has been doing it for two years. She had the idea of highlighting the original artistic work that students were creating outside of the classroom at OSA.
"I was really curious about bands that students were in," Menzies said. "Who they were collaborating with, the kind of original music they were creating, and just what the sound of the artists coming out of our school was."
She didn't want to limit the class to just instrumentalists and vocalists, so she opened it to include as many different kinds of art pathways as possible.
"I wanted any student that played music to be able to go on the show, like a Visual Artist that also plays guitar, or a writer that loves to play drums," Menzies said. "I loved the notion of a student-run class that was multidisciplinary. The fact that various art forms could work together to create content was enticing to me. And I loved the show on NPR, Tiny Desk Series. Our class is modeled after that show--but for youth specifically."
According to Menzies, Off the Table is a team of OSA students that film, record, and produce a video series featuring various musical artists/groups from OSA.
"Our series highlights the youth voice," Menzies explained. "It brings exposure to the powerful creative culture of Oakland youth." Off the Table came to be when Menzies and a Fashion Design student named Ajai Kasim came together at lunch one day, discussing how amazing young artist like Zendaya and Kehlani didn't get to fully collaborate at OSA. She didn't want that to happen to other students. She wanted a place for students to show their creativity--and so the idea of making a class for the students, run by the students, arose.
One goal Menzies has for the class is to show the talent that OSA has to offer. "I want to highlight and celebrate the unique artistic and musical culture coming out of OSA," she said. According to Menzies, a day in the life at Off the Table can get pretty chaotic. "There's a lot of different moving parts," Menzies explained. "There are some people setting up lights and cameras, others setting up mics and the sound board, some setting up the set, and some people writing bios and booking our next artists. It can be a lot sometimes, and definitely doesn't look like a typical classroom. But the end product is well worth it."
When asked about her favorite moment in all of her years running Off the Table, she responded with saying, "We've had a lot of amazing Off The Table moments. One of our highlights was performing at Bandcamp headquarters and also getting NPR and KQED to share our story. That felt really special, especially because we model the class off of the NPR Tiny Desk Series."
Next up is Justin Walton. Walton is a senior who is in the Literary Arts department. This is his first year working with the series and he likes it so far. "It's dope," Walton said. "I can collaborate with other students and be able to perform my talent which is fun." As an artist and a rapper, he really likes to perform. Walton described his best Off the Table moment was when he had the chance to perform on the show in front of others.
As an upcoming artist, Walton has performed at many different shows. When asked about what he could gain from the series, he responded, "I'm learning more behind-the-scenes experience. Since I'm an artist, I normally don't have to worry about putting on a show myself, so being in this class has made me appreciate what people do behind the scenes as far as booking talent and putting on a whole show." For Walton, his favorite thing about the show was to see people from different emphases collaborate and show their talent.
Vocal Music artist and sophomore, Tai-Ge Min, is also a part of Off the Table. Min has been on the video web series since it was founded last year. Min is usually a guest singer on the show, but she doesn't do behind-the-scenes like Walton does.
"It's been really fun," Min said. "It's changed a lot from day one to now, which has been really cool and interesting to watch. It's one of the first times I've been able to work on stuff with people from other emphases, and business management-type jobs, so I've learned a lot!"
From Min's time as a part of the Off the Table class, the best moment to her is when she filmed Gabriel Mesa, a senior at OSA who is in Instrumental.
"When we were watching the show, we all started dancing and singing along," Min recalled. "If you watch the show it's like a tiny little party. It was super fun!" When she started working on the show, Min didn't really have a specific goal. But, since she joined, Min has developed a goal to be able to work with other artists who are skilled in different ways.
"Our series highlights the youth voice," Menzies explained. "It brings exposure to the powerful creative culture of Oakland youth." Off the Table came to be when Menzies and a Fashion Design student named Ajai Kasim came together at lunch one day, discussing how amazing young artist like Zendaya and Kehlani didn't get to fully collaborate at OSA. She didn't want that to happen to other students. She wanted a place for students to show their creativity--and so the idea of making a class for the students, run by the students, arose.
One goal Menzies has for the class is to show the talent that OSA has to offer. "I want to highlight and celebrate the unique artistic and musical culture coming out of OSA," she said. According to Menzies, a day in the life at Off the Table can get pretty chaotic. "There's a lot of different moving parts," Menzies explained. "There are some people setting up lights and cameras, others setting up mics and the sound board, some setting up the set, and some people writing bios and booking our next artists. It can be a lot sometimes, and definitely doesn't look like a typical classroom. But the end product is well worth it."
When asked about her favorite moment in all of her years running Off the Table, she responded with saying, "We've had a lot of amazing Off The Table moments. One of our highlights was performing at Bandcamp headquarters and also getting NPR and KQED to share our story. That felt really special, especially because we model the class off of the NPR Tiny Desk Series."
Next up is Justin Walton. Walton is a senior who is in the Literary Arts department. This is his first year working with the series and he likes it so far. "It's dope," Walton said. "I can collaborate with other students and be able to perform my talent which is fun." As an artist and a rapper, he really likes to perform. Walton described his best Off the Table moment was when he had the chance to perform on the show in front of others.
As an upcoming artist, Walton has performed at many different shows. When asked about what he could gain from the series, he responded, "I'm learning more behind-the-scenes experience. Since I'm an artist, I normally don't have to worry about putting on a show myself, so being in this class has made me appreciate what people do behind the scenes as far as booking talent and putting on a whole show." For Walton, his favorite thing about the show was to see people from different emphases collaborate and show their talent.
Vocal Music artist and sophomore, Tai-Ge Min, is also a part of Off the Table. Min has been on the video web series since it was founded last year. Min is usually a guest singer on the show, but she doesn't do behind-the-scenes like Walton does.
"It's been really fun," Min said. "It's changed a lot from day one to now, which has been really cool and interesting to watch. It's one of the first times I've been able to work on stuff with people from other emphases, and business management-type jobs, so I've learned a lot!"
From Min's time as a part of the Off the Table class, the best moment to her is when she filmed Gabriel Mesa, a senior at OSA who is in Instrumental.
"When we were watching the show, we all started dancing and singing along," Min recalled. "If you watch the show it's like a tiny little party. It was super fun!" When she started working on the show, Min didn't really have a specific goal. But, since she joined, Min has developed a goal to be able to work with other artists who are skilled in different ways.
Like Walton, Min's favorite thing about Off the Table is being able to see her peers show off their talent. "I love watching the shows. It's so nice to see my peers, a lot of whom I didn't know wrote music, perform their stuff. It feels like I'm watching artistic history being made. I also really like the behind-the-scenes stuff. For some reason, I really like sending emails. So that's fun for me, same with writing the bios and all the other stuff. It's just a fun class to be in."
In her opinion, when it comes to promoting the web series, she would call herself "pretty useless" with that stuff. "I'll promote a show on Instagram every once in a while," Min said. "But the social media people are usually better at that stuff. I send a lot of the videos to my family though," she added, laughing.
When asked about what an average day was working on the show, Min responded, "We alternate between show days and work days each Wednesday usually, so we walk in, sit down and have a check in. Ms. Menzies usually tells us what we have to do that day or in the next few weeks, or we just talk about how we're feeling. Then, we either do work (booking people and preparing for upcoming shows, social media, writing bios, etc) or we film a show! Filming days can be a little hectic. Everyone helps arrange the room to our Tiny Desk-esque set-up, and then we film two takes and tear it all down. There's a rhythm now."
Another person that works on Off the Table is Ajai Kasim, a senior at OSA. Kasim is not just a fashion designer, but a performer as well. Kasim was in the class for its first year, and described it as "a beautiful experience."
"It was great to have such a platform as an artist," Kasim explained, "But my favorite was giving other artists a platform to show the world their talents."
Kasim says his best moment on the show was the second time he got to perform. "The energy was so perfect," Kasim said, "It felt like the whole time everyone was really supporting me and in tune with the music." But, just like Walton and Min, his favorite thing about the show was being able to see the level of talent of his peers. "It was always refreshing and something to look forward to," Kasim said.
Recently, due to the pandemic and shelter-in-place orders from the state, OSA is closed, which means that Off the Table can't broadcast or perform like it normally does. However, Menzies has found a way to do Off the Table, even further off the table--or out of the classroom. While not actually the official Off the Table class, Menzies wanted to find a way to bring back the collaborative energy that was shown at OSA.
In her opinion, when it comes to promoting the web series, she would call herself "pretty useless" with that stuff. "I'll promote a show on Instagram every once in a while," Min said. "But the social media people are usually better at that stuff. I send a lot of the videos to my family though," she added, laughing.
When asked about what an average day was working on the show, Min responded, "We alternate between show days and work days each Wednesday usually, so we walk in, sit down and have a check in. Ms. Menzies usually tells us what we have to do that day or in the next few weeks, or we just talk about how we're feeling. Then, we either do work (booking people and preparing for upcoming shows, social media, writing bios, etc) or we film a show! Filming days can be a little hectic. Everyone helps arrange the room to our Tiny Desk-esque set-up, and then we film two takes and tear it all down. There's a rhythm now."
Another person that works on Off the Table is Ajai Kasim, a senior at OSA. Kasim is not just a fashion designer, but a performer as well. Kasim was in the class for its first year, and described it as "a beautiful experience."
"It was great to have such a platform as an artist," Kasim explained, "But my favorite was giving other artists a platform to show the world their talents."
Kasim says his best moment on the show was the second time he got to perform. "The energy was so perfect," Kasim said, "It felt like the whole time everyone was really supporting me and in tune with the music." But, just like Walton and Min, his favorite thing about the show was being able to see the level of talent of his peers. "It was always refreshing and something to look forward to," Kasim said.
Recently, due to the pandemic and shelter-in-place orders from the state, OSA is closed, which means that Off the Table can't broadcast or perform like it normally does. However, Menzies has found a way to do Off the Table, even further off the table--or out of the classroom. While not actually the official Off the Table class, Menzies wanted to find a way to bring back the collaborative energy that was shown at OSA.
"I had the idea to do the shelter in place collaborations with students one morning while I was in my home, sheltering in place," Menzies said.
"I was thinking about how much I missed the students and how much I missed our collaborative energy at school together. There were many lunches, passing periods, and after school moments where kids used to come in the classroom and we would work on original compositions that they were working through. These were kids from all different emphases. Sometimes they'd start an idea, sometimes I'd start one... it was just a really wonderful creative vibe and I missed that flow that we had together."
While Menzies was at home, she tried to play around with various apps so that she could broadcast young, upcoming talent. "I was already at home playing around with various apps and technology platforms and, through much trial and error, I finally landed on the Acapella app," Menzies said. "I decided to try it out with Jayla Hernandez, Ajai Kasim, and myself for the first video. To our surprise, it worked! The second video we released was with Jwalt (Justin Walton). From there, the request for collaborations started pouring in from both alumni and current students and I realized that this is an important way for us to all connect with each during this time. I'm now trying to get my Concert Choir students to learn the app to see if there's ways for them to collaborate with each other. I'd love to see other departments use this platform as well."
When asked about these collaborations, Menzies responded by saying, "The shelter-in-place collaborations are not really part of the Off The Table show, per say. These were created more as a response to the shelter-in-place mandate and the need to create musically with each other during this time."
Some other people that Menzies has done collabs with so far include OSA students and alums Barbara Deveux Griffith, Sarah Isen, Kent Overshown, and Julissa Otenbright.
"There are about 12 more collabs lined up, some OSA related and some with other musical artists," Menzies said. "We even have some coming from Brooklyn, Boston, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and South Africa. So beautiful to see everyone coming together through music."
​When asked about what she likes about doing these shows online, Menzies responded, "I love being creative and sharing and collaborating creatively with other people. I love the larger community seeing how extraordinary our youth are, especially during this time."
"I was thinking about how much I missed the students and how much I missed our collaborative energy at school together. There were many lunches, passing periods, and after school moments where kids used to come in the classroom and we would work on original compositions that they were working through. These were kids from all different emphases. Sometimes they'd start an idea, sometimes I'd start one... it was just a really wonderful creative vibe and I missed that flow that we had together."
While Menzies was at home, she tried to play around with various apps so that she could broadcast young, upcoming talent. "I was already at home playing around with various apps and technology platforms and, through much trial and error, I finally landed on the Acapella app," Menzies said. "I decided to try it out with Jayla Hernandez, Ajai Kasim, and myself for the first video. To our surprise, it worked! The second video we released was with Jwalt (Justin Walton). From there, the request for collaborations started pouring in from both alumni and current students and I realized that this is an important way for us to all connect with each during this time. I'm now trying to get my Concert Choir students to learn the app to see if there's ways for them to collaborate with each other. I'd love to see other departments use this platform as well."
When asked about these collaborations, Menzies responded by saying, "The shelter-in-place collaborations are not really part of the Off The Table show, per say. These were created more as a response to the shelter-in-place mandate and the need to create musically with each other during this time."
Some other people that Menzies has done collabs with so far include OSA students and alums Barbara Deveux Griffith, Sarah Isen, Kent Overshown, and Julissa Otenbright.
"There are about 12 more collabs lined up, some OSA related and some with other musical artists," Menzies said. "We even have some coming from Brooklyn, Boston, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and South Africa. So beautiful to see everyone coming together through music."
​When asked about what she likes about doing these shows online, Menzies responded, "I love being creative and sharing and collaborating creatively with other people. I love the larger community seeing how extraordinary our youth are, especially during this time."
