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.

Spoken Music: Fran Varian visits Zeum

This morning Ari's friend, Fran Varian came and talked to us - she is a spoken word artist. I might have mentioned spoken work in my project in media and self image because that's how I'm performing it. Spoken word is a kind of performance art in lyrics, poetry, and stories are spoken instead of sung. So it's like talking music.

Fran gave us a insight into the world of spoken word like slam poetry, which is a competition with eight people who have two minutes to make up their own piece of work and get judged by random people from the audience. Wow that must take extreme talent to make up something in two minutes... it takes me weeks to come up with something even close to a poem.

The artistic process is different for everybody... but I'm seeing that the base of a spoken word poem is to "be vulnerable". A lot of artists write about things that are really personal. This can be hard because people feel uncomfortable but also really easy because you are writing about a subject you know the most - yourself. When you talk about yourself lots of people might respond to it because they might have felt the same way or had the same experiences.

I have never really performed as myself - I'm use to getting characters and being someone else. But I can be someone else and even be myself at the same time. I talked about this with Fran and the group. Even in getting a script and being a different character can be a way to "be vulnerable".

Fran told us about an organization called Youthspeaks.org it helps teens get into spoken word. It gives them a chance to really have a voice and express their feelings, opinions.

I'm using spoken word in my project so it was good chance to hear about her process and actually hear one of her poems. It was cool because the hardest part for me was to get down and write what I wanted to say. Hearing Fran talk about her process of writing made working on my project a little bit easier. I never thought of myself as a writer but in reality if you write something down on paper you're a writer.

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.