A World Savvy Tangent

To sort of start off, I'm Dan, and I'm a ZeumMaster. I've gone to Zeum since
I was nine years old, amazed each year with the changes made to each
part of the "museum"...I used to kick the metafield-maze's butt before
they programmed in a level 2. I've been working as a ZeumMaster
for a good seven months now. Done good, made friends and all that.
Everything's been pretty peachy. Capice?

This is also my first time blogging, so don't get too weirded out by whatever
tangents I will quite possibly make.

Yes, it's kinda cheesy, but this is one of the few short video uploads
made by the creative youth at the World Savvy Jam Session whilst informing this generation's long list of intelligent intellects about life changing extremes like poverty, conflict, and peace building in order to prepare a future of great minds.

World Savvy not only encourages a generation of intellectual thinkers, but also challenges people to speak out against unfair situations, promoting natural rights and freedom of individual will, something one could also find at www.youthforhumanrights.org. Look them up.

World Savvy is currently building up for their 2008 theme on Global Health, which, by itself, is one massive topic to cover. But hey, they've done tougher stuff before, and they can do it again, and again, and again, and again.....etc. PBS states in their article on the importance of global health that…

"The world's scientific knowledge, technological expertise, and economic resources are greater than at any point in history. We are capable of applying our collective know-how and wealth to reducing the health risks faced by all nations and alleviating unnecessary human suffering. Many see this as the shared responsibility of wealthier countries. Others continue to raise arguments against pursuing a collaborative approach to the problems of developing nations."

Now, as flawed as the middle sentence is, all countries, be it rich or poor in Resource fulness should be able to touch on a "love thy neighbor" basis. People should be willing to collaborate with each other in order to work towards a common goal, and I think World Savvy brought out global health in order to bridge whatever gaps
they could to help the little guy in this equation.

Poor countries shouldn't have to watch like the lesser sibling while the self appointed favorite sibling gets a bigger slice of the metaphoric cake of good benefits. I know that with every equation, a huge problem has to equal one or more solutions, and that is World Savvy's steps towards a bright future for humankind. I solute your efforts, Savvy.
Keep up the good work.

Those of you who don't know what I'm talking about should go to worldsavvy.org.

World Savvy Jam Session!!!

Coming to work and knowing that I'm going to participate in a field trip is cool because field trips are rare, and it makes me feel special. Liz, Ari, Joshua, Jule, Wing Yan and myself were the 6 participating in the World Savvy Jam Session. We gathered at Zeum and walked to the SomArts Cultural Center located on 934 Brannan Street. It was a long walk, it took us about 30 minutes. The Jam Session was basically about youths bringing their creative energy and vision to make artworks with professional San Francisco artist while addressing the World Savvy theme: POWER!

Upon arrival we were all hungry, we all signed in and got our name badges. We were all separated into groups; pink, orange, blue and black. We were offered pizza and we all had two slices, they were delicious. After 60 minutes of waiting we were called into a big warehouse art room and we watched 'Kibera Kids.' It was about a young boy who wanted a life of his own because his parent died. He was always forced into doing things that he didn't want to like stealing phones from others and selling them for money. Everyday he would get beat for not stealing phones. Then one day he decided to leave the country Kibera and start a new life. It was about hope.

We got into our groups based on our registration color. I was in the blue group and our main focus is being a POET. Our group was very unique because the other groups did a physical activity and our group did a verbal activity and it was very strong and deep. We separated in two groups the resistant and the non-resistant side. I was in the resistant side and we had to come up with short lines starting with "I am ....... that's why they call me power" and the non-resistant side came up with quotes to support (positive way) the resistant side. My quote was "I am a very smart person and teachers and my peers look upon me for answers and they call me POWER." I had a lot of fun participating in this session. The people that I worked with to come up with different quotes were teenagers around my age and even the instructors were teenagers. Since I am shy in front a huge group a people, this session brought me out of my shell. It made me express my opinion on what I thought about POWER and how I can relate it in a poem.

After preparing for our performance we gathered into the big warehouse art room and group by group we did our presentations. Our group was second to last. I was a little bit nervous because I had to present my quote with the microphone to the big mob of an audience. Can you imagine what you would feel like in this situation? It was ... because I had to say why I was powerful.

The group I liked the most was the Pyramid group and our group Poet group. The pyramid group really showed a lot of self confidence because they had to climb on top of each other and if one person decides to doze off then the whole group fails. If I could change one thing I would extend the amount of time participating. It was very fun and interesting. There aren't a lot of organizations who offer free programs and sessions in San Francisco so I give them a lot of credit for hosting this event. If they're planning to do this again next year I'll indeed do it again.

Censorship In Our Media

Long time no blog. This morning at Zeum we had a World Savvy workshop about photography, censorship & the media. When I first heard the words: censorship and the media, I immediately thought of human rights, the Iraq war, and Google. The news informed us of China trying to limit search results on Google, and the US government trying to cover up the current situation in Iraq. But today we focused on things a little closer to us, like censorship of our school newspaper or artists we listen to. By seeing censorship in a new light, I got to learn more about how it affects me everyday.

When I got to the workshop, we started doing the agree/disagree activity. A situation was presented to us and we chose whether to agree or disagree. After all the situations were presented, we would discuss each one and why we made the decisions we made. At first, everyone stood firm on their side, but once we discussed each one, "what-if situations" were thrown at us, making us question our choice. In the end, it was clear that it was hard to draw a line between censoring to prevent offensiveness and profanity, and exploiting censorship as a way to manipulate the public. Our next activity was an experiment to see how much of what we see in the media is controlled by one big corporation. The results were mind shocking, showing us that though we may get our sources from a couple different places, most of them are owned by one big corporation that could possibly be just showing us a side of the story that they favor.

Through these activities, I got to see how censorship is closer to me than I once thought it was. Censorship, like most things, has a good and a bad side. It all depends on what you limit and where you draw the line. But once you allow one thing to be uncensored, it opens many other doors and controversies over what else should be uncensored. Often, different people will view one thing differently. Some people may be offended but some may see it as perfectly fine, and wrong to censor. Even at school, you may think it's right to have the school censor things like profanity on the school newspaper, but what if one teacher thought that a certain article was inappropriate and the writer didn't? The battle of censorship rages on, and the decisions towards what should be censored is affecting our view of the world everyday. Sometimes what we think is the truth, could be just one big corporation showing you their favorite side of the story to try to get you to think a certain way. In a world where everything is controversial and the truth is debatable, where should censorship in the media stand?

"You Really Love Your Job, Don't You?"

Being a ZeumMaster has given me loads and loads of experience working with people and working as a team. I can definitely say that I've learned a lot from this internship.


One of my many lessons was one day in Main Gallery when I was working on a performance with a family. As always I was ready with a positive attitude and a huge smile. I became super involved with what this family was doing. I helped them with ideas for their script and costumes to go along with it. The family requested a whole bunch of background changes and scene transitions that took a lot of work on my part, but I was more than happy to see a family leave satisfied with a DVD that they could watch over and over again.


As they were finishing up, the mother came up to me and said "You really love your job don't you?" I responded "Yes, I do." Then she continued and told me how great it was to have someone helping them who really cared about the outcome of their production.


That mother made me realize that although we probably talk to hundreds of people a day, if we just put a little extra effort into each of those conversations, we can really mean something to them. If we make each experience with our visitors just a little more personal, families can leave feeling like they were in a caring atmosphere and not just being fed mechanical directions.


Seeing families truly enjoying what they have created here at Zeum is one of the most satisfying parts of the job - knowing that my help actually made a difference in a child's, or a family's, experience. My moment with this mother was just a little reminder of one of the many gratifying parts of this internship.

'Killin it with Dance

Anybody can dance. Anybody can perform. Whether you're amazing or horrible it feels nice to just get yourself out there. Dancing can be a way of expressing yourself or just a way to let out stress after a hard day at work or school. Having a way to escape from life and just dance is good for you. You can forget about life's. Dancing is like a vacation for your mind.

I'm making a documentary about dance. In my movie I want to show that good things can come from dancing whether or not you're good at it.

Performance is a big deal at Zeum. We have our production stage in our main gallery and our stage in the Music Video production lab so it's crucial that we help kids realize that they can perform too even if they think they're really bad at it. Everyone has a performer inside them, you just have to bring it out of them. For the kids that come here it's a big deal to be up on stage. A lot of them get nervous because they think they can't do it but with a little encouragement they get into their performances and put on good shows. After doing their thing on stage a lot of times they get excited and have a little self-esteem boost.

With my video I want to show the positive effects of dancing on people's lives and that anyone can experience these things because anyone can dance. I'm gonna interview a few big name dance teachers about what get them started in dancing and what dancing has done for them in their lives. My video will show their interview with me and then will go into a video of them actually dancing. I'll do the same thing with people who are in dance companies and then take it down to people who simply take classes and then take it down to people who do it just for fun.

I've been dancing for 4 years. I mainly do hip hop dance. I started taking dance classes just to see what it was like. I had always seen people dance and though "Wow, I wish I could do that."

After a while I was motivated by the compliments I started getting. It's the best feeling to have someone ask me "How'd you do that?" or have a teacher tell me to keep the good work cuz i was "killin' it."

Dancing has helped not only to boost my self-esteem but also to get me through some tough times. When I dance i can forget about everything going on around me and just focus on the dancing I'm doing. Nothing else matters. I can go home after dancing and feel like I accomplished what I needed to that day. I'm at my best mentally after I've danced. I can think better having let out all my stress and energy in dance. I get my endorphins flowing so I feel pumped up but I'm more at ease so I can think better. And after getting all tired out I can sleep better too. So dancing can benefit you both mentally and physically.

Poetic Heroes

Hero.

"A woman/man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for their brave deeds and noble qualities. The principal female/male character in a story, play, film, etc."

Well, that's how Webster's dictionary defines hero. But for me a hero is more than someone I admire it's people who help me make up what I am today. There are many heroes in my family that I love and respect but to go deeper, my more personal are people who I admire in the industry that I hope to go into, media.

For my end of the year project at Zeum I am working on Media and my self image - how people in the media have affected who I am and inspired me to go further with whatever I chose to do. Like Gaby's but different. The people who I feel closely connected to are Oprah Winfrey, Queen Latifah, and Will Smith, not only are they successful in the roles they play on screen and on stage but being African American they have became respected in anything they choose to do.

There are so many people that I could look up to, why are these people what's so special? Will Smith and Queen Latifah are both singers in the hip hop business and Oscar nominees. They all are able to do a wide variety of performances like from comedy to drama, to musicals. They're all entrepreneurs. Oprah is a great inspiration because she also came from a background of severe poverty. These are people who do work for their communities.

To deliver my ideas for this project, I'm going to do a spoken word performance. Now, at first I wasn't so sure about spoken word, it is a type of performance, but not like any I ever done before.

I tend to lean more toward to stage performance where I'm given a script and and I act out a character. Through this project though, I can perform alone, myself - which it's hard to say, but it might be the hardest role I have yet to experience. Kwesi and Ari explained the concept of spoken word and other things I can do with different types of media. I get to learn more about this type of performance and work on being able to get my ideas onto paper and on stage.

My media, My self image

How has the media portrayed me?

Since I was little, I have always heard of female Latinas not finishing high school and ending up pregnant. I know that this is not expected of me from my family and friends, but this is what the media expects of me.

For an end of the year project at ZEUM we were asked to do some type of art work that refelcted on one of these topics: Family history and Memory, Conflict Resolution, Human Rights and Media and Self Image. I choose to reflect on Media and Self Image by doing an animation that portrays what the media expects of me to become and what I want to become.

As I mentioned before, growing up as a Latina, I have always had stereotypes follow me wherever I went. Starting in middle school, my 8th grade Principal has said it himself that "If [we] didn't graduate from high school, which was most likely to happen, there were a lot of jobs opening for us that paid enough to get by". Later in High School I began to notice that many of the girls that I went to school with had gotten pregnant and were forced to drop out of school. This really upset me because it was like they threw their lives away. From then on, I knew that I wanted to be more than another fact to fit another stereotype.

What I am now is a high school Latina who goes to a private school in the presidio and is getting ready to apply to college next year. I hope to finish college and move on to graduate school and become something other than what is expected of by the media.

I hope that this art work will show others that the media doesn't have to decide who you are to become, you are in control of choosing what YOU want to become.

* Peace *



GABY