Church introduces kids to world of arts

By Mary Rickard
The New Orleans Times-Picayune

Nathan Major, 13, and Sheldon Lewis, 10, gained an understanding of quarter notes through rhythmic clapping exercises as they sat in the choir section of St. Anna's Episcopal Church on Esplanade Avenue. Hand gestures reinforce the beats, explained Darryl Durham, program director for Anna's Arts for Kids.

"Feel the vibration in your voice and memorize the feeling," he instructed.

In the community room next door, another group of youngsters experimented with creative writing under the tutelage of Delia Nakayama, while a third cluster of youngsters on the second floor practiced fingering chords on the guitar. Their teacher, Rebecca Green, learned guitar from her parents, professional folk musicians.

In the church courtyard, several girls and boys dressed in karate uniforms practiced kicking in front of Alvin Hewitt Jr., head instructor at Peace Keeper Martial Arts School.

"I use the ethics and honor codes from martial arts to put troubled youth on the right track," said Hewitt, a former history teacher who says socioeconomic issues must be addressed at the local level through community involvement.

Thirty children, ages 4 to 14, are the first participants in Anna's Arts for Kids, an after-school program designed to inspire change through academic development, exposure to the arts, community service and environmental awareness. But Durham said his ultimate objective is to impart respect and self-discipline. A handwritten, cardboard sign displays a dozen rules the children wrote themselves. Citations are given when the rules are broken. Children learn they can make decisions, but that there are also consequences, Durham said.

"We want the least-loved kids, the hardest to deal with and the ones most at risk," said the Rev. Bill Terry, St. Anna's vicar.

"Since 2007, St. Anna's has been recognized as the voice for the victims of violence," Terry said. A sign on the front of the church names every homicide victim in New Orleans, his or her age and date killed. "The engine is to humanize the victims of violence by naming them," he said.

This year, Terry wanted to take the next step in violence prevention. "If I want to get kids off the streets and get them to stop killing each other, I've got to give them a future and self-esteem," he said.

A member of the congregation and former director of the Harlem School of the Arts, Durham brought Terry the concept of Anna's Arts for Kids. With a modest $65,000 budget, the program provides homework assistance in addition to lessons in voice, guitar, martial arts, folk dance and creative writing to kids living in the surrounding areas. An anonymous donor quickly helped fund the program.

"Taking kids and helping them to express themselves profoundly can't be a bad thing," Terry said. "We're teaching them how to express themselves through poetry instead of trying to get respect with a gun," he said.

The children are carpooled at 5 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday afternoons and on Saturday mornings from their Mid-City and Treme homes. Durham and Assistant Director Julio Rojas make phone calls to coordinate rides.

Patsy Soto said her daughter, Victoria, enjoys the program so much that she won't miss a day. Victoria's math grades have improved through the tutoring.

"I want to bring them a happy moment," said Rojas, who teaches Latino folk dancing. "The kids love it," he said. One child showed up four times during the recent spring break.

Staff members prepare dinner and a healthy snack four days a week so the children are ready and able to learn. "We want to make sure they have the proper food to have energy to last an extended day," Durham said.

During the program, the children get exposure to arts they haven't had, Durham said. The New Orleans Musicians Foundation provided a $12,000 grant to allow guest artists to perform.

As a result, Shanté Rickmon, 14, has decided she'll become a music producer. She's planning to attend the summer media arts program at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and has applied to Tulane's Upward Bound Program.

Nathan is learning guitar, but his real interest is violin. He said his grandmother listens to Cajun music, which has "the flavor of Louisiana" and makes him want to dance.

St. Anna's will collaborate with Christ Church Cathedral for a five-week summer session, starting June 21. Sixty children from Treme, Mid-City and Central City have already registered. Five minimally paid art instructors and a half-dozen volunteer tutors run the program with the help of parents, who carpool and serve meals.

Transportation is the program's most pressing problem, Durham said. A 25-passenger bus would help accommodate more children.

Durham said the children here have not had the same early exposure to the arts as those he taught in Harlem.

"My goal is to get the kids to soar academically, socially and culturally," he said.

Politics, parades, New Orleans Saints -- It's all theater

A guest column by Amy Kirk Duvoisin
By Contributing Op-Ed columnist, Times-Picayune
January 27, 2010, 5:33PM

Recently I attended a meeting intended to encourage official support of the arts in New Orleans. At the end of the presentations, political candidates were welcome to speak.

The last person to plead the case for the arts was a theater director. While she was articulate and passionate, she happened to be speaking at the same time the City Council and mayoral candidates were lining up onstage. Her words about the power of theater to reflect the signifance of our daily lives lost out to the unspoken political drama unfolding simultaneously onstage.

Isn't that just New Orleans, I thought. Always a parade lining up! In this town you gotta be fast, loud and keep moving. The brass bands have it right.

As a playwright, I've always thought that theater faced fierce competition in this town. Not because there is an overabundance of playwrights and aspiring actors, but because there's so much free entertainment all around us -- from politics to parades.
And now, we can add football to that list.

I've never really been a true blue football fan. I found it -- believe it or not -- not dramatic enough. I was raised on baseball and tennis (which could explain why my plays have so little action). After experiencing the tear-jerking, heart-racing, fingernail-biting and neck-aching playoff game of the Saints vs. the Vikings, I have changed my mind. Football is theater. I get it.

My husband, a former high school football coach and now an English teacher, noted that all the goals of art, especially of theater, were reflected in a game like the one played Sunday: the ability to lose oneself, the ability to empathize, the ability to experience shared human emotion. (Can you see why I married this guy?)

I had recently explained to him that what kept me in theater were the small moments of elation and epiphany that came after months of hard work. "There's always a point in the play when you can feel the audience is with you -- there's nothing like it!" I said.

Well, there is something like it. It's called a Saints game. And Sean Payton is one hell of a playwright. Drew Brees and Garrett Hartley and all the cast unwittingly performed a game that rivals any Shakespeare I've seen. And what's so cool about it is that it's totally real, totally unscripted, totally experienced second by second among thousands of strangers.

In other parts of the country, they are dreading Valentine's Day and watching the snow fall or the slush form. We, on the other hand, are experiencing a Trifecta Theatrical Extravaganza. And you don't need a ticket for any of the shows.

There's Election Day. Don't let it get lost in the bright lights of Mardi Gras and the Super Bowl. We've fought too hard and too long and paid too much attention to have it slide by like it's just another pre-Super Bowl Saints Saturday.

Imagine -- we get to change the course of our city 24 hours before changing football history. When else do you have such an opportunity to win, twice in one weekend?

Meanwhile, there's a parade lining up somewhere. And again, you get to participate. This town has the most audience participation per capita in the country, I'm sure of it.

In fact, what I love most about Mardi Gras is that there is no fourth wall, no imaginary space designed to keep the audience and actors separate to create an illusion of reality.

In New Orleans, the audience is necessary. The Saints need the fans, the politicians need the citizens and the float riders need revelers to appreciate the spectacle and catch their throws. Although theater claims to need its audience, and I know that an audience can make or break an opening night, let's face it -- most of us in theater are happy to perform for our cats if necessary. We say it's because we want to communicate and connect, and we do. But I envy the success of a good parade and a good football game. It's everything theater wants to be. And we have it all here, almost all of the time.

And to think that audience involvement in a theatrical production is still considered avant garde!

I'll keep writing plays. I have something to strive for, now that I've seen truly public theater. I can't expect to reach people in the way that politicians, football players and Mardi Gras monarchs do, but that's fine. It'll give me something to do in the off-season.

Amy Kirk Duvoisin, founder of the Joan of Arc project, lives in New Orleans. Her e-mail address is aaknola@yahoo.com.
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