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