Glitter & Razz Blog

The kids are off and running with this week’s play!  We chose characters today by exploring all the possible creatures that would hang out in the locations we chose.  (Sure, they’ll allow elephants on an airplane- why not?) Then, we drank a magic potion that turned us into the characters we chose for the play.  The kids created lines and I helped them stage the first half of each story.  We practiced listening to the drum and narration to know when it’s our turn and using loud and proud voices on stage.  It’s exciting to see our ideas come to life!

We sang 2 new songs in Move & Groove that will add a sense of adventure to our final show.  We also got to paint yesterday’s play projects and begin painting artwork to hang as the backdrop for our play on Friday.  In closing circle, we celebrated our youth intern, Nora who has been with us for the past 3 weeks of Itty Bitty Camp.  Today was her last day- thanks for everything, Nora!  The kids thanked her for “holding my hand on the walk,” “helping so much” and “being a good friend.”

In Magic Messes, we got a chance to paint our sculptures from yesterday. We also did a brainstorm of things you might find at our story locations so we could decide what we needed to start creating for our set. Then the kids got right to it by covering a few huge pieces of paper with paint to be cut into backdrop elements for the show.

Self-Portrait Collages that the Kids Made with teaching artist, Audette Sophia. They simply used ripped construction paper, glue sticks, and a lot of imagination. This is the epitome of the open-ended, creativity-based art activities we value here at Glitter & Razz. And the kids LOVED IT!

Superheroes and Shining Stars are back!  It’s August at Glitter & Razz and that means Itty Bitties – our week-long arts camps for 4-6 year olds.

Our Superstar team of teaching artists – Cinda, Cassie, Sophia, and Kiona – plus 2 youth interns, Nora and Talia, are leading the kids on an adventure of creating their very own play that accesses their own power to help save the world.  Today in Drama Class with Cassie, we talked about what makes a superhero? We went to the “superhero grocery store” and collected all the things superheroes do (because, as we teach, acting is doing).  We decided that superheroes help people, wear special costumes, have magical powers.  Of course, there are even super hero princesses.  After collecting all the things super heroes do, we created characters. This the first step in our play creation process and is exciting as the kids get to come up with their very own super hero. We practiced using our voices onstage and learned that we have to use a strong and loud voice to be heard. The kids are already experts at our super hero warm up!

In Move & Groove, our creative movement class with Sophia,  we played with generating movement and copying each others moves.  This copying was a great way to encourage shyer kids who couldn’t think of/share their own moves right away. There was a lot of shyness in Move & Groove in the beginning, but by the end of the day everyone had warmed up.  By the time we played some freeze dance with scarfs, you would have thought we knew each other all our lives!

Whew.  30 girls.  Ages 6-10.  7 hours.  And, it’s still going.  The few girls who are left in Aftercare right now are keeping themselves busy by playing Party Quirks.  And, with the help of the teenage youth interns and the popularity of Glee, they are singing songs from my youth at the top of their lungs.  The laughter and energy is totally infectious.

This is how the whole day has been.  Full of laughter and joy.  At the same time, it was the first day of camp so we also did a lot of sitting and talking.  It’s just how the first day is.  We have to set the structure and the tone of the camp.  “Here’s what we do here at Go Girls! Camp and here’s why we do it.”  You know, that kind of thing.

We started the day with our Community Circle and Expressive Arts class led by Allison.  “What does Expressive Arts mean?”  “It means that we can express our feelings.”  Bingo.  And that’s what the girls will do each day to set the tone of the day…express their thoughts and feelings surrounding the strengths and challenges of living as a girl in the world.  It began with our Way of Joy Chi Gung warm up.  Then, they crafted, through the art of collage, the journals that they will use throughout the camp.

Our Drama (taught by me, Lynn) and Art (taught by Martin) classes also introduced the idea that we are all unique individuals contributing our ideas and gifts to the group.  In Drama, we talked about the fact that we are a “collaborative ensemble” and how hard it can be to create one piece of art together.  Through games and some discussion, we practiced sharing one at a time, being noticed, and noticing what others are doing so that we can connect our ideas with theirs.  In Art,  the girls again shared their individuality through name paintings where they drew their names with white crayon and then painted around them with watercolors while they watched their names appear amidst the colors.  Like magic.  On Day One, we must always do activities where we give the girls a chance to show up and say, “This is me.  This is who I am and what I like, ” so that on Day Two, we can really dig into the process of sharing that individuality with the greater community.

The other major highlight of today was our Kidpower Workshop.  Erika Leonard from Kidpower has been so generous to share a mini-Kidpower with us 2 years in a row.  Today, like last year, she packed that hour with tons of useful skills for the girls about using strong and aware body language and words to set boundaries and stand up for themselves.  She taught the girls ways to honor their feelings while also being powerful in their interactions with others.

Kidpower Teenpower Fullpower International’s exceptional “People Safety” curriculum in an essential part of our Go Girls! Curriculum and we are very thankful for their permission to incorporate their language into our shows and videos. For over twenty years, Kidpower has been a nonprofit leader in empowering people of all ages and abilities to learn personal safety skills and build self-confidence. Visit www.kidpower.org or call 1-800-467-6997 Ext. 1# for information on their positive and practical workshops and educational resources.

Kidpower’s gift of their copyrighted curriculum, like all of Kidpower’s services, is a gift from those who came before. We at Glitter and Razz are proud to have joined Kidpower’s 1,000 Donors Campaign, and we encourage you to do the same. Whether you can give a few dollars or a lot, your gift counts! Donate by going to:https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=2854 or call the Kidpower office.

Finally, the girls learned their first song with our music director, Brendan.  It’s Martha and the Vandella’s Dancing in the Streets.  Brendan told them it was a song that was made in the 60’s and someone asked, “So, is it a hippy song?”  We all busted out laughing.  But, it wasn’t as funny as when we got to the lyric, “they’ll be swingin’, swayin’, records playin’” someone said, “oh yeah, a record is a black round thingy with a hole in the middle” and someone else yelled out, very enthusiastically, “My dad has one of those!!!”

Let’s pay a little tribute to Martha and the Vandellas:

big, bold energy in Kids Choice

It’s clear that our bold, brave campers are feeling safe enough to bring more of themselves to camp.  While yesterday, it seemed that everyone was on their best behavior, wanting to make a good impression- today they are comfortable enough to test our group agreements, show their silly sides and practice navigating conflicts with their new friends.  All of this is good news.  It means that we can begin the real work of camp…exploring how to be our boldest, bravest selves while working together as an artistic community.  A couple kids were supported to use “I” statements in the “Peace Place” to express their feelings.  Others practiced quietly moving to another part of the room if they were being distracted by the person next to them.  As teachers, we saw more vulnerability today and had a chance to be firm and flexible- doing our best to blend clear boundaries with the nurturing that these young artists need.

our ensemble

We also began to go into our theme and the children reflected on what brave means to them.  Jasper offered that being brave is “being brave when you go into the darkness.”  “Bravery means that you are going to a scary place by yourself and you’re not afraid, ” said Ivy.  Each day, these answers from community circle questions are typed up and posted in the room.  They will turn into lines for the play and shape the lessons and projects we plan throughout camp.

Bold, Brave Camp is off to a great start!  Our group of 10 artists arrived- some eager, some taking things a little slower.  Teachers Cassie, Sophia and our part-time intern Alaysia helped everybody feel at home.  In Move & Groove, kids warmed up their bodies with yoga poses, then moved across the floor, played freeze dance and practiced freezing in neutral position. (Part of being bold and brave is learning self control!) Drama class was full of improv games, ensemble building and learning how actors move on stage. (ask your kids where downstage left is) By this afternoon, kid bios were being typed up on the computer and self portraits were ripped from construction paper and collaged.  All of these activities were meant to introduce these artists to the art forms, to each other and to camp in general.

It must have worked because during each Kids Choice period, a spontaneous announcement would be made by one child or another “I am putting on a puppet show!  Anyone can come and watch!” or “We are making up a play on stage!Come be any character you want!” Some put together the sets on stage.  Some tried on 12 different costumes before deciding.  Some wanted to watch the show.  Others were right in the middle of the action- on stage. However the kids chose to enter into the play, they had a great time doing it!

During the afternoon rehearsal, kids shared about people who are brave- in their families, in books, in history.  This list lead to a brainstorm of characters they want to be in our play.  They were encouraged to develop these characters from their imagination- nothing they’ve already seen on tv- and will spend the week exploring how these characters overcome their fears and become the heroes of their own stories.

Even though Summer Camps just began, we are already announcing our Fall 2010 Programs!  We will be back in September with some popular favorites as well as some new programming.  And, because we REALLY want you to join us, we are offering 10% OFF camps and classes when you register before August 31st!* Some of the classes are open for registration right now and others will be open by Monday.  There is a lot to put on the website so your patience is much appreciated!

Go Girls! Afterschool Club is back on Thursday afternoons and better than ever.  The class has been increased from 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours per week.  Each girl will get snack each day, as well as her own t-shirt and journal.  Wanna know more about the Go Girls! Afterschool Clubs?  Maybe even find out how to bring a Club to your school or community? Check out the premiere of our Go Girls! video created by filmmaker, Angie Tures, and starring our very own Go Girls!, Ajna Singh and Sara Silverstein:

Itty Bitty Theater Workshops are back on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and will be taught by none other than Glitter & Razz co-founder, Allison Kenny. Allison, who is an expert in expressive arts and dramatic play for young children, has been on a hiatus from Glitter & Razz this year where she was focused on her work as a play therapist in the Floor Time method, working with children in the autism spectrum. She also started, grew, and managed a full program for children, youth, and families at a progressive church here in Oakland. I am so glad that she is back, I can hardly tell you.

Play in a Day Camps start up again with the first one of October 8 (followed by Oct 11 and Nov 11).  In Play in a Day Camps, kids ages 4-10 create, practice, and perform their very own play in just 1 day!

School Break Camps: When you just can’t the days off of work, send your children to us for creative learning and social/emotional exploration.  Our 2-Day Thanksgiving Gratitude Camp is Nov 22-33.  There will also be 2 sessions of Winter Holiday Camps – December 20-23 and December 27-30.

And the Fall is not just for kids!  This fall, we are hosting Family Workshops as well as workshops just for adults!

Family Workshops:

• Saturday, October 2 | 10:00am – 12:30pm | What’s Goin’ On Family Camp with Kelly Takunda Orphan Martinez | Spend time with your kids learning songs and dances from around the world.  Don’t tell me you don’t want to bang on a drum or 2.
• Saturday, November 6 | 10:00am – 12:30pm | Go Girls! For All with Lynn and Allison | You begged us to do it again and we are…gladly!  This Mother/Daughter event gives you the opportunity to play and create together as you explore the magic and power of being girls (and women).
• Saturday, October 23 | 10:00am – 6:00pm | BRAND NEW | Play in a Day for Adults and Kids | Have you ever wanted to be in a play but didn’t think you had the time?  Well, this in-depth theatrical experience, directed by me (co-founder, Lynn Johnson), is a rigorous and lovingly full day where we will explore an area of content, create an entire play from scratch, rehearse it, and then perform it that evening for a full audience.  We will be joined by professional actors and other artists to help us create our masterpiece.  The evening will include food, fun, and discussion and will change the way you think of “community theater.”

Adult Workshops:

• Make a Play. Change the World: A Professional Development Series for Education & Youth Work Professionals - 2 Sessions, Saturday August 21 and Saturday September 18 – Learn more about how to use theater and the arts to enhance students learning, build peaceful classroom, and make positive change in your communities and beyond.*The 10% Off Summer Sale does not apply to this Series.  However, the price is very right.  Just $6o for each 3 hour session or $100 when you register for both.
• Acting Class for the Wayward Revolutionary – 6 week session begins September 22 – You know you have an itch that needs to be scratched.  You are feeling less than creative.  Less than connected.  It’s time to take an Acting Class and learn the skills to change yourself and the world.  Yes, I am teaching it!

Dinner & A Show: A Parent’s Night Out | For those times when you just want a Saturday nigh (for once) to have a romantic dinner or drinks with friends.  Drop your kids off with us!  We’ll stuff ‘em full of Zachary’s Pizza and make up a play that we will perform for you when you come back to pick them up (please, don’t forget to come back and pick them up).  The second Saturday of the month beginning September 11.

And finally, we will soon announce 3 events for the Fall.  Here is the sneak preview:

• Sunday September 26 | Free Glitter & Razz Make a Play Event | Haven’t yet experienced the magic and power of Glitter & Razz? This will be a great time to try us out.
• Sunday October 31 | 3rd Annual Halloween Concert at Glitter & Razz | Artist to be announced.  But, whoever it is, come in costume prepared to dance your buns off!
• Saturday December 11 | The Bay Area Wide Go Girls! Event | The final culmination of the Go Girls! Fall Session where all Bay Area Go Girls! Afterschool Clubs come together to share their original plays with each other and the community.

The 2010 Glitter & Razz Camp Season officially started today with the first day of our first camp – What’s Goin’ On with Kelly Takunda Orphan Martinez.  This is the camp’s 9th summer in existence, its 3rd summer at our Dramatic Play Space, and its very first summer as an official “Glitter & Razz Camp.”

Kelly Takunda Orphan Martinez

Here is what that means.  Kelly, who is a good friend of mine and Allison’s founded the camp 9 years ago and has been running it ever since.  When we met her a few years ago, we bonded about how difficult it is for an artist, who is a creative genius when it comes to making art with kids, to be an administrative genius in running her own camp.  Because Kelly is not in the camp business full time – she also leads her own band and teaches at Park Day School during the school year – she was often challenged by how to hold all of the pieces herself.  Fortunately, she had the best skill of all – enlisting the help of incredible parent and youth volunteers to help her make it all flourish.  She and her team built an amazing camp with an amazing following.  There are some youth interns working with the camp this summer who started as very young campers right from the very first year.

So, once we learned that our camps shared the same values around peace and community, it seemed like a slam dunk for Glitter & Razz to, first play host, and then ultimately take full responsibility for the administration of the camp.

And I do not regret it at all.  Today was proof that What’s Goin’ On is the perfect camp to kick off the 2010 season.  We are sold out at 30 kids ages 6-10.  The kids learned today that they will be exploring the theme of ancestors through music, dance, drama, and expressive arts.  Kelly led them in games, activities, and discussions about how we are more than just our physical presence, right here and right now.  We are also our mothers and fathers and grandparents and animals in nature…that we are connected to all beings, living and past.  It’s a pretty magical experience to witness a group of young children go from a game of Connect Four to a discussion about the interconnectedness of life.  I love my job.

To me, a quote from today that illustrates what interconnectedness means to a young child comes from Leah, age 10.  After the Kids Choice time of day, we cleaned up and were getting ready to go on our neighborhood walk.  We asked the kids if they had any celebrations (appreciations) for anyone who might have helped them during the clean up time.  Leah said:

“I don’t know everybody’s names but I just want to thank everyone who cleaned up because I don’t think I cleaned up as well as I should have and I appreciate how much everyone else helped out.”

Here’s a little glimpse of the super positive, connected energy from today.  This is a short video of the group coming back from their neighborhood walk.

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.

Gillian Laub from the New York Times

We have met and welcomed back some amazing kids this week as our Fall Afterschool Classes began.  I am very pleased by the way things went this week.  In our Itty Bitty Theater Workshops (for kids 3 1/2 – 5 years old), I showed kids that theater is about “doing stories.”  Not reading them.  Not telling them.  But, DOING them as a gift to other people.  So, we did a lot of, what I consider to be “Doing Games,” “Yes, Let’s” and “What Are You Doing” being 2 classic theater games we love for younger kids as they teach pantomime skills as well as group agreement and ensemble building.

It turns out that theater and dramatic play are also making these kids smarter.  Did you all see the article in the New York Times last week?  This article connects experience with facilitated, structured dramatic play to a young student’s ability to control their emotions, social interactions and cognitive abilities.  Here’s the quote that legitimizes everything we are doing at Glitter & Razz in the world of academe…“that the key to developing self-regulation is play, and lots of it. But not just any play. The necessary ingredient is,,, ‘mature dramatic play’: complex, extended make-believe scenarios, involving multiple children and lasting for hours, even days. If you want to succeed in school and in life…spend hour after hour dressing up in firefighter hats and wedding gowns, cooking make-believe hamburgers and pouring nonexistent tea, doing the hard, serious work of playing pretend.”

We also premiered our first ever Go Girls! Afterschool Club yesterday afternoon.  It was awesome.  7 girls between the ages of 7 and 10 came together to start learning more about themselves, each other, and the magic and power of being a girl.  We created “What Brings Us Joy” solo dances and collaged the outside of the journals we will be using during the 10-week session.  We started to talk a little about the play we will be creating together.  I explained to them that, I didn’t know what our play would be about but that it would be something “important.”

My plan is for the session to be an experience in project-based learning where the girls will create a play in response to a problem that is important to them.  Our brainstorming of problems ranged from friends getting other friends in trouble to tsunamis to smoking and drug use.  Next week, we will determine the focus of our examination and then we will do some research and engage people and resources in the community to actually use our girl power to help towards the solution of our problem.

See how we are helping make your kids smarter and more engaged in their communities?  And you thought we just did plays.

Our very last day of summer camps was on Friday and today was the first day of school here in Oakland.  I sat in a very empty dramatic play space wondering why it was so quiet.  I actually miss all of those kids.  Very much in fact.  And the teachers.  And the parents.  All of it.

But, thanks to Animoto, we can have the memories with us all year long…

And, our fall classes start in just a few weeks…