Luminato / Girls' Media Project session
The Girls' Media Project is a program run through the Toronto District School Board. We arrived to find a small group of young women engrossed in their computer screens. This was not going to be the usual school visit - partly because it was such a small group - so we dispensed with thoughts of projectors and formal presentations and we all just clustered around the table.
What followed was a two hour conversation that touched on just about every aspect of the project prodded on by very thoughtful questions and comments. At times, it was almost like having a junior marketing department kind of hashing over some of the challenges of the project and proposing solutions - the kind of review I could use on a regular basis.
Most importantly, I think everyone at the session really got to explore the project in quite a deep way - me included. In fact, I found myself thinking about and speaking about aspects of the project that don't often come up in your average school visit or community session. As usual, I am struck by how Voyageur is received so enthusiastically and how quickly this relationship translates into powerful thinking about Canadian identity and culture from a variety of perspectives.
It was a privilege to work with the Girls' Media Project today.
Posted at 6:52 PM
Another Long Day
Exciting, though! Labels: education, Nelson Mandela Park Public School, portraits, Regent Park
Today was portrait day at Nelson Mandela Park Public School. This was my third visit to the school. The first two were to present the guitar to different grades and to talk about how we'd like to involve the school and the surrounding Regent Park neighbourhood in the project in various ways as part of this year's Luminato Festival. One of those was in song: Katherine Wheatley joined me on my first visit to introduce herself and launch her in-class songwriting workshop that she's now been running with different classes for the past few weeks.
Next week, she'll start working with the kids to record the songs they've written together and the CD will come out before the end of the school year. The portraits we took of ALL the students today will become part of the covers for those CDs.
I Love You More
Took part today in Andrea Nann and Kate Hollett's "I Love You More" at the Canadian Children's Dance Theatre. The guitar was played beautifully at various points in the afternoon by John Gzowski and Nilan Perera. Kate's video played a key role in the performance and you can still participate from the comfort of home, if you like.
Just visit Kate's site and leave your own "I Love You" message.
Congrats to everyone involved - it was a great day and wonderful to have Voyageur play a role.
Posted at 11:19 AM