|
Press Review
http://www.theday.com/article/20110811/NWS01/308119991
WRITERS BLOCK, INK RECEIVES DONATION FROM JOSH GROBAN'S FIND YOURLIGHT FOUNDATION
Groban to Recognize WRITERS BLOCK, INK from Stage During Concertat Mohegan Sun Arena.
New London, CT – Writers Block, Ink today announced that it has been selected bymulti-platinum singer-songwriter Josh Groban to receive a donation from his newFind Your Light Foundation, which is dedicated to enriching the lives of youngpeople through arts, education, and cultural awareness. Writers Block, Ink isone of just countless arts education nonprofit organizations selected by Grobanto receive funds from The Find Your Light Foundation during his "Straightto You" tour.
“We are very excited for this wonderful opportunity for ourstudents. With the support of Mr. Groban and his foundation, we will be ableto continue to offer performing arts programs for youth and fulfill our missionof Igniting social change on the page and stage. Our students and staff areenthusiastically looking forward to seeing Mr. Groban perform on July 30.”
-Lisa Giordano, ProgramDirector
Writers Block, Ink
"Ensuring every child has the opportunity to experience anarts education is very important to me," said Groban. " WritersBlock, Ink shares this goal with me, and it gives me great pleasure tohighlight the work they do."
While Groban tours the U.S. on his "Straight toYou" tour, his Find Your Light Foundation will make a cash donation to anonprofit arts education organization that operates in each locale in which thetour stops. In addition, Groban is inviting the head of that nonprofit; theartists, students and/or teachers who provide services for the nonprofit; andthe children and young adults who receive services from the nonprofit to attendhis concert and be recognized from the stage. They will also have theopportunity to meet Groban prior to the performance.
Taking the foundation's mission one step further, Groban ispartnering with Americans for the Arts, the nation's leading nonprofitorganization for advancing the arts and arts education, to launch a jointtext-to-give campaign, which will run for the duration of his "Straight toYou" tour in 2011. Proceeds from the campaign will go to support both TheFind Your Light Foundation and Americans for the Arts as they work to ensure everychild and young adult in America has access to quality arts education experiences. Text ART to 50555 to make a$10 donation to support the cause.
Groban will be in Uncasville to perform on July 30 as part of his"Straight To You" worldwide tour running through November. The toursupports his recent and fifth studio album, 'Illuminations' which has alreadybeen certified platinum in the U.S. Its No. 4 debut on Billboard's Top 200 chart is Groban's fourth consecutive Top5 chart bow. Tickets for Josh's upcoming shows are available through http://www.ticketmaster.com.
The mission of The Writers Block, Ink is to arm young voices with the power of pen,poetry and prose, reinforcing teamwork, accountability, and responsibility –igniting social change on the page and the stage. The Writers Block Ink wasstarted in 2003 as a 501c3 non-profit organization to encourage youth to usewriting and performance as tools to address personal and social challenges onthe community stage. Students from The Block create original plays with astrong emphasis on spoken word poetry and have performed on stages across Southeastern Connecticut . Courses are structured to guidestudents to improve writing skills, build self-confidence, leadership, andteamwork. The students conceive of an idea, develop a plot, evaluate character conflict, cast themselves, write a final script, market, and ultimately performtheir work for the community. For more information go to www.writersblockink.org.
About Find Your Light
To find out more about the Find Your Light Foundation, pleasevisit the organization's website at http://www.findyourlightfoundation.org and/orits Facebook page athttp://www.facebook.com/findyourlightfoundation.
About Americans for the Arts
Americans for the Arts is the leading nonprofit organization foradvancing the arts in America .With offices in Washington , D.C. and New York City ,it has a record of more than 50 years of service. Americans for the Arts is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts. Additional information is available at www.AmericansForTheArts.org.
Jeanne Sigel: (860)444-4430; jsigel@gardearts.org
GARDE ARTS CENTER TO HOST NEW LONDON YOUTH TALENT SHOW
Features stage performers and fine arts show
(New London) To increase opportunities for young people to showcase their talent to a regional audience, the Garde Arts Center, Kitchings Productions and community organizations and volunteers are presenting The New London Youth Talent Show at the Garde Arts Center on Friday, March 25, at 7 p.m. To be broadcast live by radio station Jammin 107.7, the event, directed by Aaron Arbiter and produced by Ken Kitchings of Kitchings Productions, will spotlight the many talents of New London's youth, ages 11 - 21, who will sing, dance, rap, recite poetry and more. Admission is $5 with net proceeds going to Writer's Block Ink.
The talent show was suggested by New London resident, vocal artist and youth leader, Frank Colmenares who spoke with Police Officer Anthony Nolan at the first New London Anti-Violence (NLAV) city forum held on December 6, 2010, at the Garde Arts Center Oasis Room. During a lively discussion on how to support and engage youth in the city, Colmenares suggested a talent show and said "in fact, there is a beautiful stage right downstairs." The ball was set in motion and members of NLAV started to move on the suggestion the very next day and Steve Sigel, executive director of the Garde Arts Center, enthusiastically agreed to let the show be performed on the main stage.
Over the next couple of months, the pivotal players came together to organize the talent show. Members of the coordinating committee include: Frank Colmenares; Police Officer Anthony Nolan; (NLAV) representatives: Andrea Messenger, Curtis Goodwin and Jessica Hill; Attorney Susan Connolly; Lisa Giordano of Writer's Block, Ink and Emerson Theater Collaborative; Aaron Arbiter of The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center; and New London High School Students, Nicole Arias and Johny Diaz-Saez. With venue and producer established many other community organizations and members all volunteered to help with the event in full support of New London's youth.
A Youth Fine Arts Exhibition and silent auction will accompany the talent show. The Planning Committee is still seeking:
Youth interested in displaying a piece of their art in the exhibition
Businesses/individuals interested in donating a good or service for the silent auction.
Youth volunteers for various projects leading up to and during the show
Donations for support costs incurred throughout the rehearsal process
Those interested volunteering or making a donation to the Youth Fine Arts Exhibition, can contact the committee by sending an email to nltalentshow@gmail.com.
Performance information can be obtained by visiting www.facebook.com/NLTalentShow.
Tickets to The New London Youth Talent Show are $5 and are available at the Garde Box Office, 325 State St., New London, Conn. The Garde Box Office is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and two hours prior to curtain on performance days. Beginning March 21, the Garde Box Office will change its hours to 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. but will continue to open two hours prior to performances. Tickets may be purchased online at www.gardearts.org or by phone during regular box office hours at (860) 444-7373, ext. 1.
CALENDAR LISTING:
WHAT: New London Youth Talent Show
WHEN: Friday, March 25, at 7 p.m
WHERE: Garde Arts Center, 325 State Street, New London, CT
PRICES: $5 with net proceeds going to Writer's Block Ink
BOX OFFICE: www.gardearts.org or (860) 444-7373, ext. 1
***
About the Garde Arts Center
Now in its eighty-second season, the Garde Arts Center is southeastern Connecticut’s non-profit center for the performing arts. The Garde owns and operates the historic 1450-seat Garde Theatre and the 130-seat Oasis Room where it presents musicals, opera, orchestras, contemporary music, film, dance, and family events. Home of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, hosts performances by regional arts organizations and provides educational programs for more than 12,000 young people. Under the leadership of Steve Sigel, executive director, since 1988, the Garde has become a major catalyst for the cultural and economic revitalization of New London.
About Kitchings Productions
Founded by Kenneth Kitchings, Kitchings Productions is a New London, Conn., based production company whose mission is to deepen and broaden the appreciation and educational impact of national and regional jazz, blues, folk, rock and contemporary musical artists in Southeastern Connecticut. A presenting partner with the Garde Arts Center, Kitchings Productions also works with other area non-profit organizations and schools.
Press
The Writers Block, that is, a multitalented local group of kids. He's like any other 12-year-old cyclone of energy. To not be in motion is to defy nature. Plus, there are friends to push and dodge and there are temptations such as grinders and bags of chips and boxes of fruit juices scattered on low-slung tables around the room. But at precisely choreographed moments, Noah Jenkins snaps to attention and begins to read an amazing and partially memorized poem about hope and ambition and desire — a tome filled with grand comic book feats as well as deeply eloquent lifetime metaphors about racing from the peak of Mount Everest to the bottom.
Jenkins wrote this poem, and his peers in the room, all members of a local group called Writers Block Ink, have written similarly themed works. They will all be part of a much larger annual production and fundraiser they call their Spring Showcase, happening Saturday.
In preparation, on an after-school Wednesday afternoon, members and volunteers of the Writers Block have gathered in their tripartite rehearsal area in the back of a building on State Street. The main space is small and elongated with a polished hardwood floor and large sheets of butcher paper containing handwritten versions of poems by Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou; a tiny office cubicle with a computer desk and two chairs; and a larger, brightly lit square room with full-length mirrors covering the walls.
Each chamber is rife with an artistic whirlwind. In the main room, immediate focus is on Jenkins, 11-year-old Kirshon Augmon, and 12-year-old Jalen Sampeur. Under the guidance of sisters Maya and Attallah Sheppard, Waterford High students and members of Writers Block since its inception five years ago, the guys are coordinating delivery and stage projection of interrelated and memorized works of poetry — their own pieces plus Hughes' “A Dream Deferred” and Angelou's “And Still I Rise.”
As spun out from those seminal works, the Spring Showcase will express a message of conviction and rising above challenge — that it's OK to dream and you can't let anything hold you back in the pursuit of those dreams.
Maya Sheppard, 15, orchestrates the young men through rehearsal with a delicate balance of maternal strength and a drama teacher's grasp of craft.
“Well, we're kind of mentors because we've been here for a while,” she explains. “I look at the (younger kids) and think how I was at the beginning. Kind of shy. And it's important to learn to be comfortable with your words and feelings. I learned from the people who came before me and this is part of the experience. You pass it on.”
Meanwhile, through a door into the mirrored space, urban beats blast out of a stereo as young women practice choreography under the guidance of Callan Bryant, a volunteer and member of Oasis, the New London hip-hop dance outfit. Camped out in the office, Mystic poet and volunteer Melanie Greenhouse gently councils middle school writers in one-on-one sessions.
This is all the brainstorm of Pfizer employee and WB founder Clarissa Beyah-Taylor. The group is a nonprofit creative community where students from ages 8 to 21 learn to explore feelings about social and familial issues and challenges through such artistic expressions as poetry, dance and music.
“These kids come from so many different backgrounds that Writers Block creates an environment where they can deal with whatever social issues are going on in their heads,” says Hazel Richardson, the director of student care for the organization. “The idea is for them to talk about whatever they want to talk about and use those issues as a springboard to create. They take a paper and pen and start writing, and the students see that whatever emotional topic comes off the blank page has become a work of art.”
The group meets year-round, working on a variety of projects that culminate in small group presentations — as in two recent opening-act spoken-word performances before professional concerts at New London's Garde Arts Center — full-group productions like the Fall Fundraiser and Spring Showcase, and a variety of projects over the course of a seven-week summer workshop. Students from schools in Waterford, New London, Groton, Montville and North Stonington are members, and the number of participants ranges from its current school year roster of 18 to as many as 35 during the summer sessions.
The students write and conceptualize their productions, with the guidance of adult volunteers like Richardson, Greenhouse, Bryant and Betsy Raymond Stevenson, a member of the board of directors who coordinates public relations for the group. And despite the age differences, and that many come from different schools, it all seems to come together smoothly.
“It absolutely coalesces,” Richardson says. “Writers Block is in one way a family to these kids. Plus, they don't necessarily see each other during the week and so it's a completely different and fun environment for them to get together.”
For the Spring Showcase, the general concept arises from brainstorming sessions among the students. The volunteers help with shape and structure. “The kids came up with a list of thoughts and overall themes that suggested the poems by Hughes and Angelou,” Richardson says. “So we put the poems on the wall and let them work from there. It helps them feel invested to see the concepts they've talked about turn into an actual artistic work.”
Steve Sigel, executive director of the Garde Arts Center, has been sufficiently impressed that he had Writers Block open two recent big-name concerts at the venue, the Mavis Staples/Bettye LaVette show and the subdudes/BeauSoleil bill.
“The Writer's Block is a wonderful program nurturing the expressive skills through pen and performance of our community's children,” Sigel says. “We love to have the opportunity to deepen the impact of our performances by actively engaging members of the community in the artist-audience experience.” He adds, “The musicians were so impressed with the content of the kids' writing and the way they expressed themselves on stage.”
After Maya and Attallah are satisfied that Augmon, Jenkins and Sampeur have made progress, the three young men take a break. They all profess affection for Writers Block.
“It's good and cool,” says Jenkins, a student at St. Bernard. “I think it will help me down the road.”
“We learn about stage direction and how to memorize poems,” adds Augmon, who attends Bennie Dover in New London.
“I've wanted to be in plays and this is fun,” chimes in Sampeur, who goes to New London's Interdistrict School for Arts and Communication.
“The kids are so amazing and they have so much talent,” Richardson laughs. “Sometimes they're just 9-year-old kids and other times they say or write something and you say, 'That came out of a 9-year-old?' ”
Maya Sheppard, who hopes to establish a career in the performing arts, agrees. “At this point of the production, there's still a lot of work to be done but I think it's coming along. We have some really strong pieces and it amazes me how in-depth these kids are. We have a lot of good stuff to work with.”
“Ultimately, the Writers Block's purpose is to inspire young people to pursue education,” says Beyah-Taylor, who stays involved in the group even though a job transfer moved her to New Jersey. “We want to inspire every young person we can to desire an education both for its own sake and as a means to ignite change.”
Courtesy Rick Koster, New London Day
|
|
