On Friday I got to take my kids on their first fieldtrip. Part of the after-school program I run has a group called S.O.U.L. Sessions that comes in to teach kids kids breakdancing, DJ'ing, and free style hip-hop. This organization also works with another Austin group, the Cipher, that is comprised of local hip-hop artists, including a student or two from the high school where I work. The fieldtrip was to the Vortex Theatre to see Hip Hop Explosion. The students I took got to break dance and rap with members of SOUL Sessions and the Cipher. They also got to see one of their mentors, a Safe Place employee, and phenomenal youth worker, (she appropriatley runs a group called Phenomenal Women), perform with her group Public Offenders. The sets of the show included break dancing, several rappers, a slam poet, Public Offenders, and the Cipher. Zell Miller III (also works for my program) wasn't hosting that night, but the lady who was did well and is much prettier :)
I'm not really into hip hop, but I like connecting students to an art form that they are willing to embrace, and when I see them perform and do well, I want everyone else to know that those are my kids and they are stellar.
So really... what job could be better than essentially being a youth-enrichment-specialist? Our next big fieldtrip is a tour of Austin graffiti art to prepare the kids to create a large mural under the guidance of SOUL Sessions artists. Not a bad day at the office, even if I didn't get home till midnight on Friday.
2 comments:
That is really neat.
It's going on through this week I believe... Thursday, Friday and Saturday
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