Community Visual Artist, Rebecca
Ramos and Community Performance Artist and Writer, Marcos Cabrera of Baktun
12, worked with RUAP staff to develop a five week project with Youth
Complex students that would begin exploring and exposing them to safe
and constructive expression through visual, performance, and written arts.
These artists were new to this kind of community-based collaborative art
making, and provided a great deal of evaluative feedback for developing
these kinds of projects in the future and for preparing artists new to
these community classrooms.
 In
the Slambooks Project, RUAP's community artists presented history and
techniques for both book making and urban-rhythmic/American-slam poetry.
Sessions involved: critically listening and discussing popular RAP/Hip
Hop music and lyrics, basic theater improvisation, poetry write-arounds,
reading aloud contemporary poetry, journaling, poetry writing, traditional
Suminagashi or paper marbling, and bookbinding. In between poetry and
journaling, students used their own marbled paper creations to create
front and endpapers for their hand-made books. The books provided a place
for students to record their own poems and journal work completed throughout
the semester. |
In
the summer of 2001, RUAP Community Partner, Second Chance, collaborated
with RUAP staff to develop a project for youth they serve at the Natividad
Youth Complex in Salinas. The Youth Complex serves youth referred by the
county probation department. This program is committed to providing youth
the essential educational and vocational tools to succeed as individuals
and in the community. The Youth Complex provides opportunities for youth
to discover personal interests and talents through self-expression while
learning conflict resolution skills and developing positive self-esteem
and social skills.
