– self- expression – critical thought – self- confidence – educational achievement
Silver Center, 100 Washington Square East Room 714, Silver Center , NYC
Opening Panel and Performance: free to public
FRIDAY Sept 21, 2007, 7-9pm
Speaking Dreams, Living Words:
An Evening of Performance and Conversation on Justice and the Power of Poetry
David Kirkland Ph.D., Moderator
Panelists: Marcella Runell Hall, Queen GodIs, Piper Anderson, K~Swift
The arts have always served an important role in education to cultivate visions of justice and liberation. To some educators social justice is an act of changing the world outside of us. To others it means changing the world from within us. This conversation brings personal stories to center stage, examining the power of spoken word in education to reclaim identities and unleash powerful new voices. Through spoken word, social justice takes on new meaning beginning with one individual, a paper, and a pen whose words when spoken have the power to transform society and the self.
And weekend workshops:
SATURDAY, September 22, 2007 10am – 3pm
(100 Washington Square East, Manhattan, Room 520 Silver Center)
10-11:30am
Urban Word NYC Introduction to Student-Centered Pedagogy
Parker Pracjek & Michael Cirelli
We will discuss the cornerstone principles of Urban Word NYC pedagogy (student-centeredness, non-censorship, and mentoring model), and what it means to carry these principles as systems of belief that bleed into every aspect of our roles as educators. We ask: In what ways do I foster active listening to my writing students? In what ways do I re-enforce the status-quo (suspicion of and disappointment in inner-city youth) or invite deep questioning? In what ways do I model positive social dialogue? In what ways do I foster collaborative teaching?
11:30-1pm
NYCoRE
Educator as Activist
This workshop encourages teachers to examine the ways in which institutionalized education serves to maintain the predominant status quo. We will look at the ways in which a teacher may redefine their role from the traditional classroom-based professional to one who takes a stand on issues of educational justice. Curricular resources developed by NYCoRe on Katrina, immigration and militarism will be available.
1:30-3pm
Kamilah Forbes, Hip-Hop Theatre Festival
Hip Hop Theater 101
This workshop will cover the beginnings of hip hop culture in relationship to a performance aesthetic; discussion will include the history of hip hop theater: how, where and who started it as well as some of the social and political aspects that brought it into being. The workshop will also be interactive in exploring the basics of theater and storytelling in a performance context. Time permitting, other aspects of hip hop theater techniques will be explored, including using rhyme as the basis for dramatic scene, incorporating movement into the physicalization of a character and the utilization of a live DJ as the sound track that pushes a dramatic scene forward.
SUNDAY, September 23, 2007 10am – 3pm
(100 Washington Square East, Manhattan, Room 520 Silver Center)
10-11:30am
David Kirkland, Ph.D.,
Language and Liberation
This session examines the politics of language, exploring the power of the spoken and written word, always articulated in dialect, to construct our identities and unleash our powerful voices. In this way, language plays an important role in both poetry and the arts. A contested site, language is the place where youth struggle with words, theirs and others, to cultivate visions of justice and liberation. In language, youth take on new meaning beginning with a voice and verb, where words when spoken have the power to transform the world inside-out.
11:30-1pm
DJ Reborn (Robyn Rodgers)
Young Women Reborn: Through Popular Music, Media and Culture
The powerful voices, energy and brilliant analytical perspectives of young women deserve to be explored through alternative mediums. The “Young Women Reborn: Through Popular Music, Media and Culture” workshops seek to do just that. Robyn Rodgers will lead a mini version of this model with a discussion of the impact of media on girls, a writing exercise and a dj demo.
1:30-3pm
Rachel McKibbens
RELEASING THE HOSTAGES: How to Negotiate Poems Out of Our Youth
We cannot teach imagination, but we can encourage it. In this workshop, you will discover how to build your own custom fit exercises from poems, write poetry of your own to be used as prompts (even if you don’t think of yourself as a poet) and acknowledge the risks you must take as educators to earn the trust of your students; if they don’t believe we care about them as writers, they will not deliver the poems they are capable of.
REGISTER NOW!
Suggested donation for weekend training is $100.
Please be sure to pre-register by emailing Program Director, Parker Pracjek at parker@urbanwordnyc.org
Training is free for NYU students and staff, NYCoRE Members, and the Hip-Hop Theatre Festival staff.
For additional information, please call 212-352-3495.
About Urban Word NYC:
Founded in 1999, Urban Word NYC™ (UW) is at the forefront of the youth spoken word, poetry and hip-hip movements in New York City. As a leading nonprofit presenter of literary arts education and youth development programs in the country, Urban Word NYC offers a comprehensive roster of programs during the school day and after-school hours and conducts diverse programmatic offerings in the areas of creative writing, journalism, literature and hip-hop. UW presents local and national youth poetry slams, festivals, reading series, open mics and more. All told, Urban Word NYC works directly with 15,000 teens per year in New York City alone, and has partner programs in 42 cities across the United States. For more information, visit: www.urbanwordnyc.org.
About NYCoRE:
New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE) is a group of public school educators committed to fighting for social justice in our school system and society at large, by organizing and mobilizing teachers, developing curriculum, and working with community, parent, and student organizations. We are educators who believe that education is an integral part of social change and that we must work both inside and outside the classroom because the struggle for justice does not end when the school bell rings. Visit: www.nycore.org
About the Hip-Hop Theatre Festival:
In six years, the Hip-Hop Theater Festival (HHTF) has grown into one of the most influential outlets showcasing hip-hop performing arts in the country. The Hip-Hop Theater Festival aims to invigorate the fields of theater and hip-hop by nurturing the creation of innovative work within the hip-hip aesthetic. The core of HHTF’s programming is its annual Festivals. Visit: www.hiphoptheaterfest.com