I received an email from the mother of one of my students last week, directing me to a news story involving her son. He and two other area youth created a mural in downtown Mount Clemens, in a public space by a fountain. They used sidewalk chalk – the chunky kind that you’d buy for a child’s birthday party; the kind that washes away with plain water. While they were working, bypassers were commenting on their work. The students encouraged them to take part. The people who joined them came from all walks of life, including, at one point, a member of the Mount Clemens Downtown Development Authority. It was one of those rare unplanned, unannounced occurrences where, for a brief time, a community came together to create something, just because they could. ...
A little piece of something I'm working
on above the chalkboard in my classroom.
Rainbow Etude
Mixed media sketch to promote a
performance of Rainbow Etude, choreographed by Donald McKayle.
The piece is based on McKayle's Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder,
a protest dance about southern chain gangs.
A rainbow is the arc of a hammer
as it is swung over the head, the color of bruises from a prison
guard's lashes, the circle of sun that lies across a man's
shoulders after he's been working in the sun.
A
Place Destroyed
A week with Emergency Communities in
Buras, Louisiana, with several of my students from the Arts Academy
in the Woods.