Glitter & Razz Blog

Monday is our first Play in a Day Camp in honor of the life and work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  I decided that the theme of the day will be peace and freedom.  We haven’t done this particular theme yet so I am up this morning doing some research.  I, of course, first went to the Teaching Tolerance website.  Their stuff is an amazing resource to teachers and us teaching artists.  They are high quality teaching materials that they provide mostly for free.  Any of you who are exploring issues of diversity with your work will definitely want the get connected to these folks.

So, I am definitely inspired.  Here is an activity I am looking at called Freedom Flag.  What I like about it is that it uses multiple art forms – music, words, and collage.  The purpose of the activity is to engage kids in a discussion of freedom to get to heart of what it actually means.  I was challenged by figuring out how to do this so this is is good start.  However, I will have to adapt the activity…here’s why…

“Using red, white and blue construction paper, create a class “Freedom Flag,” by writing the key words for freedom on strips of red and white paper…”

Using red, white and blue construction paper?!?  How are kids supposed to learn about freedom if we tell them they can only use 3 colors in their flag?  Actually, limiting it to 3 colors is not the problem.  That’s actually a nice parameter.  The problem is that we are telling them which 3 colors they can use.  I understand that these are the colors of the US flag as it currently exists but the purpose of teaching kids art is teaching them how to notice things that exist and comment on it in their own way.

To me, freedom is being able to be and create your true self without anyone else imposing on you what they think that is.  I might say to the group, “we are going to create our own flag that represents our own freedom here in Oakland at Glitter & Razz.  Our flag should have 3 colors.  What 3 colors should we use to create this flag.  What 3 colors would represent us?”  And then take them through a process of voting as a group.  Now, the activity is teaching democracy in action through a creative process.  It is also helping them build their identity as part of a community.  It even provides a fertile ground to discuss dissent (”yuck, I don’t like pink!”) and how important it is to freedom.

I will run it by Martin, our art teacher, and see what he says.  And I will keep researching to figure out how to take this same idea into our creative movement and drama classes.  Either way, I am very excited about this.

Oh, another little criticism about Teaching Tolerance…they do not seem too friendly to those of us who work for ourselves…their free materials go to classroom teachers, administrators, church leaders, and employees of non-profits.  You even need a signature from some boss.  Maybe I will contact them and let them know about us small business artists who are doing important work with kids too.

Maybe we’ll see you Monday.

The work of artist Shara Hannah Finerman

2010 is the year when artists will take over business.  I can feel it.  This article in the New York Times clearly shows that business schools are looking at the current state of the economy as an opportunity to prepare its students with the critical thinking and problem solving skills so necessary to the creative process that artists tend to have these skills by the truck load.  In fact, just the other day, as I was having tea and toast at Pizzaiolo with one of my new favorite teaching artists, Shara Finerman, I told her that we were all in a great position to start and run successful businesses because we have what many business people work so hard to attain – creativity, innovation, flexibility, etc.  Personally, I have found it much easier to enter into my business with these skills and then teach myself Quickbooks later.  You know what I mean?

Anyway…Shara shared with me that it was her desire to teach full-time in a school.  She wanted to have the experience of working with a group of students over a longer period of time – an experience not often associated with being a part-time teaching artist.

Then, I challenged her.  Since Shara and I originally met back in October at TAO’s Mind Your Own Business event for teaching artists, I asked her why she felt the need to be in a school in order to have this experience.  Why couldn’t she go into business for herself?  She could find a small group of students, a group that wants quality art instruction (one they may not be getting in school).  She could find a little studio or they could come to her place.  She could meet with them weekly.  She could help them build their portfolio.

And she could do it all her way.  Build up her own philosophy of art, teaching, and learning.  She does not have to limit herself to the traditional pay scale of a teaching job and, with the money she earns, perhaps even make a bigger impact on the kids and families in the community who do not always have access to quality arts experiences.

We are in the business of creating.   Let’s create strong and sustainable businesses that will support us, our communities, and strengthen our economy as a whole.  For more inspiration about arts entrepreneurship, go where I go…I am really into Rebecca Stees’ creative biz wow and Dennis Baker’s blog.

We know from the latest science by folks like Carol Dweck and books like Nurtureshock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman that the praising children can actually help them do worse, rather than better.  That it’s much better to say “I see you working so hard” than “I see that you are so smart.”

This learning is key for the creative process.  Did you know that Ancient Greeks and Romans believed that genius had nothing to do with the individual talents or competencies of people?  In fact, geniuses were spirits assigned to us to help us do great work.  In this definition, the spirit provides the inspiration and we do the hard work to make it manifest here, on Earth.  Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love (one of my personal favorites) has an amazing TED Talk about this…

Whether or not you believe in spirits, the fact of the matter is that, this idea that we have been holding that some people are just born very very smart and others are not is not getting us anywhere.  It’s definitely not helping our kids learn any better.  When we start to understand that we may not understand exactly where genius comes from, but we do in fact understand how to work hard, make a bunch of mistakes, and keep working anyway, then we will at least be good partners with genius.  And we can pass that on to our kids.

It’s not even 8am on a Sunday morning and I have already given my 7th gift this week.  I gave it before I got out of bed.  When I finally did stumble out of bed this morning after not having enough sleep, my partner, Allison handed me her gift of a soy tea latte (our fave beverage these days) and said, “Can I tell you how you changed my life this morning?”

“Sure,” I said. “But, what did I do?  I just got up.”

She went on to explain that she woke up in a temper tantrum when Rufus, our Yorkie, insisted on being taken out to go potty (the nerve of him)…she also did not have enough sleep.  But then, she remembered the lesson that I taught the kids during our recent Thanksgiving Gratitude Camp and she was able to turn her mood around with the sheer power of focusing on the things that she was grateful for.

This is actually the 2nd time this week that I shared this lesson as 1 of my gifts.  The first was on Tuesday, Day 2 of my challenge, when a good friend and customer was talking to me about a struggle she had had with her daughter who had attended our Thanksgiving Camp.  I spent a good deal of time listening to her and sharing my views of the situation.  Then, I let her know that her daughter really responded well to the idea that focusing on your gratitudes can give you the power to change your situation around.  She accepted this idea freely and enthusiastically and said, “That’s definitely a tool I can use.”

My other gifts this week were:
Day 3 (Wed): I found this beautiful picture of a customer’s son from summer camp and sent it to her
Day 4 (Thursday): I bought lunch for my partner and my friend/office manager
Day 5 (Friday): I tipped the staff at a local bakery that I have never thought to tip before
Day 6 (Yesterday): I began buying materials for Christmas presents for my family yesterday…I am doing all homemade gifts this year.  But wait, I didn’t actually give them anything so…what else did I give yesterday?  Okay…here’s one…my partner and I were cleaning the house together but then she had to go to an appointment.  So, I finished it while she was gone so she could come home to a clean house.

That feels like a gift to me.

Poor Guy

Forgive me for the grossness of the next sentence.

Walking to work today, I saw a guy carrying a pancake-flat squirrel.  He was picking trash up on College Avenue and, after a candy wrapper or 2, he also picked up this squirrel, and threw them all in the garbage can.  I could not believe that this was someone’s job.  Although I hadn’t seen the squished squirrel before the guy picked it up, I have definitely seen my share of road kill and have often had the thought, “who’s the guy who has to pick that up?”  And here I was…walking behind that guy.

I was faced with an amazing opportunity to express gratitude.  And although I did hesitate (what was I supposed to say, exactly), I seized the moment.  “Excuse me.  Thanks so much for getting that squirrel out of the street.”

“No problem,” he said.  Really?

And thus began my 29 Gifts.  I was planning to begin the challenge tomorrow – Dec 1 seemed like the ideal time to begin a challenge like this (giving 1 thing away each day for 29 days).  But, I couldn’t let this opportunity pass me by.  I had to give this man the gift of thanks for doing what could possibly be the grossest job ever.  And, I am already starting to feel pretty good about it.

The best part is that my personal 29 Gift Challenge will culminate in our Glitter & Razz Winter Holiday Camps where we will be exploring the theme of generosity.  I will hopefully have learned a bunch about it by then to pass on to the kids.  And hopefully, all squirrels can keep themselves safe until then.

Gianna and Gus create artistic gifts for each other.

It’s a small group but sweet at pumpkin pie.  6 girls and 4 boys all making art and exploring the practice of gratitude during this Thanksgiving week camp.

“What are gratitudes,” I ask the group.  Blank stares all around.  It sounds kinda familiar to most but they can’t quite put their finger on the meaning of that big word.

“It’s like when you have a lot of feelings,” Gabriel, age 7 ventures a guess.  And I really wish that was the answer because I love that answer.

“Well, this is the week of Thanksgiving so I guess that it something to do with being thankful.” Madeleine, age 7, nails it.

So, all day we talked about these gratitudes.  Here are some of my favorites – Being Active, Carrots, My mom, my dad, my donor, kindergarten, movies, pink, blue, and – my number 1 favorite – Glitter & Razz.

In Move & Groove class, we created partner dances based on our gratitudes.  In Magic Messes (art class with a brand new teacher to us this time, Shanel) we created pieces of art for a partner.  I loved this activity.  Each partner had to talk about what he or she liked while the other partner had to listen.  And then, each person had to create a piece as a gift for their partner.  They shared it with teh full group before giving it to their partner.  At the end of the day, Sabine, age 5, said that she was grateful for being able to make a gift for your partner.  I loved hearing that.

In drama class, we began making up our play to be performed tomorrow.  We brainstormed as many gratitudes as we could think of and then created a bunch of little stories based on gratitudes that we picked randomly from the list.  Then, we put all of our ideas on one big piece of paper and attempted to take the best ideas and make them into one play.  We did a pretty good job and we are on our way to creating a play that involves a talking Tootsie Roll who is grateful to have her job at the zoo because, you know, “not very many people want to hire a tootsie roll” (says Sara, age 9).  She is so grateful that she will do anything to keep her job and she won’t let the vampire, the zombies, and the shape-shifters get in her way.  Intrigued?

More tomorrow…

I am so proud to be part of this event.  The Make Something Party sponsored by Project Peace is all about “spending less and giving more.”

From their blog...Instead of participating in the mass buying frenzy that precedes Christmas, we’ll be providing stations where you can hand-make quality gifts for your loved ones. Give a small donation towards the cost of materials, and leave with gifts that are all the more special for the effort you’ve put into them.

I’m going to be there.  Join me.

I'll Lead The Way...Follow Me!

The mood was calm and excited.  One of these special Play in a Day Camps where each and every 4 year old makes it all the way through the long day and no one says “I don’t wanna do the play.”  Perhaps it was because we had a great mix of new and returning campers.  Perhaps it was because the camp was lead by the Glitter & Razz Dream Team of Cassie Powell, Martin Brecht, and Cinda Russell.  Perhaps because it was a rare mid-week camp and kids are just more mellow on Wednesdays (whatever happened to Veteran’s Day being observed on a Monday, by the way?).

Or perhaps, it was a theme…Love ‘Em & Lead ‘Em is all about leadership.  What does leadership look like and feel like from the perspective of young children under 10 years old?  Well, from what I have observed, it looks a lot like learning the importance of following directions.  I think the roots of more complex and sophisticated leadership (Obama-style) start with young children learning how to control their own behavior when someone asks them to do something that they don’t particularly want to do.  And, on the flip side, learning how to use words and actions in a positive way to get others to do things with and for you.

Yesterday, there was a lot of focus on leading and following in creative movement through eye-contact; following the movements of the teacher and trying to match her as best as possible; cleaning up and helping others clean up; and older kids setting positive examples for the younger kids.

We will continue to refine this theme because I believe there is a lot more there.  We’ve done this theme 3 times now and I continue to learn more about teaching leadership to young children.  Please let me know if you have any suggestions!

Here are a few more images from camp…

The 'English Dragon" who's looking for a party

I wasn't kidding when I said we did a lot of cleaning up!

Railey, age 9 is one of our Glitter & Razz All-Stars and was our oldest boy of the day. This reluctant leader finally managed to assume his role and wound up actually enjoying it by the time he sat down for mouse facepaint with Martin.

Some of our younger girls are trying to figure out "what's next?" as Cinda takes them through the schedule of the day.

I am incredibly excited about what’s going on in Go Girls.  We are just past the halfway point in our first ever Go Girls Afterschool Club, an afterschool class modeled after the popular summer camp, and I could not be happier.  Many of the girls in the class are returning campers from the summer and a few of the girls have been with Glitter & Razz programs for a long time now.  Our lifers…the Glitter & Razz All-Stars, if you will.  So, this program is definitely Glitter & Raz 2.0.

On the first day, I told them that we were going to create a play about something important.  Through a variety of games and exercises, we explored which problems in the world were most important to them.  The big three were friendship problems (like friends getting other friends in trouble or not being allowed to play), natural disasters (like floods and tsunamis) and violence (war, guns, car crashes, robberies).  After a great, and quite reflective conversation, the group determined that it was most interested in using our play to help reduce violence.

I thought, “Okay…the best way to reduce violence is to make and spread peace.” So, one of the first things we did was a journal activity where they had to write or draw what peace looked, sounded, smelled, tasted, and felt like.  Then, they were asked to create solo performance pieces based on their journal entries.  Remember, these girls are 7-10 years old.  Incredible.  Here are 2 from a couple of the Glitter & Razz All Stars.

Sarah, age 9, did hers as a poem.  In case it’s difficult to hear, the transcript is below:

Peace looks like a friendship just beginning
Peace sounds like silence in a dark room
Peace tastes sweet like ice cream
Peace smells like roses fresh off a rose bush
Peace feels soft like a lamb’s ear

And here’s a different interpretation on what Peace looks, sounds, and feels like as created by Lucy, age 8.  A whole different take on the exercise.

In celebration of Sesame Street’s 40th Birthday, I can’t help but think back on all of the shows that formed my childhood.  I am definitely feeling old as I am having that “shows ain’t what they used to be” feeling going through my head.  PBS was just on fire with shows like Sesame Street and Mister Rogers.

Okay.  I know we are supposed to be celebrating Sesame Street, which I love and love the fact that it is still on TV for our kids after all of these years but…I LOVED Mr. Rogers.  Have you seen him recently?  Have you really listened to the lyric of his songs?

His lessons of peace and community and imagination and acceptance are mind blowing and nowhere else on tv or anywhere these days.  A Fred Rogers quote:

“We all have different gifts, so we all have different ways of saying to the world who we are.“

Today, I can’t help (as we are waking up to find yet another state in our country is trying to legally define love in just one way) but think about the lessons that we learned in our childhood from Big Bird and Mister Rogers.  They taught us that it was okay to be exactly who we are.  That who I am is special and perfect.

Now that we are grown up, what happened to that?  What was your favorite tv show from our youth?