- BRAMAS - day 2

Today was a musical day. Arriving at BRAMAS this morning, Maria Tereza and I met with Antonio, Adriana, and Arlete to set up for the day. We had twenty kids today. Taking advantage of the summer, and the adjacent park, we took ourselves outside to experience the sun and a few activities to initiate us onto our day. We walked when we were told to stop, and stopped when we were told to walk, shouted our age when we were told to jump, and jumped when we were asked how old we were! The morning was fun, joyously confusing, free-ing, and filled with movement. A great start with lots of energy and laughs.
Antonio had an amazing lesson planned for the kids, discovering and associating through music. Adriana also had a terrific lesson in photography to teach the kids about composition, and discovering interpretation through the lens.

With his group of ten, Antonio led the children to discover music through paper. PAPER! It could not have been a more fitting opportunity. A Piece for Paper, was a piece of music made especially to play a piece of paper, --through sliding, tapping, clapping and rustling paper, the children created an orchestra. Antonio discussed ideas of 'form' with the children, and directly related these notions to discovering the form of All Summer In A Day -- by comparing the components of each. It was truly amazing to see such a talented teacher give such a comprehensive lesson, and make all the pieces fit so wonderfully.

Just the same, Adriana took the other ten children (and then the groups swapped) to learn about basic concepts in photography/composition; the rule of thirds, the pitfalls of centered images, and what constitutes a working photograph-- with movement and space; showing the children a variety of images and letting them chose which worked well, and which did not work so well --and why. After the slide show, the group of ten split into groups of five; one group doing body sculptures, or metaphoric adaptations from the story -- and the other photographing them. Lunch came just as the second group was finishing up, so tomorrow we are lucky to have Adriana return to look at the images the children created, with them -- and to talk about what they were able to produce. This was an amazingly well-organized lesson that seemed to cover a tremendous amount in an agreeable amount of time. Another amazing teacher.

Kudos to both Antonio and Adriana!

After lunch, we wrapped up the day and were treated to bit of Jobim, when Antonio took his guitar out, and helped students (and er, some teachers..) learn how to sing it! It was a wonderful way to end the day. ~ Maria

Day 3 Chelsea Boys and Girls Club

Before I begin, I would like to give a shout out to Maria Theresa, Nathalie, Google maps and the cop in Dunkin' Donuts for helping us find our entirely round about yet good intentioned way to the Boys and Girls Club--we appreciate you.

Ok, so we started with a few warms ups and goal setting activities to get things going and then moved into writing. We asked the girls (and one new boy) to write a narrative from Margot's perspective after she was locked in the closet. We refreshed their memories about what it is to be first person and sent them on their way asking them to be extremely aware of their senses. We got some lovely responses about slippery doors and smelly fish shoes, and one escape route with candy in coat pockets. It generated great stuff for the final book.

Then we moved into revised version of sculptures. We asked them to create multiple images based on the same word and then move between them on the same count. This created quite a lovely effect and will be used in their final show. We then worked with a "practice book" so they could play with the actual physicality of the book in preparation for their performance. They then were given copies of the story and in small groups worked on mini-performances using a phrase from the text, multiple images and the "practice book". I think it turned out pretty well although some of the groups were a bit too literal for my taste but I realize that it was a tall order.

Our goal for Thursday is to have them physically write on the final books and to work with a lose script pulled together from their writings.

So there you have it, they are a great group of kids and are a lot of fun to work with.

Emily

Day One @ BRAMAS Workshop: Framingham, MA

Today we arrived in Framingham to start the week with our new group at BRAMAS- [Brazilian American Association]. Bob, Femke, Nathalie and myself were there to teach the 26 students, and lead them onto and into the PPPPerforms journey. The kids ranged in age from 9 to 17.

During the morning warm-ups, Nathalie led us in some games to help the kids build confidence in each other and to get to know one another. We continued this by introducing ourselves, stretching, moving, playing a game of catch of sorts, and then ended with a "machine building" exercise where the kids "built" their own machines using their bodies,-- each having a demonstrative movement and sound to go with their respective role in the multi-bodied machine.

After warming up, we gathered in the larger room where Bob took the lead on introducing the kids to the art of book-making. He showed them the materials they would be using, demonstrating how to use each one, and also gave them a look at what their choices would be for the textures and colors of papers they could choose from. We broke up into a few groups, and made use of the three rooms; one for painting, and two others to have a bit more space to stretch out and work. The kids dove in!

The students made sketch-books to write in during various exercises, and to use for themselves throughout the week to jot notes, to draw in, and to reflect on what their experiences are/will be. This was an introduction to the finalized books they will then make on Friday.

It was very exciting to see the kids explore their options for cover layout, and interior pages; all the books varying in colors, sizes, lengths and design elements. As their confidence grew with their bookmaking skills, some students (not necessarily the older ones) found a place in lending a hand to their peers with their newly found skills. It was great to see them sharing and really focusing on their creativity and ideas. This portion of the day seemed to be a joy for all, teachers included.

After the book-making session, we took a break to eat lunch, and gab a bit about what their books turned out like, and how they were feeling, what they thought of the workshop (so far, so good!) and some other side notes.

We then resumed in the larger room to introduce the text All Summer In A Day
by Bradbury. Femke and I took turns reading the story aloud, breaking in-between sections (three in all) to give the kids 'one minute' to write and/or draw their reactions to what they had heard.

After reading, we broke up into different groups. We asked each group to take three pieces of paper to draw on. We suggested they look to their sketch-books for inspiration-- to what they had written during the one-minute reactions. This exercise, we also let them know, was about collectively making decisions--- about what to draw, in reference to the three sections of the story, and how they would go about chosing and deciding, some children preferring to draw while others might be the idea makers, or 'directors'. There were a couple of bumps along the way, but overall this was a very successful exercise and the kids really took care of their work and put in a huge effort. There were many accounts of the rain, the sun, and also Margot.

We then met together in the larger room, to discuss for a small amount of time what words/images the kids thought about and what portions of the story they may have been associating or informing their drawings with.

The last exercise involved asking the kids to sit in pairs, back to back, on a 7' roll of paper to conjure and draw. One child would sit facing the paper, ready to draw what the child opposite would then describe; this proved to be a fruitful exercise, though we will have to re-cap tomorrow as there were many children getting picked-up at this time, and overall the exercise was cut short.

A few issues we need to be saavy about are using the space to the ut-most and not letting it hinder our experience. It can be overwhelming for all involved when there are nearly thirty kids in one average sized room! I also feel very strongly about dividing the girls and boys in a more equal way-- so that the girls do not convene and the energy the boys have together can balance out more evenly.

Also,there are several older students who are fantastic helpers, and should be encouraged to do so! This helps tremendously with community building, and also of course with getting things accomplished.

Looking forward to tomorrow with Antonio and Adriana!

Maria LaCreta

Teacher/Artist workshop

We arrived a little late but very well received by the warmth and hospitality of the BRAMAS organizers.

Today we started with a variety of fun, community building exercises and getting-to-know-each-other games. We started by saying our names and sharing with everybody our word of the day. Then Emily led a very energetic group throwing exercise, which made everybody laugh. We continued by doing a group machine and body exercise to accustom ourselves to taking risks. Each of these exercises played with association of words and the environment, the attention and focus we pay to certain things, and the engagement of sounds with body risks.

We then moved on to making some wondeful little books, using various sheets of paper to make journals of different shapes and sizes, with a wide varieties of decorations and creative shapes. We moved on to listening to the story "All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury, read by Emily and Femke, and so we jotted down thoughts and reactions to the story at strategic spots when we were asked to stop. We shared and discussed the different types of intepretations, and various exciting drawings, interpretations and stories came out as a result.

We took a break, enjoying some cheese puffs (pan de queso) and orange juice, chatted about our experiences, and returned to work.

The workshop then moved into a character exercise, where participants were asked to pick a character and describe it to a partner, who would draw it on a long sheet of paper. Once these were ready, we chose different drawings to analyze them, explaining the significance of interpretation and concluding that the discussion should lead to a sophisticated evaluation of rhetorical and literary devices.

After an engaging discussion on the days achievements, we had a delicious brazilian meal at a restaurant down the street, where a delicious buffet and dangerously spicy hot-sauce awaited.

--Nathalie

questionnaire

THE HARVARD CULTURAL AGENTS INITIATIVE

AND

BRAZILIAN AMERICAN ASSOCIATION – BRAMAS

2007

PROJECT:

PAPER PICKER PRESS

ARTISTAS

Falando sobre o workshop:

Responda, por favor, e repasse para todos os participantes.

Obrigada.

Quais as suas expectativas em relacao a este workshop?
O que voce, como artista, acrescentaria neste workshop?
Como voce se sentiu neste workshop?
Mais alguns comentarios……

AVALIAR E UM ATO SUBLIME.

Coordenadora: Doris Sommer

Educadora: Arlete Falkowski



Como voce se sentiu neste workshop?
O que voce, como artista, acrescentaria neste workshop?
Quais as suas expectativas em relacao a este workshop?

From Arlete

The Harvard Cultural Agents Initiative

And

Brazilian American Association – Bramas

Project:

PAPER PICKER PRESS

2007

First day: july, 29 – Sunday ( Teachers and artists).

Este foi o primeiro encontro dos professores, coordenadores e artistas locais, na Sede da Bramas, das 9 horas da manha ate a 1 da tarde, para que a equipe do projeto pudesse orientar a todos no entendimento do objetivo deste projeto.

Tivemos um pequeno momento de acolhida, com um café e paes, aonde foi possivel, para muitos dos participantes se conhecerem e trocar algumas ideias. Logo a seguir a equipe conduziu o grupo para algumas tecnicas de descontracao, que nos levavam, com muita naturalidade, a importancia de despertar, nao so nos jovens, as inumeras habilidades, que se pode transmitir atraves dos sons, gestos, movimento e palavras. Outras tecnicas nos auxiliavam a compreender a concentracao, a sequencia nas atitudes das pessoas. As tecnicas foram alegres, descontraidas e extremamente criativas. E COMO APRENDER BRINCANDO.

Chega entao o momento da LEITURA, que nos envolve e nos reporta para o mundo magico. Todos ouviam atentos e expressavam, no seu livro, o seu entendimento, a sua compreensao do texto. A beleza da forma com que foi feita a leitura, as pausas e a entonacao nos levaram a criar, desenhar e escrever com muito prazer.

A LEITURA TRANSPORTA E TRANSFORMA O SER PARA INFINITAS PERSPECTIVAS.

Uma das tecnicas, apos a leitura do livro: All Summer…. foi expressa num grande painel, com a participacao de duplas, que primeiro reportavam as suas caracteristicas para o seu companheiro expressar, atraves do desenho. Logo a seguir, o grupo pode visualizar as diversas expressoes e caracteristicas da riqueza e percepcao de cada ser diante de uma obra.

Pode-se perceber a alegria e o envolvimento total de todos os participantes deste workshop.

Educadora Arlete Falkowski

The Planet Venus

The Planet Earth

Paper Picker Press Day 2

Day 2 was fantastic. Emily has a wonderful presence with the children.
After some warm up exercises, we showed the children the book they would make, explaining various materials they could use. We then had them focus on two specific words: Sun/Rain, and had them write, draw and cut out a number of different objects that represented these words.
The next two words were Earth/Venus. Emily had them perform different games that required them to think about the different elements between these two planets. They then broke into two groups, each taking up one end of the room, and again used drawing techniques to describe these planets. In Venus we had them move, and write in ways that were different to Earth. When the groups switched up we had them move to the other side of the room as if they were transporting themselves to a different planet.

At the end of the class Emily then had them finish up with some other performance exercises.

Some areas we should think about:

• How to have a large group of children interact on pages of the same book.
• How much of the bookmaking should the children do. In Framingham they have more time to sit and focus on drawing and writing. For Chelsea we prepped the initial paper to be used for the book. We will also make the front and back of the book but have the children stitch it together and glue in their materials/work. This saves a lot of time and keeps the workshop focused more on the performance aspect that the Girls and Boys club wants.

Again! Great job Emily!

daVies

Chelsea Boys and Girls Club Day 2

We had a great time today with a few bookmakers as welcome additions! In attendance were Maria Theresa, Emily, Bob, Mary and Fernanda

We started with warm ups and some name fun then Bob and Mary introduced the physical books the students would be making. The girls loved them, and spent quite a bit of time folding , looking , twisting and touching, which was wonderful to watch.

We then worked on metaphor--they understood it well so we worked off of the sun from All Summer in A Day. They had time to write "In my life the sun is ____" and then explain. The answers were beautiful, some of my favorites were "The sun is my mind" " the sun is my imagination" the sun is the love of my family" really lovely.

After sharing we worked with rain. For this part we generated images for the books, their assignment was to use construction paper and make shapes that meant "rain" keeping in mind that our discussion Tuesday was that there are no "wrong" interpretations. They cut and crumpled, folded and drew. Some favorites were a "lollypop of sadness" "ocean for my grandfather" and "diamonds". These two exercises gave us a bunch of material for their books.

We then worked with the concepts of Earth and Venus and they explored these concepts as they related to familiar and different. We used bodies and then drew (two big pieces of paper on either side of the room, one for drawing on Earth and one on Venus). Bob pointed out the striking difference in the two (Earth was filled with houses and fairly recognizable shapes, while Venus was a mixture of lines and squiggles and scrapes--some were drawn with their feet).

To finish the day we worked a bit with Boal's Image theatre and sculpted exploring concepts they felt in the story through their bodies. This got them out of language and into the world of the physical (and was a welcome silent activity). We then followed it with a lively discussion about moments when language fails and how powerful bodies and non-verbals can be.

Overall I'd say it was a success, it was wonderful to have so may collaborators, and the product will definitely be great.

Emily

PPP Performs - Boys and Girls Club - Day 1

Paper Picker Press Performs

Boys and Girls Club – Chelsea
Day 1

Who: Emily, Maria and Patricia
Story: All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury
14 kids (only girls)

We started the first day by doing the questionnaire that took them 2 minutes to fill it out. One of my favorite answers for the question about what is their favorite part about writing was “you can write your own words anyway you want to”. I thought it was perfect.

We started with some games (names, Boal stop/walk) to get them moving.

We moved to picking an object in the room/ talking about it/ word association/ expressing it with their bodies/ images/photographs/discussion about meaning. When asked about what makes all of them different from each other some of the answers were: the way you think, the way you speak, express yourself, personalities, emotions, culture and heritage.

We moved into the story, clarifying that there were no wrong or right way to listen to a story. They all chose their special place in the room where they would go back to write down some thoughts, feelings or drawings about the story.

While reading the story Emily would stop at some moments and give them 1 minute to write their thoughts.

After we finished the story the kids shared their thoughts and feelings. They talked about depression, disappointment, sadness and happiness. They talked about how they imagined the planet Venus with the bright sun and all the different colors. We then chose together 4 themes that were said by the group. Sadness, disappointment, happiness and Anger.

We divided them in 4 groups and each group was assigned a theme to come with a performance. A lot of the girls wanted to perform happiness.

After 10 minutes they all went on stage and performed their stories. They were apparently having fun. According to the survey a lot of them loved the acting part but a few of them were not into it. They were told if they don’t want to perform they don’t have to.

At the end we discussed all the performances and how they were connected to the story.

Closing game
End of the day survey

To sum up, all went pretty well for the first day. Emily led the activities most of the time and I observed how the kids were interacting. It’s a good group. They all know each other and that makes them more comfortable to do all the games and activities. When asked if they knew what the workshop was about they said besides reading and writing that it was about imagination.

Can't wait for Day 2. I had fun too.

Maria