Filed under: workshop
As usual .. im late. Forgive my seemingly lack of dedication to the cause, but its been a busy weekend. Ok enough with the excuses.
on Thursday we conducted a theatrical exercise that once again got everyone involved. after the group shared stories that they’d selected and read the previous day, and HOW these stories spoke to EACH of us respectively. we transitioned into a portion of the experience when we one by one moved, piece by piece constructed a staging area. each person placed an object, or arranged objects to create a comfortable space in which we could share our stories.
One member of the group stands .. walks into the staging area and bows to the rest of us, asking “would anyone like to share with me, the story of the most beautiful bird they’re ever seen?” a few of us raised our hands and were selected and asked to share our story. After sharing, the leading group member would proceed to act out the story of the bird (without words). The stories being acted out.. made us all laugh and smile. After completing the stories acting we’d move on to another storyteller and another actor. each time bowing to one another signaling that we are wholly listening. this creates a space that is welcoming and the person telling the story is made to feel accepted and heard.
we followed this with a brief discussion and ended the day with a short exercise that could have been extended for hours (in my opinion) . we stood in a circle facing inward and began with “these hands have…” and filled in the blank respectively . after the circle was complete we followed with ” these feet have…” and repeated the process.
i think largely this day of exercises showed me that. ONCE we find this special place of comfort within ourselves, we can naturally create this place out in the world ANYWHERE. When we can do this all of our masks come off and we can BE OURSELVES and be comfortable with that.
Filed under: workshop
Today I will begin with where we ended. Sonali showed a brief powerpoint on the meaning of stories. Stories as mirrors; as reflections of our lives and the way our lives intersect. A mirror is not there to relay the problems or imperfections, but it is there to see uniqueness, patterns, history. The metaphor in these slides was that our stories weave us, reaffirm our connections to one another, and expose the similarities in our struggles and strengths. Today was about stories and relationships. It really is an incredible thing when you get a group of creative minds to answer “What brought you here?” The answers were varied, but there were continuities. The answers included emotions, practicalities, longings, disappointments, hopes, and perhaps most frequently, community.
We wanted to focus on New Orleans, on neighborhoods, on memories, stories, relationships, what bonds us, what we miss, what we dream of. Sonali started off the session with describing what happens after a breakdown. Whatever the breakdown might be, we all experience a very similar kind of pain and anguish, and also a strong yearning to heal and find belonging and meaning. This is a theme most of us have crossed paths with, whether we’re conscious of it or not. We question our paths, our histories, our futures, our reactions, and our sense of security and belonging in a fast-paced world with unexpected events. In order to practice stretching time and reflection, we were asked to tell stories. As we shared our stories of how we got to the workshop and what drove us to it, we started to feel a calmness and a focus; a new energy. We each placed a stone of some sort-most were these beautiful yellow, green or orange stones, like the colors of lemons and the Mediterranean Sea-to the center of the table, usually after holding it during the time we spoke. The rocks at the center of the table represented the completion of the story circle. We all contributed. Some felt a sincere energy shift, as we were all coming from a place of wanting to engage, explore, and build together as a community with shared experiences working with youth, creativity, community development, and in a post-Katrina environment. To make progress, we agreed that we had to begin with ourselves. To impact youth in the positive ways that we want to, we must explore what they explore.
So, as our group of twelve proceeded to communicate and find connections among our stories, we understood more about what binds us, what weaves our stories, and how we must also communicate with youth with the same kinds of openness and trust that, despite age and background, we all have something to offer one another, we all have stories, and we all yearn to connect and interact. And so, we literally wove our stories. With a ball of yarn, thrown from person to person, each person wrapping a section around their finger-and some people taking the time to further creatively twist and tangle-we created a web. To talk is to heal, and healing leads to rebuilding strength and moving forward. So we weave to reweave; we hear our stories, what and whom we love, miss, and long for, and we create a larger framework of our connected stories that stand as our building blocks. We mounted our web of yellow yarn on the wall to observe for the rest of the workshop. I felt so engaged during this exercise that asked us to reminisce the places or people that impacted, or stood out, in our community pre-Katrina. As someone who grew up coming to New Orleans, but only moved here after the storm, I longed to be on the porch Elise spoke of, or the auto shop Asante spoke of, or the drumming classes Andrew spoke of, or the church Ayo spoke of… When you hear these stories, they are told with such detail, recall… But then the next story told was of what changed. The church pews weren’t there, the crazy guy on his bike wasn’t riding down that street anymore, the tops of the houses in the lower 9 can’t be seen from the bridge anymore, and the UPS man actually asked for a signature!! Wherever we are coming from, and whatever lives we have lived, we are spending these days telling our stories, exploring our common ground and collective journeys, and with lots of passion, sadness, hope and humor, we’re trying to figure out how the heck we got here and where we’re going….
Filed under: workshop
KID smART, The 7th Ward Porch and Dreamcatchers Foundation
These three organizations are working together to create a new meeting point where the arts and healing work can combine together to regenerate communities. Over a four-day workshop, artists and community organizers from KID smART and The Porch are learning about how children and communities took on the journey to heal themselves in the tsunami in the villages affected in India three years ago.
This blog tells the story of our discoveries as individuals going through a journey of self-reflection, the telling of stories and imagining a new reality for our communities.
Filed under: organizations
KID smART is a New Orleans organization that works with the arts to engage children in learning about themselves and the world in which they live. KID smART collaborates with professional artist educators to promote discipline, self-respect, teamwork, creative problem solving and pride of accomplishment within students. KID smART’s vision is that all children be engaged in the learning process and empowered by life-skills learned through the arts.
Dreamcatchers is based in Mumbai, India, and works with young people to create opportunities for them to befriend their imagination, take charge of their dreams and meet their capacity to build the world they want to be a part of. Dreamcatchers creates programs for young people that respond to their search for meaning, belonging and continuity in their lives.
The Porch is a community-based cultural organization committed to the Seventh Ward area of New Orleans. The Porch seeks to promote and sustain cultures of the neighborhood, city and region, and to foster exchange between cultural groups. The Porch is a place where all can come and do, share their culture, and take care of each other and our communities.
