Students at Centrum's Summer High School Arts Camp rehearse in Erwin Thomas' theater class.
Photo courtesy Kathie Meyer.
This Friday, June 26 there is a presentation of all the student work beginning at 7 p.m. in the JFK building at Fort Worden State Park. Friends and family are invited to see the results of a weeklong immersion in filmmaking, creative writing, sculpture and theater.
This year as actor Erwin Thomas has kept me informed about his work in theater, I have been amazed at the variety of projects he takes on. Erwin lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Last August 2008, Thomas directed “Roots, Rhythm & Revolution, A One Person Exploration of Past, Present and Purpose” written and performed by Wema Harris.
That was followed in September, by his work in a ground-breaking play at Performance Space 122. Thomas Bradshaw's “Southern Promises,” directed by Jose Zayas made the theater world in New York stand up and take notice. It was reviewed in both the New York Times and the New Yorker. The play didn’t mince words/situations. It tackled uncomfortable issues head on.
Late September found Thomas at the Historic St. Paul Community Baptist Church with a performance of a piece he wrote called “Quiet Violence of Dreams.” The play was directed by Jesse Wooden Jr. and performed by Thomas and Evan Flory-Barns. It was part of St. Paul’s “Commemoration of the MAAFA.” MAAFA is a Kisawahili term that refers to the catastrophic experience formerly known as the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade that resulted in the kidnap, torture, and enslavement of millions of African People.
October brought a reading of a new play by Shontina Vernon. Erwin was in the cast of “A Lovely Malfunction" at New Federal Theatre's “Theatre 80” on St. Marks Place and 1st Ave.
As the year turned to 2009, I received a message from Erwin noting a tangible feeling of growth and rebirth in the air. Thomas was in a staged reading of “The Children of Children Keep Coming...An Epic Griot Song,” based on the recent Simon & Schuster release of the lyrical novel of the same name by Russell L. Goings. The reading was presented by Columbia University & Schomberg Center for Research in Black culture.
Then Thomas got to wield some swords, muskets and "play well tuned anvils with a sledge hammer" in a classic opera on a legendary stage. He was in Verdi’s “Il Travatore” at the Metropolitan Opera.
Erwin is finishing the spring by doing some teaching: a middle school poetry class and a high school playwriting class.
And he begins the summer of 2009 here at Centrum, teaching theater in the Summer High School Arts Camp. If you are an aspiring actor, don’t miss this opportunity to learn from this dynamic artist.
At the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, NM, the de la Torre Brothers are exhibiting Meso-Americhanics (Maneuvering Mestizaje) de la Torre Brothers and Border Baroque through August 16, 2009. (Follow the live links to read about their exhibit.)
The brothers are glass blowers and installation artists, born in Mexico and living and working in both the United States and Mexico.
Pictured here is an example of their sculpture using glass and other materials:
Baja Kali
by Einar and Jamex de la Torre
2001
Blown glass, mix media,
87" x 45" x 17".
Collection of the artists.
Photo courtesy of the artists.
While at Centrum working with high school students during the Summer High School Arts Camp, (June 21-27, 2009) the de la Torres will be using mixed media. They plan to drive to Centrum, stopping along the way at thrift stores and other places where "good stuff" is abundant, and arrive with a collection of materials for artmaking. Students are encouraged to bring their own treasures and finds to combine with what they find at Centrum. They'll be asked to examine "identity" and how ideas about who they are, what culture they live in, and what that says about them as individuals. How does identity inform the creative process? Is it revealed through the objects chosen to create sculpture?
Coming soon to Centrum, Lila Kitaeff and Lane Stroud teach filmmaking at Centrum's Summer High School Arts Camp. Learn the basics of how to create a movie from beginning to end. Write a script, create a story board, learn how to opeate a camera and how to edit your footage into a short film.
June 21-27, Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend becomes your movie set and soundstage.
On May 30, check out the work of the students who worked with Reel Grrls at the Variety Pack Show at the Vera Project in Seattle (Republican & Warren Ave. N).
At the Summer High School Arts Camp in June, Stephanie Lenox will teach “Wordplay”, one seriously fun week in which you will trace the use of humor, both funny strange and funny ha-ha, in writing classic and contemporary.
Investigate how literary oddballs tinker with tradition and technology to create hilarious and thought-provoking work, and then give it a whirl. There’s no need to be a stand-up comedian for this workshop, just a writer ready to stand up and try something new.
Lenox adds the following:
About my teaching style:
As the promotions director for a children’s museum, I’m surrounded by kids prodding, poking, and investigating new ideas. Positioned between two interactive stations on magnetism, my office doorknob receives regular jiggling as the kids move from one station to the next. On the days I forget to set my lock, I’m one more discovery, a startled thirty-something woman looking up from her computer screen. Working in that kind of environment reminds me of the importance of experimentation, testing the door to see if it opens, rattling whoever sits too comfortably inside.
For me, writing requires playfulness, an attitude I embrace in the classroom as well. As a genius of doubt, I’ve had to come up with clever ways to sneak behind the back of my internal critic and get the work on the page. I believe that doubt can be an extremely useful tool in writing, and I use it to push me beyond what I know into strange and unexplored territory. Using prompts, experiments, collaborations and exercises that take me out of my routine, I find ways to escape the same-old, same-old that stifles original expression. My ideal writing classroom is one that allows time for purposeful play, reflection, and partnership with fellow creatives.
About my work: People always say write about what you know. Phooey. I write about what I want to know. I want to know what it’s like after having the world’s largest tumor removed from my body or to walk around with the world’s largest feet or to be able to lift the heaviest weight with just my ear (136 lbs!). For me, writing is about connection, an attempt to find the familiar within the strange or the strange within the familiar. Sample poems by Stephanie Lenox:
The Heart That Lies Outside the Body
Christopher Wall (USA) born on Aug. 19, 1975, is the longest known survivor of the condition known as ectopia cordis.… The mortality rate is high, with most patients not living beyond 48 hours.
— Guinness World Records
I know people want to touch it,
like I’m some pregnant woman
or one of those cut-open cows
with a porthole in its side.
As soon as I could talk, I said
aorta, pulmonary artery, vena cava.
These words hold my life in place.
I learned how to have fun with it,
dress it up like a ventriloquist’s dummy,
throw my voice into the fleshy lump.
I memorized “The Tell-Tale Heart”
and chased my cousins around the yard
shouting, “It grew quicker and quicker
and louder and louder every instant!”
I’ve had to explain myself so often,
ectopia cordis, ectopia cordis,
ectopia cordis, ectopia cordis,
that once I totally lost it and hit a man
for asking. And, of course, considering
my condition, he forgave me.
Now people don’t bother to ask,
or if they do, I say it feels
just fine. In fact, I’ve lived
so long the doctors say I’ll die
like everyone else. I have dreams
that it fills with air, floats away.
I don’t know what that means.
Longest Sneezing Fit, Day 977
Donna Griffiths (UK) started sneezing on Jan. 13, 1981 at the age of 12. … She achieved her first sneeze-free day on Sept. 16, 1983 — the 978th day.
— Guinness World Records
It’s not
that I don’t want
to stop
the raucous riot
in my lungs,
but what would life be
if not
this exclamation
point?
My body wants to be
beside itself,
released
into a world of
innumerable deeds.
Something escapes me
every time
I sneeze.
So this just goes to show
how much a body can break
in two,
in two,
until …
It’s not my choice
to live this way, each
moment raw
to the prodigious
need to announce itself.
I can tell you that it hurts
to keep going,
that nothing matters
more than a quiet,
average life.
But if I did stop,
who would count
each ordinary breath?
Who would bless me?
Dear Centrum supporter and arts education advocate:
We urgently need your help.
For 37 years, Centrum has provided tens of thousands of Washington students life changing experiences through arts programs at Fort Worden State Park. During this time, Centrum has received partial state funding ($170,000 per year) for these programs through the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). Even with the need to reduce Washington's state budget, both Governor Gregoire and the Senate understand the value of Centrum youth programs and have kept Centrum in their respective 2010 and 2011 OSPI budgets.
Unfortunately, Washington's House of Representatives has removed Centrum funding from its version of the budget. The loss of this funding would result not only in the termination of these valuable education programs, but would also seriously threaten Centrum's future as one of Washington's leading cultural institutions.
As well, these programs provide substantial income for the State through additional park fees. During the last biennium (two year) budget cycle, Centrum paid the State $1.2 million in park fees through its programs.
If you or your children, or someone you know have benefited from Centrum's programs, we ask that you take a couple of minutes to send an email or make a phone call (ideally both) to your Washington House representatives. It's easy; just follow the links and the steps outlined below.
Thank you for your consideration and for your support.
Sincerely,
John A. MacElwee
Executive Director
Centrum
1. Link on to Find Your Legislator (link provided below)
2. Enter your address or zip code
3. Select your representative
4. Click on email (you may also want to take down their phone number)
5. You will need to reconfirm your address or zip code
6. Enter your contact information
7. Check if you would like a response (recommended)
8. Check if you would like to cc other legislators in your district (recommended)
9. In the subject line please write:
Please Reinstate Centrum Funding in House Budgets for 2010 and 2011
10. Type your note in the comment section (sample provided below)
BIG BONUS: Follow up your email with a phone call
FIND YOUR LEGISLATOR
SUGGESTED NOTE:
Dear Representative (Last Name):
I am writing to ask you to reinstate funding for Centrum's youth programs at Fort Worden State Park in section 511 of the House budgets for 2010 and 2011 as its appears in both the Senate's and Governor's budgets.
For 37 years, Centrum has provided tens of thousands of Washington students "life changing" experiences through the arts during residencies at the Park.
(Personally, Centrum has offered (me, my child, our community) the chance....)
(I feel strongly about Centrum because....)
Thank you for your consideration.
(Your name)
Hi everyone! We've just launched a new community site for young artists at Centrum.
Check out http://centrumyouth.ning.com.
If you've come to one of Centrum's Young Artist Project weeks at Fort Worden, please share your photos, videos, artwork, writing--you name it!
If you haven't been to Centrum yet, feel free to join in and ask questions!
This painting by Darwin Nordin, visual artist faculty for Water World and Explorations: Blue Heron Middle School reflects his observations of the natural world.
As the high hopes of the election are eclipsed by the dire news of our economy, I come to work excited about the possibilities of what I do....in spite of everything "out there." I am passionate about making all kinds of art available to young people. Through years of involvement with this program, I see kids get lit up from the inside out. That's why I'm here at Centrum. And that's why I love to find artists who are equally passionate about what they do, to come to Centrum and work with the next generation of artists.
In our current circumstances, inner resources become even more important. The ability to think and reflect, to make something of nothing, to use your body as a means of expression and to communicate all that is highly valuable. It doesn't cost anything and yet it can sustain and inspire.
Artists are among the most resourceful people I have ever met. They are used to working with a tight budget and yet that doesn't stop them. Passion carries them on to a different kind of reward in the success of creation. When kids see this first hand, and understand that they can achieve success through their own creation, I believe it truly changes their lives. The future opens up in new ways. Education, participation, giving everything you have...these things become even more relevant and important.
I first saw the glass sculpture of the De la Torre Brothers at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. In the contemporary sculpture of these two brothers, I saw cultural icons I had come to love during a year I spent living in Mexico. La Virgen de Guadalupe, Lucha Libre, Dia de los Muertos, Aztec Pyramids and more were explored in a personal, insightful and political way. And I loved that their work looks nothing like the typical Northwest glass movement.
I wondered how to pronounce their names- Einar and Jamex- I had never heard those names in Mexico. I wondered if they were from the U.S. or Mexico. I googled their name and found a fantastic website.
Last summer I saw that the de la Torres were teaching at Pilchuck- the Northwest’s premier “glass school.” It made me wonder if they would ever consider coming to Centrum to teach teens. It was a longshot-Centrum doesn’t have a hot glass facility, and they are really busy. I was shocked but pleased that when I called their studio, their manager said yes- they would be interested, “Tell me more and we’ll get back to you.” They were busy, preparing a bunch of work to ship to Arizona for a museum show. “But we WILL respond when we get back.”
In the month that passed following that conversation, I learned that Einar and Jamex are in demand both as teachers for prestigious craft schools such as Penland in North Carolina and as artists. They did get back to me and they said yes to teaching kids sculpture. And it’s not because of me that they will come to Centrum in June, it’s because of the kids- and the opportunity to share their knowledge and skill with young people.
Go to their website and see their amazing work http://www.delatorrebros.com/.
Then sign up to come to Centrum and learn about the process of combining images and a variety of materials into a sculpture that reflects YOU. www.centrum.org/youth.
