From Mail Art & Yoga to Reverse Lipographs & Open-Mics, Our Campers SLAYED.
Writing a letter to his new pen pal; photo credit: Alex Delbeau-Charles
Over the last three weeks, so many wonderful things have happened in Opa-Locka with our PageSlayers. Read on for highlights, cute pics, and awe-inspiring words!
SIDEXSIDE Pilot a success!
During our first week, we had the amazing Elia Khalaf come in and lead our students in zine-making, as well as workshops on mail art. As part of our collaboration with EXILE Books, he, along with founder PageSlayers Dana De Greff, led our campers in the art of writing letters, the epistolary form (poetry in the form of letters), and they even designed the VERY FIRST OPA-LOCKA STAMP! Our PageSlayers wrote letters to kids in Little Haiti in collaboration with Gang Alternative, and the results were magical...
PageSlayers' letters and stamps; photo credit: Alex Delbeau-Charles
Ms. Shameka reads a letter with camper, Kourtney; photo credit: Alex Delbeau-Charles
Mr. Elia leads campers in the art of stamps; photo credit: Alex Delbeau-Charles
Old Opa-Locka City Hall, colored in by a student, then transformed into a stamp; photo credit: Alex Delbeau-Charles
Combining an element from each individual's stamp, our PageSlayers colellectively created the very first Opa-Locka stamp!
Poetry with Roger Reeves
“Poetry is different from a story, or a movie.” During our second week of camp we had renowned poet Roger Reeves as a guest artist; he started the morning discussing the question many of us ask ourselves all the time: what is poetry? Our kids came up with great responses like “sometimes it rhymes, and sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it talks about what it’s doing.”
PageSlayer Jalahn thinking hard with Mr. Reeves
Then they came up with a list of “a” words to form a reverse lipograph: instead of omitting letters or words, they were challenfed to include words with the letter “a” to make their “A” poems.
Class pic with Mr. Reeves!
Here’s a sample of what they came up with:
Asia Brennen
Jalahn Panda aloud and crazy,
alive as a crab
Outlasts a shark
that laughs in the water
sassy and mean
all around that land
Awesome water and crazy
Thanks, Samantha.
Jalahn Hudson
A car and a flag
apple dancing and I am
as small as an apple
and a baby that’s leaping
imagine a sassy baby
imagine a cat that has feathers
laying candy
that has parents and a dragon
We also had some yoga!
Yoga burrito? Photo credit: Maria Esquinca
Merging poetry, yoga, and mediation, our last week included a visit from poet and yogi, Becca Medevin, who said "yoga, meditation, and writing offer us life-changing tools. It is a gift to be able to share these tools with the PageSlayers students."
Slayers do the downward dog!
Our Slayers listened to their breathing, stretched, moved, wrote, and shared from the heart, coming up with some wonderful words and physical expressions of poetry.
And a beautiful and awe-inspiring open-mic
Keep in touch, Session One Slayers! Photo credit: Alex Delbeau-Charles
And of course, many thanks to our partners at the OLCDC, Thrive Innovation District, The Knight Foundation, Miami Dade Community Grants, the WaveMaker Grants, Locust Projects and Andy Warhol Foundation, and EXILE Books! We love you!
Happy to be reading, writing, and making new friends photo credit: Alex Delbeau-Charles