Passover Story

I have a big family - we're all over the country and all over the world. My immediate family lives in San Francisco. But my aunts, uncles, and cousins on my mom's side live in New York. And most of my dad's family lives in Israel.

Because my family is so large and scattered about, I have decided, that for my end of the year project, I wanted to write a short play about my ENTIRE family at the Passover Seder dinner, and kind of make up how I think they would all interact with one another.

I'm planning on performing the whole play myself. A one girl show, reading the skit aloud, acting out everyone's part. Because my family who lives in Israel doesn't speak English, I'm going to perform some of it in Hebrew.

I always wanted to gather my whole entire family together for Passover because it would be so amazing for me to see everyone at once for such a special holiday.

With this project I'm creating my wish that someday, this gathering of my family could happen, and I would really see how they would get along.

Because of the differences between some of my family members, i wrote it so that an argument arises between my cousin (who lives in NY), my Uncle (who lives in Israel), and my mom.

The argument finally ceases when my dad says "OK, let's eat and sing songs." And I bring up the Passover song that is my all time favorite - Echad, Me Yodea?" (One, who knows one?"). Suddenly everyone in my family is talking about the song and how special and meaningful it is to every one of them. The lyrics to the song are so powerful and are strong enough to bring everyone together. And the fighting stops.

Who knows three? I know three!
Three are the mothers and two are the tablets that Moshe brought, and one is Hashem...
Who knows four? I know four!
Four are the fathers and three are the mothers and two are the tablets that Moshe brought and one is Hashem...

The song continues in this fashion of counting up until the number thirteen, and it has a lot of meaning because the song is very biblical and mentions important biblical figures. The melody is also beautiful, especially when sang in Hebrew.

When my family was all singing together, I realized that the holiday of Passover and the songs are a "common denominator" in my family and it's what brings everyone together. In spite of their differences, we all share the love for the holidays, and this, in turn, brings the family together and erases any tension.

Basketball Memory

My final project will be finishing my memory project: "How i almost gave up". I'm still working on scanning pictures into the computer of my three sisters, my mom and dad, my two little brothers, and me. I'm going to tell people as they look at the pictures that this is a family full of joy, that they don't have to worry about us.

When my family was split up, it caused my sisters' heart and mine to be broken. It's hard to explain what went wrong with this family that was split so lets just say that life was too good to be true for me and something bad just had to happen because it felt like I was in utopia. That's the way I remember it. Then utopia switched around to be anti-utopia. However, experiencing anti-utopia till today isn't all that bad but I still pray that it will go back the same and feel the same as it did before.


For my last blog post I talked about my brother, this time = my dad.

Yeah! I said basketball is my favorite sport/ i love it when i dribble up n down the court/ I like to pick and roll/ I like to give and go and its basketball/ Josh Mauldin let's go!-words from Bow Wow, the rapper.

Here you can see pictures of the shoes I wear playing basketball. I bought them all black and decorated them myself. I made a hat to match too.

These words apply to me because basketball is my favorite sport and my dad taught me most of my basketball skills. My dad and I are super close and one of the activities that we love to do together is play basketball, basketball, and basketball, obviously. Ever since I was three years old I've been playing basketball and once my dad payed attention that I could better my skills, he pushed me into being one of the best at any school I went to. So every school I've went to or go to now, I'm one of the best.

I don't like bragging because if you know you're good, whats the point of bragging. I know you're wondering how do I know I'm one of the best at my school. Is it because everyone else isn't that good? Well no, its because I push myself more than others and my dad and I always talked about me wanting to be one of the best at what I do. A tip that I can give you if you haven't already heard, that my freshman basketball coach told me was that, "Practice doesn't make perfect"-"Perfect practice makes perfect".

I will be speaking in a recording to tell whoever wants to listen about "how i almost gave up".

Hitting the Road: Monterey Bay Aquarium!

Yesterday, April 6th, nine Zeummasters were fortunate enough to be able to go on a field trip to The Monterey Bay Aquarium and get to know a few teens over there.

After the two hour drive to Monterey (Perry drives like a grandma) we checked in at the Aquarium and were escorted to a room in the back of the building
(because we were V.I.P.s). We walked into a room filled with fish tanks and life-size replicas of sea otters and turtles and other wild life.

Once we settled in a little we got to meet the teens of W.A.T.C.H., Watsonville Area Teens Conserving Habitats. We played games where we got to know the teens more and basically "break the ice.". Getting to know everybody was pretty cool and after a few games we felt like we knew each other pretty well.

After the games, the Zeummasters talked to the group about what we do at Zeum. The educators sat back while we did the talking. We showed them our lovely blog that we write in religiously - got it up on a big projector - and the year-long project we're working on. I talked to them about the personal histories project, and the "what does home mean to you" project. I really believe that the Zeummasters made a great presentation. I didn't feel nervous at all.

Then the W.A.T.C.H. teens introduced their program and talked about what they're working on. We got to learn that they are a group of teens raising awareness in the Watsonville Area about the habitats around them. They all go to the same school, a school set in the middle of numerous wetlands.

Their program is cool, because they get to go out into the wetlands, dunes, etc. and do research. Some of their presentations won awards and a group was even able to go to Washington D.C.. Just listening to them, you could tell they were very involved with their projects and the environment they live in.

After their presentation we got to do some art! What we did together was a reflection of our programs, from how we've grown or what we love about the programs. During the project we got to interact even more with the other teens. In my group, we talked about colleges we're interested in, what we liked about our program, our backgrounds, they were all very outgoing people.

And then, the aquarium TOUR, led by their teens. The people I was with were cool. The Aquarium is such a big place, we actually got lost a few times. We got to see the sea otters, the penguins, and the jellyfish. The teens knew their way around so we got to see a lot. The Aquarium is so much bigger than Zeum. It was cool to be in a different environment for a day.

After the tour was over we got to show the W.A.T.C.H. teens a game we love to play at Zeum. Of course, the winners were both Zeum Masters. After the game, we had to say our good-byes, and end a great day.

The experience overall was a great one. To be in a different environment and interact with another teen group was pretty cool. They're all so passionate about the environment and conserving the areas in their community, just like we're passionate about our art and reaching out to the community. At Zeum, we're all about art and technology, but to see a place dedicated to preserving wild life and show how much the world is at risk from the things we're doing to it, it was eye-opening. The teens were great, they were so welcoming and able to help us with everything we were doing that day. I loved the day, and would love to do it again! =]

Click HERE to see the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Live Penguin Webcam!

Memory

The second week of the personal history project = Memory. For this part of the project, some of us get to write about and have the opportunity to show imagery describing our memories. The memories can be either serious or not that serious, yet true. A "favorite memory". The memory project also allows us to be creative with our artwork and very open to anyone who might see it.

Meaning we could trust everyone who sees our memory projects.

My memory project is "How I almost gave up."

I live with my aunt, but wish i could live back home in LA with my mom, dad, two brothers, and two sisters. I have another sister but she is all grown up living on her own now, so she doesn't count. Because I don't live with my mom and dad I don't have that much support as I used to, which made my life very complicated. I was fifteen yrs. old when I almost gave up on school, work, and basketball. That was a year ago, not 2 long ago. So, what kept me to keep going was the support from my baby brother. He is three yrs. old and i've always wanted a baby brother. His name is Elisha (e-ly-sha) and he kept me to keep going because when I talk to him we joke around a lot and for some old reason I can see myself through him which is very weird.


So therefore, I can't stop now, I have my baby brother who looks up to me and what ever i do must be positive so he can catch on to my good example. I'm not only his big brother but his role-model also.

In order for people to see my work, not just read/ listen to my story, I will show whoever wants to see pictures of my family. Individual pictures, groups of pair pictures, and just pictures to show people that there is no way I could give up on myself and a family like I have. It's impossible.

I'm working on scanning the pictures on the computer and setting them up like a slide show. In order to know whats going on, you will hear me, Joshua, talking from computer speakers about my memory project story on how I almost gave up but couldn't because of my reflection on my baby brother and my family photos. When I look at my family photos, there's no way I can give up now.

What does HOME mean to you?

This year Zeum Masters are working tirelessly on an exhibit that will be shown at the end of the year.

Today we started with reflection on our home life. We were given the task to reflect on what "home" means to us, also challenged with making a collage of what we believe this word meant to us.

Without hesitation I went for what I knew to be true about my "home." That is, "Home is where the heart is." Although cliche, it is the truth. I illustrated my own definition with a huge heart in the middle of a green home surrounded by deep strokes of blues. With the words, "Home is where the heart is.." emblazoned in yellow around the house. My home is definitely where my heart is. It is the beat that keeps me going everyday and the center of my world. My situation at home is different then anywhere else outside of it. It is where my heart lies, because that is where my family is.

My situation at home is very different than most. I live with my mom and brother. My mom is a single mom who works three jobs taking up most of her time throughout the week. My brother is pre-med at a local university, he is also very involved at school with clubs and his fraternity. While I go to a high school 20mins away, and usually have something to do after school between student government meetings and club gatherings. With this much going on outside of the house it is hard to get us all in one place. That is why, home is the one place i know to go to when i need to be with family. On the weekend is probably the only time we get to be a family. Although limited, we cherish our time together as a family. Home is stationary to me, always there for me when i need it. Because a house is not a home...home is where the family is and where the heart is.

This project tied into what we will be doing later on with the exhibit. Not only will we be working with different collages but also photoshop. The different layers and mediums we used in our collages ties into the different layers we can develop with adobe photoshop. Next week we will segway into photoshop by making photo composites of a favorite memory of ours.

As we work on this exhibit we are asked to reflect on our personal history and develop our thoughts into our own artforms. Something i cant wait to figure out and develop for myself! =]

Posted by ANGEE