Day One of my Fellowship

I just spent about 30 minutes writing about today only to have it all blip right off the screen. I'm trying to work with this new Flip video thing and, as a non-tech kind of person, I'm struggling a bit. If Johnny was here, he'd take care of it for me. Alas, I am solo and will have to rely on my own superhero qualities to save my day.

So, day one with the kids. I'm working with children at the North Rampart Community Center, which serves African-American children in the Treme area of New Orleans. The center is right there on Rampart Street on the edge of the French Quarter. The program divides the children by age and gender, so I teach each group (Girls 8-11, Girls 12-15, Boys 8-11, Boys 12-15) for one hour, 15 minutes. I get there at 8am to supervise arrival and their playtime in the courtyard, then we all eat breakfast and the day officially begins with classes at 9am. These kids are ENERGETIC! It's an aggressive energy that can explode in the wrong direction at any time, so keeping things positive and insisting on rules and consequences is paramount. Coach Parker is the enforcer, making it all happen in an in-your-face-for-your-own-good kind of way. He's good. I started with the little boys, who rough each other up, poke, aggravate, speak out, and don't calm down, focus or stop moving for more than a minute. It's like herding cats. They were cute and funny and about half the kids will probably last in the program. Today confirmed what has been a constant for me: I know how to teach girls. It all worked. Both the big girls and little girls were enthusiastic, opinionated, sassy, beautiful, funny and outspoken! They were able to conquer all the exercises.

The boys - both big and small - were less able to conquer, as they were struggling with behaviors and impulses and there are so many more of them. The big boys were hardest, because they are resistant and less willing to take risks. With both age levels, when the exercises weren't progressing, I switched to body percussion and they all fell in. Some kids even rapped over the rhythm. They responded well to the chant - especially the little boys. Rhythm is a challenge all around as none of the kids, either gender, has figured out how to listen to one another. Give me 2 weeks to fix that problem.

The older kids did 2 minute free writes for me. Our goal is to tell our stories and determine if there is a universal story to be told. The free write topic was "The stories we should tell about ourselves are..." And the answers were the same as my students back home would have written: family, friends, clothing and how it defines the man, respect, romance, first kisses, hopes, dreams, goals, determination, secrets. One of my big boys wrote something so poetic...will share later in the week as it progresses. He's a tough guy, an alpha male, hard to read, physically beautiful, easily angered. So, I'm hoping he stays with theatre. All the kids have to take 2 days of theatre and 2 days of dance this week. Next week, they choose theatre, dance or art for the duration of my stay. I'm hoping for nice, small groups of about six. That seems to work.

I have to get to work finding material that I hope will appeal more to the older boys. I'm taking a totally different route than I normally do, since their energy requires this. Here's the thing: it's all an experiment. I came here hoping to tell a story, but that story may not be about post-katrina kids in the way I thought it would be told. It has to be THEIR story and the way THEY tell it. It's like a science experiment. You write your hypothesis and then off you go! It doesn't matter if your hypothesis proved to be right. At the conclusion of the experiment, you have TRUTH.

Today, all the children learned about UBUNTU. All the children did the UBUNTU chant. And nearly every child experienced stillness and peace during our relaxation ritual. Not bad.