Pompano Beach and Fort Lauderdale are making music

Pompano Beach – Sarahca Peterson is all about celebrating home. As a young girl she watched the Blanche Ely High School Band perform and by the time she was in high school, she was writing poetry. When the NAACP ACT-SO came to Blanch Ely looking for creatives to represent them in a city-wide, multi-discipline arts competition, she entered and won.

“I went on to Nationals where my poem was one of eight poems chosen out of hundreds to be viewed by judges for the final stage,” she said. “Being at Blanche gave me culture, community, and pride, and I wanted to continue to express that in my community.”

For over 10 years, Sarahca Peterson has written poetry and performed it on 200 stages at multiple venues. She is also behind the Small Towns Need Poetry Too Initiative where she takes poets to small towns to introduce the art of poetry and spoken word. “The city was seeming to have a renaissance for art,” said Peterson. “I wanted to start building the creativity of the city.”

Since 2011, Peterson has been behind her self-owned cultural arts programming and production company, The Round Table Project. Now, the Pompano Beach Cultural Affairs Department is developing its “Pompano Beach Soundtrack Volume 1” EP in partnership with The Round Table, a project that’ll capture the culture of Pompano Beach and share it with the world. An EP (Extended Play) has more songs than a single but fewer than an album.

“Sometimes you never get the love in your own city,” said Peterson. “Sometimes there isn’t an open door. But the city needed to come up with an agreement that really benefited the artists. Seventy percent of the royalties and distribution goes to artists and the city collects 30 percent for the next two years. We started the production in October, and what we’ve done together is going to change the concept of how artists can get their music out there in collaboration with cities.”

Peterson, along with other creative experts, will be working with the selected artists to mix, master, compose and arrange the six to eight song soundtrack.

“I’m going to other cities to do this,” said Peterson. “It’s a creative project I came up with and it’s going to trailblaze to other cities. This becomes a solution for artists who say they are not getting that support from home, because they can.”

The EP is expected to drop sometime in the first quarter of 2024 and will include songs from Yasmeen Matri, Darnielle Thomas, Jonas Arthur, Azrael Haze, and Matt Kelly.

Fort Lauderdale is also making music, but just one song. Alexander Star, an Emmy-nominated artist, has partnered with Visit Lauderdale, the county’s destination marketing organization, for “Laudy Dayo.”

“This is a huge torch to carry,” said Star. “South Florida has some of the most diverse talent in the entire world. To all my fellow artists and residents alike, I hope this song does us all proud.”

“Laudy Dayo” is a celebration of community culture, identity, and with a purpose of unity. Earlier this month, the song became available for digital download on streaming platforms. It’s also available on YouTube.

“Even if someone is not a local, I hope they listen and understand the call to creativity, and change, and that our places could be the next big move,” said Peterson. “Where else do you hear about a city producing an album? I’ve been a local since I was six months old, I’ve been exposed to opportunities, and listening to these albums, I hope people get a sense that our cities create the will of opportunities.”