[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI3PRajkR9s[/youtube]

The reworking of TV theme songs is as old as bounce itself (see the foundational “Triggaman” beat, with riff from Dragnet), but it still comes as a surprise and treat to see a bounce remix of the Reading Rainbow theme song, a song deeply embedded in the brain of anybody who went to school in the past 30 years.

To promote their Listen! Literacy and Arts Festival this coming weekend, 2-Cent TV director Brandan “bmike” Odums crafted the “Reading Rainbow Remix” video along with bounce artist Big Choo and dance crew the Gameova Boys.

2-Cent is hosting Listen! Fest this Saturday, May 21 to promote literacy amongst urban, low-income, at-risk students—according to 2-Cent’s website only 16 percent of such students are proficient in reading, compared to 42 percent of middle-income students. The costs of such a disparity are unsurprisingly striking: 43% of adults at the lowest level of literacy proficiency live in poverty, compared to only 4% of those with strong literacy skills. The problem is particularly acute here in Louisiana, where the Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans cites that one out of every six adults reads the lowest literacy level.

Listen! Fest starts at noon Saturday in front of the Community Book Center on Bayou Road. 2-Cent will be giving away 4,000 books to young students, and there will be food, art and books for sale as well. Helping to spread the message of the importance of reading will be performers Dee-1, Lil Chuckee, Kourtney Heart, and Mannie Fresh.