Music videos
Kids write a song, record it, then perform it for the camera.
Every kid has a story(something only you know). We help them make it a song(something you can sing).
The Juicebox brings storytelling, songwriting and music-making to schools, shelters and youth programs across Chicago. Kids invent the characters, write the lyrics, make the music, and sometimes film the music video too.
Enrichment Partner of the Year, 2022
Chicago Hopes for Kids
Teaching in Chicago since 2018
In classrooms, shelters and after-school programs
Partners
Chicago Hopes for Kids, Broadway Youth Center, Northwestern University
What happens in a session
Every session follows the kids’ ideas. Nico plays; they decide what happens next.
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Tell a story at the keyboard
Kids choose the characters, the places and what goes wrong. Nico improvises music underneath so the story feels like a movie while they tell it.
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Fill in a song
Song worksheets turn songs kids already know into fill-in-the-blank lyrics. Each blank has a prompt, so even kids who say “I can’t write songs” finish one.
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Make the music
We sing it, play it and build beats for it, with a puppet or two helping out.
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Perform it or film it
Finished songs get performed, recorded or turned into music videos and short films that the kids write, act in and direct.
Every song starts on a worksheet
Nico writes a worksheet for each song, in English, Spanish or both. The prompts under each blank, like (que animal) or (something you can do), give kids a place to start without telling them what to say.
Made by students
Everything here was written and performed by kids in Juicebox sessions.
Movies
Students write a movie together and act in it, and we film the whole thing.
Songs
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Every Day Is a New DayWritten by students at Cornerstone
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I Like to Sing AlongWritten by students in a Juicebox session
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Summer SongWritten by students at a Chicago Hopes for Kids site, July 2025
Programs
Elementary and middle school
Weekly sessions in classrooms, after-school programs and shelters. Storytelling at the keyboard, song worksheets, puppets, singing and movement, building up to a performance or a music video.
- Bilingual English and Spanish materials
- No musical experience needed
Teens and young adults
Music production, lyric writing, live performance and improv. Students make their own beats and songs, then put on a show. With Broadway Youth Center we ran this for young people ages 16 to 25.
About Nico
Nico Carter started The Juicebox in 2018 and leads its sessions. He’s a pianist, songwriter and improviser who studied at Oberlin Conservatory, and a teaching artist with The People’s Music School, where he teaches piano and general music.
He has taught music production, improv and drum circles at Changing Worlds, including classes for students with special needs at Carl Schurz High School, and improv for first-generation college students through Northwestern University.
Most weeks he drives a keyboard, a bag of puppets and a stack of worksheets to sites across the city. In 2022, Chicago Hopes for Kids named The Juicebox its Enrichment Partner of the Year.
Book a visit
Tell us a little about your students and we’ll set up a time to talk.
Or email hello@juiceboxchicago.com