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We’ve had a big week in the Visual Art Pathway! We’ve been making collaborative works inspired by Tim Rollins + K.O.S. as well as Los Angeles – Mark Bradford who makes large scale collages of maps and text. We created a collage of a map of St. Paul. Our work this week has been all about building community and creating a collective voice.   Read about Tim Rollins and Kids of Survival at this link: http://fryemuseum.org/exhibition/3315/ 

Next week we will begin creating works in response to social issues the students identify and wish to talk about. and….Please enjoy these photos of our process and of the final murals we created!

It has been another exciting week in the Poetry Pathway!! The student and their writing have been deep and focused. As a result, the songs and poems being written are getting better and better. The students are feeling extremely confident and eagerly await the last two hours of the day, when the class takes place, to work on and practice new pieces while polishing up old ones. The community that these youth are creating is so important.  They are supporting eachother, collaborating in their writing and recording, and practicing their stage presence and performance skills. 

This week, they had a chance to perform again at the Advocates for Achievement (AFA), an African/ African-American Employee Resource Group in Saint Paul Public Schools.  They had selected Glo to be honored for his contributions to SPPS and the African/African-American community.  He was recognized at their 3rd Annual Employee Recognition Program at Rondo Education Center on  Thursday, May 17, 2012.  It was very exciting & special for the students to be there to perform and support Glo!

On Wednesday, Master Gardener Lynda Anderson joined us and we tested various types of soil from different areas. We looked at the amount of nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, and the pH of the soil and talked about what is necessary for growing healthy plants. We also talked about what you can do to improve the health of soil for growing great plants! We’re looking forward to working with Lynda more over the next few weeks to keep learning about gardening as we move towards planting our own garden next fall.

This week, students were able to hear from two fantastic guest speakers- Annie Vann and Lynda Anderson. On Tuesday, Annie Vann joined us Tuesday from the Ramsey County Extension Office to talk about nutrition and physical activity. After getting a few minutes of physical activity in, Annie taught us about the importance of eating a healthy breakfast, the importance of getting 30-60 minutes of exercise each day, and gave us some easy ways to remember these key concepts. She also taught us how to make a quick fruit and yogurt parfait using plain yogurt mixed with a small amount of sugar free instant vanilla pudding mix (we all agreed it tasted like cake batter but was much, much healthier for us- and you can use almost any kind of pudding mix you like!). We added frozen strawberries that were slightly thawed and added in some low fat granola. It was a great treat for our class and a good example of how easy it can be to make a nutritious breakfast you can easily take with you on your way out the door.

And…..Coming Soon…..
Students in the Wellness Lab Pathway are busy brainstorming and planning for a service-learning project that will take place on TUESDAY, JUNE 5 from 12pm-2pm at Journeys Secondary School. The project will feature a fundraiser basketball tournament in which players will pay to enter and play. There will also be food for sale. Proceeds raised at the event will benefit an organization that works to bring an end to gun violence. Students are researching possible agencies who work on this issue.   Students in the wellness pathway collectively decided that the main purpose of the project was to raise awareness and money for such an organization because they want to bring an end to gun violence, and want to help an organization that has a strong mission t0 do this. We are looking forward to seeing how this project unfolds over the coming weeks and hope to see you at the event! 

On Monday, the Wellness LAB went on a field trip to Base Camp (http://www.explorebasecamp.org/) at Fort Snelling. Three boys were able to attend the trip and it was a great time for them to be able to bond and challenge themselves as a group. They started the trip with rock climbing on the outdoor rock climbing wall. All three boys (plus our amazing para, Ms. V!) were able to climb to the top of the wall! Our awesome intern Brady was also able to challenge himself and try out the climbing wall. After that challenge, the boys decided that they wanted to try something a little harder, so they gave the high ropes course a try. The high ropes course is 32 feet above ground and consists of tight ropes, a cargo net, and other obstacles one must face to go from one end to the other. This was much more of a challenge for them all, but we were proud of the boys who did give it a shot and were able to make it most or all of the way through the course. All of the boys really pushed themselves to try something they didn’t think that they would like or be able to do. It was a great team building experience as well as an experience in facing challenges and obstacles and finding ways to overcome them. As an extra added bonus, the day was absolutely beautiful weather, the boys got some great views of Fort Snelling, and we were able to get them t-shirts to remember the experience. Check out the pictures of the course! 

We’ve been working hard this week in the Visual Lab! We’ve been learning about making art in collectives or groups and how that process can change the world we live in. This week we learned about Tim Rollins + K.O.S., a youth artist collective out of New York City that made history. We’ve been working on a mural together combining drawings we made while listening to the words of Bell Hooks, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X. On wednesday we had the opportunity to visit High Point Center for Printmaking in Minneapolis and make our very own Mono Prints! We worked with master printmakers and saw cool art being made. www.highpointprintmaking.org

This week marks the beginning of the second of three modules in the Visual Pathway. Our first module was all about self and identity, and this module is all about working together and building community. Students spent the week working on/writing original poetry and creating beautiful collages based on those poems. We learned about artists who utilize both visual art and text in their work such as Barbara Kruger, Adrian Piper and Lorna Simpson.  We were inspired by an interesting project called the “1000 Journals Project”.  This book was developed after a blank journal was sent out into the world, allowing anyone who picked it up to contribute with visual art and words.  The final book was published.  Click here to check it out.   After we finished our collages, we created bound books of our work to make a collaborative piece. Enjoy some samples of the visual art and poems that made it into our Visual Art LAB Pathway book. Powerful.

Negativity

Consider me a thug.
I give no hugs, hurt with pain

I feel no tugs
Past so bad it makes me mad

Can’t handle the struggle

It makes life last,
If there was two wishes

I’d pray for me to crash
It doesn’t matter what I do

Life still seems bad
Can you do what I do?

Can you judge me without standing a foot in my shoe?
Can you understand what I do doesn’t concern you?

Negativity.
That’s my damn issue.

This has been another exciting week in the Poetry Pathway!! Students are excelling in their writing by leaps and bounds. The focus has been incredible and the results have been evident.
On Friday, April 27th the students were asked to perform at the Wilder Foundation for a U of M Social Workers Celebration. Over 150 people were blown away by the stories, real-ness and outstanding performances given by our students through spoken word and music pieces.

There was also a field trip to a professional recording studio that was hooked up from our very own special guest artist volunteer, Courtney Yasmineh.  The students recorded and messed around with real live instruments ranging from electric guitar, to drums, to piano and beat making!!  They did extremely well with questions, staying on task and being focused as well as taking full advantage of an awesome opportunity! Thanks Ms. Courtney!  I couldn’t ask for a better set of students. I am proud of them all!

Here’s a student poem from this week’s pathway:

Reaching

Comin from the struggle, where everything is all bad

I was abrupt last night night now ya girl feelin sad try walkin in my shoes ten years without a dad

Momma did it on her own now the kid almost grown

Let’s convene… that’s assemble for a meeting and i swear it aint no beefin for no reason

‘Mante by my side  so the love we got is even as long as we breathing, we gon’ keep reaching, we gon’ keep reachin

….for the clouds .

-S

On Wed, May 2 staff and students at The LAB and Journeys Secondary School participated in a Health Fair event. The event was a part of our Global Youth Service Day Project, funded by a Delta Dental Serve a Smile mini-grant. In this Delta Dental Serve a Smile service- learning project students participated in a public awareness campaign about health and wellness for marginalized communities. About 12 students were a part of the planning stages of the project. Additionally, two students created projects on health topics of their choosing to display at the event, and 4 other students assisted with setting up and running the health fair smoothly. In addition to students, 7 organizations were present at the fair to provide information, 2 adult volunteers were on hand to help serve up healthy snacks, and 15 LAB and Journeys staff assisted with setting up, running, and cleaning up the event. 15 students were able to participate in the fair along with the parents of 2 students.

 

At the Health Fair, students got a free healthy snack and then received a passport in which they collected stamps for visiting the booths and asking questions, participating in activities, and learning about what each organization or student was offering. Once students completed their passports, they could enter to win prizes. Students also received hygiene kits full of plenty of dental health supplies donated by Delta Dental of MN and Metro Dental Care along with other basic hygiene items donated by staff at Journeys Secondary School and their friends and families. Students also picked up plenty of information from the participating organizations, the services they provide, and how to access them. Our hope is that students will take these tools and use them to live healthier lives.

 

The LAB would like to give a HUGE thank you to the following organizations for attending the fair to give students and their families much needed tools for staying healthy: Safe Zone, Children’s Dental Services, 1000 Petals, Marc Anderson, SPPS Health Services, United Family Medicine, and Ramsey County Extension Services.

 

The event was also one of the first steps in helping students think about action steps and ideas for creating an Urban Community Garden in the Journeys School yard (Note: due to the building being closed for construction all summer, the installation of the garden has been postponed to Fall 2012). Over the next few weeks, students will continue to think about how they can contribute to the community and dream up some ideas for what our garden will look like come September!

This week the Visual Art Pathway took a trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and had a blast! We were able to take a look at some of the artists we’ve been learning about in class and gain some inspiration from artists we’ve never seen before. Students were given digital cameras to document and record their experience with the job of finding one piece that was especially meaningful to them. Half of our time was spent exploring the museum with partners and half was spent in the group with time for reflection and conversation about all the beautiful art. We saw art from all over the world and many different time periods. Our students did a fantastic job representing The LAB and our school. They showed so much maturity and passion for their work in the Visual Art Pathway. Here are some of the awesome images students captured!

On Monday in the Wellness Pathway, we took a look at how the pizza that we made together last week stacked up against a frozen pizza and a pizza delivery place. We found out that not only was our pizza much healthier than the other two types, we also liked that it was fun to make our pizza and that we had more control over what kinds of things went into our pizza. We did decide that it is much quicker to make the pre-prepared type of pizza, though. We also made our own version of granola bars and shared them as a healthy snack before heading to the gym to play some games.

On Tuesday, we made a music video and discussed the effect that music has on our bodies and our minds. Music has a way of helping a lot of people, including our students, relax. Sometimes it also has the benefit of making us want to dance, which is a great way to get in some cardio exercise!

On Wednesday, we made caesar salad from scratch. Everyone was really surprised about the ingredients that go into homemade Caesar dressing, particularly the anchovies. One student even tried an anchovy plain! It was fun to watch all of the students take risks with this when they realized that it wasn’t going to turn out like the stuff we normally buy in the store, and it turned out that everyone really enjoyed it. In the middle of class, we took an exercise break at the suggestion of one of the students. It was a good way for them to get their heart rate up and get some of the energy out before heading back to talk about culture and community health. We started thinking about what we can do in our community to help solve some of the problems that we know exist such as poverty, homelessness, obesity, and violence. Later this year, we’ll choose one or more of these issues and carry out service projects in our community to help address them.

On Thursday, we spent some time reviewing and reflecting on what we have learned over the past three weeks. We also got to transplant some of the plants that were growing like crazy so that now they have more room to grow! I think that soon we’ll have a few beans to test out. Everyone can’t wait for the plants to start producing some of the other herbs, flowers, and vegetables so we can give them all a try. We’re even more excited to install the garden. Even though it’s had to be postponed September due to construction happening at the school this fall that will turn off the water for the entire summer, we’re still very excited to see some of plants to outside in large planters as soon as the weather starts cooperating. Stay tuned for more information on that!

The next three weeks of the pathway will focus more on community. This will mean community building as a group of students as well as accessing community resources. One of the field trips that we are most excited about is to Base Camp (http://www.explorebasecamp.org/) to give the Ropes Course a try. We’re also going to visit some community gardens, a Farmer’s Market, and several other places! 

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