<![CDATA[Pedagogical Arts - blog]]>Tue, 20 Jun 2023 11:29:35 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Reflections on Wednesday's Workshop]]>Sat, 11 Apr 2015 02:11:58 GMThttp://www.pedagogicalarts.com/blog/shop-camp
SHoP Camp, which finished yesterday, was a multidisciplinary arts camp that happened at BOOK SHOP in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. SHoP Camp was organized by Laura Shaeffer; Laura invited me to co-teach with her at SHoP Camp on April 8th. The arts camp was entitled "Real Places, Imaginary Cities and Utopias," and the children and youth that came that workshop session explored a lot of arts making, while investigating creative mapmaking and other cool stuff.
Audio recordings of stories by some of the students who attended the workshop on April 8th can be found below. These are stories inspired by the maps of imaginary cities and lands that they illustrated.
Links:
]]><![CDATA[Real Places, Imaginary Cities and Utopias ]]>Thu, 19 Feb 2015 20:07:09 GMThttp://www.pedagogicalarts.com/blog/book-shopReal Places, Imaginary
Cities and Utopias
a multidisciplinary arts workshop called SHoP Camp,
at BOOK SHOP -- a new project space dedicated to radical pedagogy,
participatory art installations and experimental performance
in the heart of Hyde Park, Chicago
BOOK SHOP
1448 E. 57th St.
Chicago, IL  60637

April 7-9, 2015 (9 a.m.-5 p.m.)

Contact Laura Shaeffer
at (773) 710-5464 for more info.

Dates & Teaching Artists
Tuesday, April 7: Amy Sinclair and Laura Shaeffer
Wednesday, April 8: Dan Godston and Laura Shaeffer
Thursday, April 9: Hoyun Son and Laura Shaeffer
This program is for children and teens, and the fee is $50 for the full day, $30 for a half day (9 a.m.-1 p.m.).

You're invited to attend "Real Places, Imaginary Cities and Utopias," a multidisciplinary arts workshop that involves creative writing, visual art, puppetry, and fort building. During this workshop, we will:
  • Talk about examples of real places and imaginary cities that we find interesting and exciting, as well as some aspects of cities such as Chicago that could be improved; 
  • Look at and talk about maps of imaginary places (e.g. the Wonderful Land of Oz and J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth), and then work in groups to create maps of imaginary places; 
  • Look at and talk about real and fictitious objects and buildings that inspire the imagination (e.g. sculptures, furniture and buildings designed / illustrated by Antoni Gaudí, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Sam Maloof and Dr. Seuss);
  • Read and discuss several passages from Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino;
  • Design and make forts, and then create stories that activate those forts to make created spaces performative. 

Links:

]]><![CDATA[The Power of the Letter]]>Sat, 28 Jun 2014 17:18:51 GMThttp://www.pedagogicalarts.com/blog/lettersQuestions To Start Today's Session:
  • How can / have letters be used in everyday circumstances?
  • How can letters appear in literature (e.g. novels, poems, etc.)? 
  • Can you think of any examples of how letters have appeared in literature and/or other works of art (such as movies, TV shows, etc.)?

Writing Activities:
  • Choose one of these two prompts: 1) Write a letter to an older version of yourself, or 2) Write a letter to a future generation.
  • Take on someone else's voice. Write a letter using their writing style.
    Write a letter to someone who can affect your future.
  • Imagine you are a leader in a futuristic society. Write a letter to someone in another kingdom / planet.

Letters To and From Writers and People in Other Professions:



The Epistle in Nonfiction
Epistolary Novels
Epistles (Poems)

 http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/journey/hughes-transcript.html
]]><![CDATA[The Arts & Social Justice -- Notes on Curriculum Development]]>Sun, 07 Jul 2013 17:15:35 GMThttp://www.pedagogicalarts.com/blog/arts-social-justice
Note: This blog post is still in progress. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions and/or suggestions regarding this subject.

Social justice can be integrated into arts education programming, with thoughtful and meaningful connections. Different art forms such as music (performance, composition), sculpture, film, and poetry can be integrated into one-time workshops or class series that can continue for ten or more sessions.

Here are several examples of ways by which social justice as a theme can be integrated into arts education curricula:

Labor Rights
Film:
New Media:


Immigration
Literature:
Music:


Colonialism / Post-Colonial Realities
Articles & Interviews:
Literature:
Music:
Other Resources:


Slavery, Civil Rights
Literature:
  • The Known World by Edward P. Jones
Music:
Poverty, Privilege, Wealth
Music:
Photography:
Installation:

Social Justice & Environmental Concerns
Silent Spring at 50


Over the past several years I have taught classes that use the aforementioned (and other materials) -- in creative writing, multi-arts, and other contexts. Currently I am developing curricula for one-time workshops and long-term courses that use elements that interconnect the arts and social justice.

One can see that several of the aforementioned categories (e.g. immigration and civil rights) are interconnected. Thoughtful consideration should be made in terms of what would be age-appropriate.

This fascinating intersection between the arts and social justice can be explored in a number of directions. The source materials used, intended outcomes, activities developed, students' works created, and program evaluation can vary depending on variables such as class size, students' ages / grades, and course duration.

To help students see connections between societal forces in different contexts, it would be interesting to include cross-cultural materials into the curriculum.

It is tricky to and interesting to try to figure out and explain to students how different art forms relate to the theme of social justice, and how social justice can be broken down into "subcategories." Also, it's interesting to talk about what art form(s) a particular artwork "fits into." For instance, if you're talking about a song, the lyric could be analyzed as a poem, and the musical aspects of the song could be examined in depth. The documentary Wasteland involves several art forms, such as photography, sculpture, and film. In addition, some artworks are new / hybrid forms.

Please note that the aforementioned lists of class materials is a very short list indeed...hundreds of other materials could be included... Other categories such as children's rights, women's rights, gay rights, medical rights, and other categories could be developed as well.
]]><![CDATA[Montclare Intergenerational Arts Project]]>Sat, 24 Nov 2012 00:34:33 GMThttp://www.pedagogicalarts.com/blog/montclare
The Montclare Intergenerational Arts Project started last month. This project is designed to provide opportunities for students at Josephine Locke Elementary School to work with residents at Bethesda Home. The teens and elderly individuals are working on writing, visual art & sound recording activities that are leading toward an interdisciplinary body of work that will be shown to the public soon.
Montclare is a neighborhood on Chicago's northwest side whose population includes Latino, Polish and other ethnicities. Its history includes connections with iconic American brands such as Radio Flyer and Mars, Inc.

The Montclare Intergenerational Arts Project is being supported in part by a Neighborhood Arts Program grant from the City of Chicago.

Check back soon for more updates!
]]><![CDATA[Interview with Dave Morice]]>Mon, 30 Jul 2012 17:12:16 GMThttp://www.pedagogicalarts.com/blog/dave-morice
Dave Morice is a writer, visual artist, performance artist, and educator whose books include 60 Poetry Marathons, three anthologies of Poetry Comics, How To Make Poetry Comics, The Adventures of Dr. Alphabet: 104 Unusual Ways To Write Poetry in the Classroom & the Community, and The Great American Fortune Cookie Novel. His visual art projects include Rubber Stamp American Gothic and The Wooden Nickel Art Project. Morice and I talked about his influences, his poetry projects, and writing 10,000 pages of poetry in 100 days. 

DG: How did you first get interested in writing?

DM: When I was 6 years old, I wrote poems in rhymed couplets about "Why the GIraffe Has Spots," "Why the Zebra Has Stripes," and others, and I drew pictures of the animals to go with them. I would give them to my mother, and she would praise them, saying "You're going to do great things someday."

DG: Who are some of your influences?

DM: William Carlos Williams, Dylan Thomas, Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot, Anne Knish, Emanuel Morgan, James Joyce, Something Else Press, Anselm Hollo, John Knoepfle, Al Montesi, Ron Padgett, Ted Berrigan, Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Syvia Plath, and the Actualists. Those are just a few that come to mind right now. E.E. Cummings. Dick Higgins. There are more. John Cage. Joyce Holland. Joyce Kilmer. I am easily influenced. William Shakespeare.

DG: How did you first get the idea to create poetry comics?

DM: I was dating a girl in the Workshop who had a dozen black binders full of poems on her desk. I had about the same amount of the same binders at my place. They don't make those binders anymore. Anyway, I went over to her place, and we started talking about poetry. Her voice was very serious and workshoppy that night, and at one point she said, "Great poems should paint pictures in the mind." I thought about it for a minute, and then I decided to go in the opposite direction. I said, "Great poems would make great cartoons." She hesitated a moment, and then she laughed and said, "Hey, you know you're right. You ought to do some." And what began as a smart alec answer turned into a major fun project. The following week I taught a poetry workshop in a junior high in Oskaloosa, Iowa. By day I talked poetry, by night I drew a cartoon version of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."
Football Poem

DG: How would you say your poetry comics concept has evolved over the years?

DM: It evolved in several ways. To begin with, I thought I was doing something very underground that would shock the academics. Then I heard some teachers, including one at the UI English Department, used Poetry Comics as a teaching device. As a Writers-in-the-Schools teacher, I used it in classes, too, and I still do. Second, when I first began putting out the magazine, I thought it would work only with famous classical poets.

DG: How did you decide to create poetry comics based on works by your contemporaries? 

DM: Some people wrote to me and asked why I didn't do contemporaries, so I put out a Contemporary Poets issue that included Creeley, Ashbery, and Ginsberg. Readers liked that. Of course, those three poets are well-known, well-established pillars of contemporary verse. Soon I put out issues with the good old gang of unknowns like me. I also included the classical poets.

DG: How did that lead to book-length publications of "Poetry Comics"? 

DM: The Village Voice did a wonderful article about the magazine, and Simon & Schuster wrote to ask if they could publish an anthology. Well, after two seconds of hard thinking, I said yes. I had hoped it would find its way into schools around the country. Teachers & Writers published "How to Make Poetry Comics" to accompany the anthology. I had been trying out different ways to use poetry comics in the classroom, and this manual gave me a chance to organize this approach. Eight years later, a Chicago Review Press editor contacted me. He said he used to teach poetry in high school, and he used Poetry Comics. He wanted me to do a second anthology. About six years after that, Teachers & Writers did a third anthology, which included classroom exercises in the appendix. Over the past 6 or 7 years, other people have been using the idea of poetry comics in the classroom.Teachers & Writers Magazine published a special issue called "Comics in the Classroom." Now it is a perfectly acceptable way to teach poetry writing. For me, the main way that the poetry comics idea has evolved is the discovery that different poems demand different styles. "The Raven" by Poe wouldn't work using funny animal characters; instead I made the Raven into a supervillain character dressed as Batman.

DG: How did you first get the idea to do some of the projects that you describe in “The Adventures of Dr. Alphabet”?

DM: I had done several poetry marthons and other public writings, starting in 1973. Barry Nickelsberg of the Iowa Arts Council heard about them, and he asked if I would like to try teaching a senior citizen poetry class, and I was happy to do so. I had lived with my grandmother and grandfather for a few years, and I had a lot of respect for old people. I started the class by giving topics for the students to write about. I also used Kenneth Koch's Wishes, Lies, and Dreams a couple of times, but before too long, I wanted to make up my own exercises. The first one was "Poetry Poker."

DG: What is "Poetry Poker"? 

DM: It uses used poker cards with random phrases typed on them. I dealt the students a five-card hand and asked them to write poems using all the phrases and combine them with words of their own. That has been remained one of the best "ice-breaker" activities that I've ever used.
Dave Morice -- during "Poem
Wrapping City Block"

DG: What are some other activities you developed early on, which were later included in "The Adventures of Dr. Alphabet"? 

DM: I built a "Poetry Castle" out of a cardboard box, and the senior citizens cut out phrases from magazines and glued them to the castle, and then they wrote poems based on the phrases (similar to the "Poetry Poker" idea). The next step led to a big breakthrough: The exercises moved from writing on paper to writing on all kinds of things -- a chair, lamps, mirrors, and so on. I would go to stores and look at the objects and try to figure out which would make a good, unusual writing surface. After a year or so with the senior citizen class (which continued for 10 years), I started teaching at schools around Iowa through the Iowa Arts Council, and I used ideas from the senior citizens class as well as new ideas.


DG: What are some other unusual poetry projects that you've developed? 

DM: We did a project inspired by the poetry marathons, where students and I wrapped their school in a long sheet of paper, and then we would write and/or draw on it. This project usually concluded a five-day WITS program. One thing about both the seniors class and the school classes is that I often tried new approaches and new materials. I don't think of the projects as just school assignments; I consider them to be multimedia artworks in their own right.

DG: How did you come up with the idea for "The Great American Fortune Cookie Novel"?

DM: Like many people, I save fortune cookie fortunes as I get them. I had about 90 sitting in a box on a shelf, and one night I picked them out of the box and read them. I wondered if I could make a poem by stringing a few of them together. It was very easy to do so. The results sounded serious, as if a philosopher were giving out gems of knowledge. Then I wondered whether I could write a novel using fortunes, which turned out to be a real challenge. I told a reporter at The Cedar Rapids Gazette about the idea. She was a big fortune cookie fan, and she wrote a column about this project, concluding with an invitation to send fortunes to me for inclusion in the novel. In return the donor would be listed as a co-author.

DG: How did you develop "The Great American Fortune Cookie Novel," in that collaborative spirit? 

DM: I received many fortunes from readers, friends, and friends of friends. Still, I needed a lot more. I bought cases of fortune cookies from stores in town and elsewhere. I kept track of them on my computer. One fortune that I found suggested a plot: "Help! I am being held prisoner in a Chinese bakery." I divided the book into 12 chapters, one for each animal in the Chinese Zodiac. "Year of the Dragon" began the book. I bought stamp albums that had strips of plastic forming long pockets across the page -- perfect for storing the fortunes. When the book finally came out, there were over 500 co-authors, and at least two of them have listed their co-authorship on their résumés.
Dave Morice & the Actualist Marathon

DG: How did you get involved with the "10,000 poems in 100 days" exhibit that you did in 2010? 

DM: Tim Shipe, a bibliographic librarian at the University of Iowa Libraries, contacted me about an exhibit to celebrate the fact that Iowa City has been designated as one of three "Cities of Literature" by UNESCO. The exhibit was divided into two parts -- the Writers Workshop (Poetry and Fiction Workshops, International Writing Program, and Summer Writing Program), and the Actualist Poetry Movement. Tim asked if I could loan the original Dr. Alphabet outfit to the library for the exhibit.

DG: How did you propose that the Iowa City Poetry Marathon project be part of the exhibit? 

DM: When I brought the original Dr. Alphabet outfit to Tim, I asked if I could write a poetry marathon during the exhibit, and he and his committee agreed. It was the biggest marathon by far that I've ever done -- a 10,000-page book in 100 days. It gave me a way of putting the puzzle of my literary life together. The marathon included most of the text of the 60 marathons and other public writing events that I've written -- they have been hiding in the attic for more than 25 years, and they finally saw the light of the printed page.

The Iowa City Poetry Marathon website has the text of each of the 100 volumes displayed for people to read on a daily basis, and there were many other things in the marathon. They were linked together by a plot based on my favorite marathon of all, the Poem Wrapping a City Block, which had many other performances going on at the same time. That day was the last day I wrote the original Dr. Alphabet outfit, and the event was titled "Poetry City Marathon." I've written marathons since then, but this was the last that had the excitement of the Actualist Days. In order to get back to Poetry City, I must follow a paper trail of 10,000 pages.
]]><![CDATA[Arts Workshop During the 2012 Gary Clean Water Celebration]]>Sun, 01 Jul 2012 14:38:39 GMThttp://www.pedagogicalarts.com/blog/arts-workshop-in-indiana
The 2012 Gary Clean Water Celebration happened in Marquette Park (Gary, IN) on Lake Michigan, and I was invited to facilitate a multi-arts workshop during that celebration. 

Several dozen Gary Clean Water Celebration participants wrote poetry and created visual art, contributing to text and image artworks -- a Gary Clean Water Celebration mesostic poem collage and an artwork based on "Unquenchable Ontological Thirst," a poem by James Armstrong. 

It was great to be part of the Gary Clean Water Celebration. Thanks to the Gary Storm Water Management  District for inviting me to facilitate this arts workshop. 

Click here to find out more about this arts workshop. 
]]><![CDATA[Interview with Art Menius -- MerleFest, Appalshop, and Roots Music as a Powerful Force for Social Change]]>Tue, 19 Jun 2012 23:57:46 GMThttp://www.pedagogicalarts.com/blog/art-menius
Art Menius is an arts administrator and fundraiser who has worked as Marketing Director of MerleFest and Director of Appalshop, and he is a founding member and was the first employee of both The Folk Alliance International and the International Bluegrass Music Association. Recently I spoke with Art about his interest in American traditional music, his work with MerleFest and Appalshop, and bringing roots music together as a powerful force for social change and liberation from hypercapitalism.

DG: How did first get interested in southern traditional music? 

AM: I grew interested in southern traditional music while a small child in the early 1960s simply because it annoyed my parents as being the kind of music their parents had liked!

DG: How did your interest in that kind of music deepen?
Art Menius, receiving the IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award in 2008.
Photo credit:  Becky Johnson
AM: I started getting deeply interested in the late 1960s and early 1970s after 1) a hippie bluegrass band down the street got signed to Sire Records, 2) I discovered the blues, and 3) my politics turned radical in 1968 and saw folk music as the music of the American left.

DG: What would you say a big source of your interest in that kind of music?

AM: The interest was largely trying to make sense of how as a southerner, I was part of a distinct and different ethnic group from mainstream Americans. I actively resisted "mainstreaming" from at least age 10.

DG: What do you think about terms such as “mountain music” and “Appalachian music”? 

AM: Mountain music and Appalachian music, as generally used, are vague and misleading, tied up inexorably in record company marketing BS, folk festival (see Jean Thomas) promoter BS, and a whole lot of xenophobic nativism. Largely the concept of "Appalachian music" or "mountain music" mostly reflect romanticism about the American "other."

In my humble opinion, it also devalues musical forms that were once widespread and, in their heyday, much more popular outside of the mountains than inside. To me it is much more useful to employ musical terms (bluegrass, old time, Sacred Harp) than geographical ones.

DG: What would you say are some better ways to describe music that is connected with Appalachia?

AM: There are very specific Appalachian or mountain music forms, such as the fiddle and banjo styles of this area. Ralph Stanley certainly plays a mountain bluegrass that is different from mainstream commercial bluegrass. Rarely are the terms used in this specific, correct way.

DG: What would you say are some interesting aspects of American traditional music, as well as some of the challenges of trying to categorize its vast range of styles?

AM: American traditional music is, as Alan Lomax said, a patchwork quilt. The genres of American roots music come from throughout the country. Look at the iconic figures of various "Appalachian" or "mountain" music forms. Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass, grew up in western KY 250 miles west of Appalachia and lived for a time in Gary, IN. Jimmie Rodgers, the father of country music, was from Mississippi. Uncle Dave Macon and Lester Flatt were from central Tennessee. Earl Scruggs from the Piedmont of NC.

DG: What would you say is some important historical background regarding American traditional music?

AM: The music, until the 1920s, existed across the country. That it survived better in more remote areas like Appalachia, the Ozarks, or the Grande Prairie of Louisiana simply created the impression that the musics were less universal than they were. The Midwest, for example, has just as rich a fiddle tradition as Appalachia and Chicago's WLS was the most important station for hillbilly music until WWII.

Notice as well how many bands from far away from these mountains adopted the hillbilly name and imagery before 1960s, such as California's Maddox Brothers & Rose or Fort Worth's W. Lee O'Daniel and the Hillbilly Boys.

DG: Who would you say is a teacher who has influenced you?

AM: The teacher who influenced me the most also had the greatest opportunity for Philip Watts taught me German at Needham Broughton High School in Raleigh, NC for three years. A Davidson alumnus who had studied in Vienna, Watts was likely around 60, a gaunt, balding smoker who still drove a 1954 Chevy in 1972.

DG: What is an important thing that Mr. Watts taught you?

AM: He showed me the interconnectedness of things in a way that has led to my holistic, big picture approach to issues. Watts taught not just German vocabulary and syntax, but history, literature, philosophy, and theatre. Teaching was happening on a variety of levels -- learning about the student uprising at the University of Jena in 1792 by translating sentences about it followed by Watts putting the events in political and philosophical context.

DG: What are some things that you find really like about his pedagogy?

AM: He employed multidisciplinary pedagogy -- in a form seemingly of his own invention -- a good decade or more before it became fashionable. He taught me the possibilities of teaching, and he also taught me to care and to demand the best one has to offer.

DG: How would you describe how Mr. Watts' influence can be seen in the work that you do?

AM: His influence comes through in my general attitude toward life and work. He left me with a passion for excellence, with a belief that good enough is insufficient. He drilled into us that we can always do better, produce more, work harder. He convinced his students that one always had a higher level one could achieve. Perhaps the closest manifestation in actual work was the way we used to take apart each aspect of MerleFest after the festival annually to explore how we could make it better the next year.

DG: You worked at MerleFest for ten years -- first as Festival Coordinator and later as Marketing and Sponsorship Director. What would you say are some important aspects of MerleFest? 

AM: There are many, but the first and foremost point about MerleFest to me is, of course, where it intersects with my mission to advance roots music as the fourth estate of the music business with equal standing to pop/rock, jazz, and classical.

MerleFest proved on the ground that 1) you could draw "rock sized" audiences by aggregating diverse styles of roots music at one location and marketing that opportunity aggressively with cutting edge tools to largely suburban audiences; and 2) that you could get members of the general public to enjoy very traditional music, such as old-time old masters, if it was presented and marketed this way.

DG: What would you say is an interesting aspect of how artists associated with rock and roll connected with MerleFest?

AM: It intrigued me how many actual rock stars got this easily and wanted to be part of it, such as Bob Weir from the Grateful Dead, Led Zepplin's John Paul Jones, Elvis Costello, the Band's Levon Helm, Darius Rucker, Zac Brown, and Bernie Leadon from the Eagles.

DG: What would you say is a unique way that the MerleFest administration regarded festival goers?

AM: MerleFest displayed the transformative effect of applying a customer service based approach to how a festival treats its guests (never to be referred to as "fans" or "ticket buyers.")

DG: What is an important aspect of the financial side of MerleFest?

AM: It demonstrated that significant sponsorship money was available for professionally managed roots music events with year-round staffing. MerleFest exemplified the major economic impact ($15M+ each year) that this level of cultural programming can generate.

DG: What would you say is one connection between MerleFest and your overarching career focus?

AM: The "big tent" approach to roots music programming is perhaps my foremost professional obsession. The Folk Music Revival or boom of the early 1960s and late 1950s never went away; it rather split into a variety of "named system revivals" (bluegrass, blues, old-time, Celtic, singer-songwriter, world, and etc.) that fly separately below the radar. Together our market share is far larger than the days of "Blowing in the Wind."

If anything, bringing roots music together as a powerful force for social change and liberation from hypercapitalism is what my work is about.

DG: What would you say is one connection between MerleFest and the work that AppalShop does?

AM: The connection between MerleFest and Appalshop largely comes from Appalshop's radio station, WMMT FM 88.7, which programs much of the same mix of music.

DG: What would you say is one important aspect of Appalshop? 

AM: The importance of Appalshop, especially during its early years, was providing an Appalachian voice controlled by people from the area telling the stories of central Appalachia their own way. In more recent years it has come from the potential, often not realized due to lack of central control, to use film-radio-theatre-recordings-Internet together to get these messages out into the world.

DG: What would you say are some interesting aspects of your involvement with Appalshop? 

AM: The most exciting activities at Appalshop during my tenure were Appalachian Media Institute (AMI), which is the youth leadership program, and Thousand Kites, which is the prison media justice initiative.

DG: In October 2009 we did a three-location teleconference during the Teaching Artists Career Day at Columbia College -- with teaching artists in Chicago, Young Chicago Authors, Appalshop, and Say Sí. That was a lot of fun. Bruce Parsons, who teaches at Appalshop, and so was one of his students. We screened "Clamps," which is by a young filmmaker who studied with Bruce. Were you able to see / hear that? 

AM: I was not able to participate in that session. I can say that Mickie Burke, who produced Clamps, and Tommy Anderson, who starred in that film, are examples of what AMI can do. They are both highly creative individuals who were both bored and betrayed by the local school system. In AMI they found their places and their voices.

DG: What have you noticed are some developments in recent years, in terms of how people have a better understanding of / appreciation of American traditional music? 

AM: I have certainly noticed over the past decade since O Brother, Where Art Thou a marked increase in interest in and appreciation of traditional (old-time, Delta & Piedmont blues, Cajun) and traditionally based (bluegrass, Chicago blues, and zydeco, for example) musics. One would have to go back almost 50 years to find as many teenagers playing these kinds of music.

On the other hand, I am not nearly as confident about the level of historical, sociological, and ethnomusicological knowledge and understanding of these musical forms. I assume from conversations that for a lot of younger players roots musics are just so many fun options on a vast musical palette.

DG: What are your thoughts about how younger people are responding to this music, especially in terms of how it relates to politics?

AM: I am also very concerned that many millennials and Gen-Xers do not see or feel the connection between folk music and left wing politics that was so essentials to us Boomers and our parents' generation. I do not want other folk forms to follow bluegrass into the realm of complete depoliticization.

DG: What is a recent encounter that you had with someone which highlights how American traditional music has reached a new generation?

AM: At this February's Folk Alliance International Conference in Memphis a 15-year-old open back banjo picker was talking to me about how much she likes Lydia Mendoza and Tish Hinojosa. Encounters like that are utterly gratifying.
]]><![CDATA[Bringing the World to Students, the Myths to Drama Program -- Carol Ng-He's Project with the Silk Road Theatre Project]]>Tue, 19 Jun 2012 23:41:59 GMThttp://www.pedagogicalarts.com/blog/carol-ng-he
Recently I talked with teaching artist Carol Ng-He about the "Myths to Drama" residency she co-taught, with the Silk Road Theatre Project. One aspect of the "Myths to Drama" program focused on Chinese culture, and involved students creating and performing shadow puppets. 

The "Myths to Drama" program, which happened in Chicago Public Schools including the Ray Elementary School in Hyde Park, involved a collaborative curriculum-building process, several different components, and art forms such as painting and shadow puppets. As arts educator of "Myths to Drama," Carol's role was to implement the curriculum, which was continually updated with integration of input from herself and three other arts educators -- with weekly reports and a debriefing meeting after each term.
children performing their shadow puppet play, 
at the end of the "Myths to Drama" program
Photo credit: Carol Ng-He
This program culminated with a performance event which involved her students' shadow puppetry performance. Carol mentioned an exciting and gratifying moment that happened at the end of the "Myths to Drama" program, after based on the Chinese myth "The Journey of Ming" -- “One of my students came to me and gave me a gift she made - a shadow puppet of me drawing on paper with a pencil. She said I could use it, and that would also remind me of her and what I’d taught her. That reminded me that teaching is not only an act of giving, but the greatest reward I have received is that my students remind me about the importance of art in teaching and learning.” 

The world can come into the classroom; inversely, there exciting potential for what happens in the classroom to go back into the world. "'Myths to Drama' brings the world to the students, unlocks students’ imagination; it also encourages students to be more aware of their surroundings and to discover their own potential and power to contribute back to the world," Carol states, in a feature length article about her involvement with Silk Road Theatre Project. This article was published byCommunity Arts Network; you can read that article by clicking here.

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