(beatboxing)
(mellow music)
- Ladies and gentleman.
Ladies and gentleman, thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Hi, my name's Devon Guinn.
I'm a senior at Harvard from Rochester, Michigan.
I study visual environmental studies,
which is basically film and animation.
In my spare time, I do a lot of beatboxing and comedy stuff.
(harmonizing tune)
(rock music)
- Hey. - Hey Devon, how's it going?
- Good, nice to meet you.
- You as well.
So where are we heading first?
- I've got a meeting with my independent study advisor.
I'm working on a thing about beatboxing.
- Amazing, let's do it.
(rock music)
- [Interviewer] So how was your meeting?
- It was good.
I'm doing an independent study about beatboxing.
I'm trying to work on making a beatboxing notation system.
There are kind of a few out there,
but they are not very useful.
They're not really comprehensive
and they're really confusing to read.
I'm so passionate about beatboxing
and I just really think that if we have some
of the same tools that other instruments
and other music practices have to learn how to beatbox,
then people are gonna be more into it.
It's gonna legitimize the art form.
(rock music)
- So after you got into Harvard,
what made you choose Harvard?
- I'd applied early so it was really nice.
Honestly part of it was that I didn't want
to fill out other applications to other school.
But I also knew that this was kind of the goal.
This was the place that I wanted to be.
The only other place that I ended up applying to
after I got into Harvard was University of Michigan.
I'm from Michigan.
Growing up, my mom was a school teacher.
We didn't really have the resources
that somebody might expect to be able
to send your kid to Harvard.
When we saw how much financial aid they offered,
just based on your need,
I realized that I couldn't turn it down,
especially when it would actually be cheaper
to go here than University of Michigan.
I kind of realized that Harvard was a special place.
When I first got here,
I did a freshman arts pre-orientation program,
and so I met a bunch of different artists.
There were about 60 of us.
We just kind of did bonding exercises
and worked on some stuff together,
right before freshman year started.
I really got to meet some of my closest friends.
I'm actually living with five of them right now.
I think after meeting them
and seeing the different backgrounds people come from,
I just realized this is a special place.
(rock music)
Here we are.
- What is the Office of the Arts do?
- It does a lot of stuff.
They plan a lot of events,
they bring really cool artists or musicians
to come here to teach kids.
They do master classes.
- So you're meeting here now
because you're helping plan
the kick off event for Arts First.
- Exactly.
Then the end of April, there's this weekend,
Arts First weekend, where we have tons of performances
from student groups, exhibitions, and things,
visual art, basically anything related to the arts.
We've been working on it for a few months
and it's gonna continue through April.
I'm excited to see how it turns out.
- Amazing, well go in there.
Go make some art.
- [Devon] Cool.
(rock music)
- So tell me about this place.
Tell me about this Signet.
- So the Signet Society,
it's a club, it's a social club for artists.
You basically apply with an artistic resume,
any Harvard students can apply.
Once you get in, we just have a lot of fun events.
We have some parties,
we have art making events and discussions.
We bring a lot of professors and artist in the community
to come in and sort of talk to us about their craft.
So it's just a nice place to go to swipe in,
study throughout the day,
have lunch with people who are really into the arts
and just hang out.
Hey, how are you?
Good to see you.
- [Older Man] It's been a while.
- Yeah, it has been a while, how are you doing?
(mellow music)
- So would you call the Signet more
of a social society or an arts society or both?
- It's definitely at the intersection of the two.
- Is there always music playing in the Signet?
- Yeah, it's seems like anytime I come in here,
somebody's sitting, writing a novel
or working on poems or something.
But people come here, they work on stuff,
so right now you might hear in the background
that one of our former members, Joshua,
is working on something with a new member, Gabe.
There's a piano in the main room
and people can just collaborate and come in and hang out.
- So what was your social life like
when you first got to Harvard as freshman?
- I think one of the things that I was blown away by
when I got to Harvard was
how many really awesome extra-curricular activities
and groups there are.
So I sort of dove right into it.
I joined a web comedy group called On Harvard Time.
I met a lot of really cool upperclassmen there
and we had a little space, a little studio,
where people would go and hang out and have parties.
Then I also joined the Stand-Up Society,
the stand-up comedy club.
They have get togethers,
so it's cool to be able to just join groups
and get to know people by working on projects together,
but then also be able to step out and just have fun.
- What do you think might make the social scene at Harvard
different than the social scene at some other school?
- It seems like one thing about Harvard
is that we don't have a really strong frat scene.
We do have the final clubs, which are a little bit different
and have their own sort of vibe, I guess?
But I think that a lot of people are so involved
with their organizations.
I think the social scene is sort of centered around those.
It seems like all the parties are,
"Go to this party for this theater production,"
or, "Hey, we're having a reception
"after our stand-up comedy show"
or something like that.
So I think it's really cool 'cause then you not only get
to hang out people that you're already close with,
but you get to meet all of their friends too.
(mellow music)
- [Interviewer] So what are you packing up here?
- So this is my amp.
I use it when I go street perform,
when I beatbox out on Harvard Square.
- When you go out to beatbox on the street,
how long are usually beatboxing?
- Never for less than an hour
and never more than three hours, just cause--
- [Interviewer] Does your mouth ever get tired?
- Yeah, it definitely gets tired.
If it's hot out or anything,
it's just hard to keep going.
But yeah, so I go out.
It kinda puts me at a disadvantage for street performing
'cause a lot people can go sort of camp out the whole day,
do like 10 hours of performance
and then they get really good spots.
So we'll have to see when I go out,
whether or not I'll get a good spot or not.
Look out.
(mellow music)
My name is Devon Guinn.
(beatboxing)
Ladies and gentleman, thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
(mellow music)
- The department is called Visual and Environmental Studies.
- Yes, it's a little weird.
- What does that mean?
- So it's kind of an outdated name.
I actually heard tell that they might be changing it.
Basically it's visual arts and visual art studies
and that includes film and animation.
- So what is your thesis going to be?
- So I'm making a short animation film.
For me, it's gonna be 2D digital animation
so I'm drawing it out in Photoshop.
It's a little funny.
It's actually about how hedgehogs can be used
as a metaphor for human connection.
So it's a little cheesy but it's pretty fun.
I think it's gonna turn out well.
- Amazing, amazing.
Well I don't beatbox.
Would you teach me how to beatbox?
- I will and here's why.
- I'm ready.
- Everyone thinks that you have to just sort
of be born a beatboxer or they'll say things like,
"How did you learn that you could do that?"
But really, it's just like anything else,
it's just practice.
Anyone can be a good beatboxer.
So all right.
- And you had mentioned before that you want to create
a beatboxing notation to make beatboxing more teachable.
- I'm hoping that after I graduate,
I'll be able to start my own beatboxing education company.
Just like you would reach out to a piano teacher
or if you wanted to learn how sing, you take voice lessons.
I'm hoping to offer that same sort of infrastructure
for learning with the beatboxing community.
- Very cool.
All right, well I'll be a test student for you.
(both beatboxing)
- You got this.
(beatboxing)
Nice, nailed it.
- Nailed it.
Was there anything that you thought would be true
about Harvard that was disproven when you got here?
- Yeah, I guess there's the stereotype of Harvard.
I kind of thought that I was a fluke
because I don't come from a lot of money
and I went to a public school.
I'm really into the arts,
I'm not into finance and stuff like that.
But coming here, I think that you definitely
have people like that,
and there are so many other people at Harvard
who are doing their cool things.
So it was really cool to see that Harvard
is just a diverse place in thought
and in the people who are here.
- [Interviewer] Is there anything you would advise
high school students not to do?
- Yeah, I would say a couple things.
Number one, don't freak out.
It's gonna work out.
Whatever pressure you're feeling from your parents
or from friends at school, whatever,
set that aside and just focus on what you really want
to do and what you feel passionate about
and what you feel is right.
- So you're a senior.
- I am.
- You're about to graduate.
- I am.
- Any parting words, thoughts about that, et cetera?
- I just think,
I guess being a senior, you do get nostalgic
and I just feel so lucky to have been able
to have the opportunity to come to a school like Harvard
and have access to so many resources that they have here.
It's really helped me just sort of,
again this is gonna sound cliche,
but it's really helped me figure out
how I view myself as a person, who I want to be,
and then also view the world.
I've been introduced to so many different people here
and so many schools of thought.
I'm just really happy to have had the time here.
(mellow music)
Hey if you like this video
and want to learn more about top colleges,
don't forget to subscribe to Crimson Education.
Crimson Education.
(beatboxing)