Grammy Award-winners the Alphabet Rockers promote social change through children’s music

CBS News Bay Area presents its very first Icon Award to a Grammy Award-winning duo who creates a whole new generation of music makers who make change.

Kaitlin McGaw and Tommy Soulati Shepherd write and record music with a positive message.

“Music is needed more than ever, because music is what really is a healer,” Shepherd said.

The Alphabet Rockers

CBS News Bay Area

The music industry professionals founded the Alphabet Rockers in 2007. Their Oakland-based program uses hip hop to teach elementary school children the ABCs of social justice.

“At first, we were rapping about vegetables, colors, nutrition and things. After we started talking with these kids, we realized here’s more things to be talking about,” Shepherd explained.

“We were having these conversations with preschoolers: ‘Why are these people calling this bad word? Why are people telling me what my identity is instead of listening to me when I tell them I have multiple cultures in my identity?'” McGaw added.

McGaw and Shepherd guided students to unleash their creative voice as they began to write songs about bullying, racism, and exclusion.

“It’s almost like, big empathy work, to create songs that frame a world of belonging,” said McGaw.

Alphabet Rockers leads dozens of workshops a year at Bay Area schools and community groups. The program is fiscally sponsored by the nonprofit Sozo Impact.

Workshops can cost $3,000 to $5,000, but the fees are often offset by donations and fundraising. Students feel empowered as they craft songs and poems and then perform them at concerts.

10-year-old Onyx Austin took part in the Alphabet Rockers’ six-month afterschool program Movement in Action at the Destiny Arts Center.

“We are the movement in action. We got the love,” Austin sang as he performed one of the songs written with the program.    

He said Shepherd and McGaw are like family, and he takes to heart the lessons they sing about.

“Even though people are bullies, they have a tiny bit of good in them,” Austin said.

Fellow participant Matthew Bransford is proud of how he’s grown as a songwriter and performer.

“I have the courage to perform something big that I’ve made in front of my whole school,” he smiled.

And McGaw, Shepherd and three of their young stars rocked the music world when they won a Grammy Award in 2023 for best children’s music album.

But the pair says the best is still to come.

“Music changes our culture, where every song we write is something that helps people through the day, that gives them tools to strategize and that brings us together,” McGaw explained.

Next, the program plans to focus on climate justice as part of a world tour.

“Alphabet Rockers is very community. we’re gonna expand our community to the globe,” chuckled Shepherd.

So for empowering Alphabet Rockers to create music for social change, this week’s CBS News Bay Area Icon Award goes to Tommy Soulati Shepherd and Kaitlin McGaw. You can nominate a community hero for an Icon Award here.

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Sharon Chin

Sharon Chin is a general assignment reporter who also profiles Jefferson Award winners for KPIX 5 Eyewitness News. Since she joined KPIX 5 in 1997, Chin has reported everything from fires to features, from politics to perspective pieces, but she feels a special sense of pride bringing viewers the stories of Jefferson Award winners. She herself feels inspired as she shares the stories of our community’s heroes.

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