Hopi Wisdom

This bench, stationed outside of a visionary re-purposed industrial building in Baltimore, really needs no further commentary from me...but being who I am, well, I'll just add a few thoughts.

It sits on the sidewalk at the corner entrance to Charmington's, a unique cafe in the Miller's Court development in a transitional neighborhood in northern Baltimore City, nearish Johns Hopkins University. The building, a former tin can company, was redeveloped in great part to be a place of residential support for recent college graduates who choose to teach in the Baltimore City Public School System. In addition to apartments, it also houses office space for educational nonprofits, and, of course, the Charmington's cafe.

(For more on interesting Miller's Court, check out the following two links: http://millerscourt.com/ and
http://www.preservationnation.org/main-street/main-street-news/2009/04/baltimore-rehab.html )

Charmington's has been one of the many wonderful local meeting spots for a group of parents working to encourage our neighborhood middle school to incorporate a daily recess break into its rather comprehensive, yet overly rigorous and unbalanced school day. Sometimes it seems that we are "racing to nowhere" with our kids. Sometimes our societal efforts to provide them the best quality education swing wildly to the other side of the pendulum, and we end up "teaching for the test" rather than thoughtfully educating the "whole child." Our children need quality instructional time, but they also need time to "play" and imagine and just talk with one another...and a little fresh air wouldn't hurt either.

Working to help balance the school culture has often felt like more than I bargained for over the past year or so, but we press on...because common sense, and parent intuition, and really listening to our children, not to mention the volumes and volumes of recent relevant research, have all indicated that the short- and long-term benefits for our children are easily worth more than the sacrifice it's taking to get there.

So, at a step along the journey, July 11th to be exact, this bench gave me a bit of a fresh wind.

Let's live this wisdom of the Hopi Tribe.

Much Love. Take Care.

An Evening of Shakespeare

Maia transferred to the Theatre Department at her school just in time to be assigned a role and an opportunity to prepare for the annual Junior Acting Ensemble Shakespeare Scenes. She was so new to the department, she wasn't sure she would get an assignment, but she did (by the way, I love those BSA educators!), and a neat one at that (at least by my "I'm not really a fan of Shakespeare in general" barometer)...she portrays Portia in a scene from Merchant of Venice...one of Shakespeare's most wonderful female characters.

While the actual Shakespeare Scenes productions are not until May, the acting students get the opportunity to "practice" their scenes at a delightful local cabaret in Little Italy: Germano's. This Italian restaurant is awesome (you have to try it when you are next in Baltimore), and the owners Germano and his wife Syl are gracious, very involved hosts who love to support the arts. Their two daughters both attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, and they have lovingly provided a venue for so many art students to perform at their Cabaret. The Cabaret is held in an upstairs dining room with warm, cozy ambiance, excellent wait service, and I'll repeat again...fantastic Italian food! The last time I attended Germano's Cabaret (with Maia), they had a number of cast members from the Broadway musical "In The Heights" singing whatever they wanted to sing for us with a local accompanist; the cast was in town for a run of the musical at our Hippodrome Theatre and Craig, Maia, Job and I had seen the show days before. The Germano's atmosphere made the cabaret evening a joy for both the artists and audience and we all just had an awesome time!

So, Shakespeare Scenes (in practice) was no different in delightfulness...only better because my Maia was performing. She was so nervous beforehand because it was her first time performing as an actor with the School for the Arts, and she didn't feel ready yet to do the scene. Can I just say that is Maia's normal process...and then she absolutely blows the performance away! We've experienced this with her in dance as well, so we've come to know that when she says she doesn't feel ready, it really means she is more than prepared by normal standards but hasn't yet reached her super high perfectionist standards.

I wasn't able to take photos during the performance for obvious reasons, but caught Maia and other members of the ensemble just before the show in an adjoining "green" room...

 and then afterwards when they emerged again for their bows with their awesome instructor Donald Hicken (far left)...

This is just an awesome group of incredibly talented kids! And they are wonderful people as well, which is much more important. Maia was absolutely excellent! (Of course I am biased -- no apologies here-- and thought she was the best of the bunch! -- sorry, Maia, I know you'd rather I not said that....but Mommas are allowed some liberties -- and I've pretty much thought you were the best of the bunch everywhere you've been since the hospital nursery!).

Craig was unable to attend (he was out-of-town and so disappointed), but Auntie JoJo and Adrian joined me and Gommy and we had such a nice evening. Gommy loved her "buttered noodles" which are just about the only thing she'll eat for dinner these days (thanks for the accommodation, Germano's), and we grown folk thoroughly enjoyed our delicious entrees as well. And, yes, taking a 4-year-old to an evening cabaret of Shakespeare is not my greatest idea of fun (however we did enjoy the "intermission" stroll outside in the night air and meeting the "cute little white puppy in the pink dress"), but that was just how the evening was stacked up for our family. All in all she did pretty well, until the very end, and that was alright by me (note the back of her in her photo...she wasn't in a picture-taking mood...but sure was silly!).

I hope to have many more evenings of Germano's, and sooooooo many more opportunities to just enjoy Maia thriving and enjoying using her God-given talents. It was a wonderful evening.

(Not sure what was going on with the date on this ticket...Hmmmm....well, what's a few months in an entire lifetime...right?  right?)

Take Care. Much Love.

Art Class and Impressionistic Flowers

Johngideon learned about "cool" and "warm" colors at his latest art class,

and took a look at the style of Claude Monet and impressionistic flowers.

Gommy thought he'd done a great job with his paintings.

My delight goes without saying.

(Art class is winding down...rats!)

Take Care. Much Love.

 

Can't Wait to Get it Home on a Wall

Johngideon's art class...week 3...how awesome is this piece!

The background is saturated with beautiful color, the how of which Johngideon cheerfully explained to me...something I would never have thought of. The children placed small pieces of colored tissue paper on their "canvases" which they then "painted" over with water, using a paint brush. After a few moments, they pulled up and discarded the pieces of tissue paper, and were left with beautiful dyed areas of mosaicy watery pink, purple and blue colors that are just gorgeous. To finish their works of art, they then painted winter scenes in oil pastels and white paint. (I am sure the instructor chose the snowy theme for her syllabus not expecting this February week to hold 70 degree days!) I can't wait to get this piece home to grace our walls. Love it!

Poor Johngideon's eyes were red all day because we took him and Montgomery swimming last night, for the first time since Labor Day, while the older kids all had other social places to be, and I didn't think about grabbing goggles...until he looked like a bloodshot imbiber an hour later. Ooops!

After art class, Johngideon and I joined a few friends downtown at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, a newer museum I am rather ashamed to say I have never visited, other than for an opening day outdoor festival Maia's dance group performed in. Over the last several years I've seen advertisements for exhibits that piqued my interest and increased my intentions, but I still never quite made it down. Our visit was very enjoyable for both of us.

We especially enjoyed a special exhibition of contemporary black women artists called Material Girls. Turns out one of the artists, Maya Freelon Asante, creates large colorful works of art in...guess what..."bleeding" tissue paper dye! Unfortunately (but understandably) we couldn't take photos in any of the galleries, hence our outdoor shots above. However, the two photos directly below are from Maya Freelon Asante's website... http://www.mayafreelon.com/ ...

We both loved the Material Girls exhibit for the amazing works of art created using such unusual, everyday and/or repurposed items. Johngideon particularly enjoyed an intricately beaded statue (unfortunately I cannot remember the name of the artist). I especially loved the large and wonderful recycled tires abstract sculptures (I know that doesn't sound attractive but they are quite beautiful, and so texturally rich!) by Chakaia Booker...these two images below are from her website.... http://www.chakaiabooker.com/ ...

Talented women!

Next to the Lewis museum is another museum (I think it's called the Living Classroom?), that has a huge colored glass wall patterned as an American flag. We thought it was striking and cool.

Finally, as I was searching for parking near the museum, I was flabbergasted at how much the city has changed in this part of town, seemingly overnight (but I am sure I just haven't driven through this area in a year or so). What was a rather sparse and junky-looking few blocks of flat and gravely land and decaying buildings is now a neat new urban community of lovely new rowhouses...

I truly sensed a community feel to the neighborhood as I drove through. Normally I am not the biggest fan of gentrification because of the social and economic injustice that often accompanies it, but I do think this area is improved for the better...hopefully the homes are within financial reach of a diverse population...but I have my doubts. I'll have to research a bit before I can fully allow myself to really embrace and enjoy the fresh beauty of the area.

All in all, it was a very nice (and very windy) day.   :o)

Take care. Much love.

   

A Homemade Valentine...Always the Best Kind

Art class...week two...Johngideon is loving it...so are we!

Happy Valentine's Day.

Take Care. Much Love.

 

Delighted!

Maia is delighted!

She had been struggling with the decision of whether to attempt a transfer at her school from the dance department to the theatre department. She entertained the idea in October, made preliminary inquiries, and ultimately decided to continue in dance, mostly because of all of the time she had invested in dance training thus far.

But the theatre continued calling to her. Our always prayer is that our children would be able to identify their God-given gifts early and find their passions. Maia's good problem is that she is very gifted in several areas. When she auditioned for the Baltimore School for the Arts before her Freshman year, she was accepted into both the dance and theatre departments and had to choose which one to pursue. As her goal at the time was musical theatre, the choice was very difficult for her, and she waffled back and forth before finally selecting dance.

She has learned so much in the dance department these past several years (in dance classes four hours every school day), but has always kept one eye on the theatre. She originally intended to pursue theatre in her free time and in the summers. However, majoring in dance is so all-consuming, the rehearsals and performances took up nearly all of her free time during the school year. Then, Maia being who Maia is, she auditioned for and spent most of her summers in intensive dance programs to hone her dance skills.

But, she always kept one eye on the theatre.

Finally, in January, she attended a performance of the Junior Acting Ensemble, and knew, just knew, she was in the wrong department. I was sitting next to her at that performance, and I knew, just knew, she belonged on that stage. However, at this point in her educational pursuit, midway through her Junior year, transferring arts departments is not usually an option. The difficulty is that she takes advanced academic classes, which at a small school such as hers, are very tightly scheduled with usually only one section. So, although she might have transferred into the theatre department as a freshman or sophomore level acting student, her Junior level academic classes conflicted directly with the lower level acting classes. Therefore, the only transfer possibility would be into the Junior Acting Ensemble, a tricky proposition as these talented students have studied acting together for the past two and a half years (and were excellent in their January performance!). Nevertheless, she made the necessary inquiries, requested and received the opportunity to audition, and nervously began preparing a monologue (or three!).

Her original audition date was thwarted by snow, leading to an agonizing wait for another audition date, which then fell during the rescheduled incoming Freshman auditions for the school, so she found herself auditioning with a pool of eighth graders and hoping the acting faculty remembered she was seeking a spot in the Junior ensemble. They did, the audition went well, and after another agonizing two-day call-back wait, she finally got the word she'd been hoping and praying for...she is accepted into the Junior acting ensemble!

She is so delighted and feels like a new chapter of her life is beginning. There are no words to express her joyful anticipation as she waits for her acting classes to begin this upcoming week. And we are all delighted with her. What an answer to prayer! While Maia is a very talented dancer, we feel she is now on a path to operating in her primary area of giftedness. We are so grateful to just have an arts high school here in Baltimore, but even more, to have one in which the faculty is willing to look at each student individually, and help each one craft their own artistic path with excellent training and immeasurable encouragement.

Maia says she's keeping that audition name tag forever!

Go, Maia, go! Run on, run on...well, for now, till the crutches are gone...hop on, hop on!!

Much love. Take care!

A Happy Place To Create...and Be Inspired

Johngideon has been excited for the past couple of weeks with the thought of starting a children's art class on Saturdays. His first class was yesterday, and I was a tad anxious because when we registered, his first choice class (creative construction) was full and he had to sign-up for a drawing class instead. Johngideon likes to do and I wasn't sure drawing for two and a half hours at a clip would hold his interest and I didn't want all that anticipatory crescendo-ing to come crashing down in a disappointing pile of reality. So...I hovered for a bit as the class began, trying to get a vibe for the teacher and what the students were about to do. Finally I rather reluctantly left the classroom.

I needn't have worried for a minute. Johngideon was glowing at the end of the class. He'd had a great time and eagerly showed me his newly created artwork by the wall. The class had been read a story about dragons and each created drawings based on their mental images of the story. Rather than drawing only, they'd created the dragons in their artwork as tissue paper collages. His dragon dominated his drawing and he was quite pleased with the end product. I loved it too!

I am so heart satisfied that he gets to spend a good chunk of time every week in such a wonderful environment created for the sole purpose of people having life space to be creative. What a wonderful treasure to be able to think uninterrupted creative thoughts, and have no agenda or objective other than to just let your creative energies flow for two and a half hours at a time. How peaceful and nourishing to his little soul. And, just look at what we pass on the way to his classroom...

...this awesome wall...

...and this awesome sculpture...

How goose-bumpingly creative! We are so blessed to have such opportunities in life. Thank you, God.

The teacher told him the class runs until April 9th. Somehow he heard August 9th, and was rather disappointed when I  provided the accurate ending date. He said..."well, I hope it goes until August 9th anyway!"

Even though I know better, I said "Me too!"   Ahhh...hope springs eternal!

Take care. Much love.

Marvelous Mistake

Johngideon was assigned a puppet project as a kind of book report for the month of January. The instructions were to create any kind of puppet (paper bag, wooden spoon, balloon-head, felt hand, etc) of a character from one of your favorite books read that month. His favorite books of late are the Captain Underpants series, but he was mortified at the thought of taking in a puppet wearing just underwear :o) and decided instead on Gideon from a Gideon's Army book he really likes. Why, oh why, did I suggest it might be fun to make a marionette?

Of course we didn't start on time. Of course we didn't use any of the whole week of days out of school last week to work on it. Of course we thought it would be easier than it turned out to be. Nevertheless, he was a trooper and day after crammy day of puppet-making, he kept his excitement level high, suffered through hot glue ouchies, and frequent Mommy interruptions, until we finally emerged with a completed project late this evening.

Meet Gideon the marionette. Johngideon and I think he looks great. He can't wait to take him in to school tomorrow!

Take Care. Much Love.

First Real Snow of the Season

On Wednesday morning we woke to the news that most of the schools in the area were closed due to weather. As we went to the windows in surprise, we saw that Tuesday night we'd had a sneak attack of snowfall. Only rain had been predicted, but temperatures dropped so we ended up with several inches of snow instead...and it was still falling that morning. Needless to say, the children were all excited and thrilled (age is no determination of excitement and thrillation when it comes to a snow day!) We spent the day relaxing with a big breakfast, enjoying time with house guests who were visiting, and watching the kids have a great time outside. Craig took Josiah and Johngideon to sled on a nearby hill dubbed "Suicide Hill" with neighbor friends Emmett and Liam.

While they were there, their little sister Mara hung out with Montgomery.

The two girls spent a long time outside, surprisingly right after each of them had eaten big bowls of fresh snow! My insides would have been way too cold at that point...aaahhh, youth! They "made" trees and snowangels.

When it was time to come in, the two of them delightedly brought in two more big bowls of snow...grass- flavored this time. ;o)

That evening, as everyone was warming up drinking hot cocoa, we watched the next wave of snowfall hit our area...the one that had actually been predicted. It was beautiful because this was the heavy kind of snow that falls something like 2-3 inches per hour. Auntie Joanne ended up spending the night after she'd stopped by for dinner, because the snowfall came so fast and furious that driving conditions deteriorated unexpectedly rapidly and it was not safe for her to make the drive home. (We heard on the news the next morning that so many people got stranded on the highways heading out of town after work; many people spent the night in their cars and others just left their cars and walked to public places for the night; city hotels were sold out with some folks actually spending the night in lobbies too.)

Maia had a flight out early Thursday morning for a dance conference and she and I spend the evening -- no, actually all night :o) -- twisting her fro into the most beautiful individual twists...and checking the airline website to see if her flight was delayed or cancelled. Surprisingly, even with the 10 inches of snow we got that evening, her flight was scheduled to leave on time. There are no hair photos to post here because, needless to say, the wee hours of Thursday morning were spent in a flurry of finishing packing (not fun when you're on crutches!), and for Craig and Job, getting the walks and street and cars shoveled out enough to make the drive to the airport (thank God for the menfolk!). She and the other delighted travelers are now in sunny California enjoying 80 degree weather!

While I am not a personal fan of snow, having grown up in Charleston, SC, where I doubt our city government even owned a snow plow, I do have a high appreciation for the beauty of seeing the world covered in a blanket of sparkling white. Thursday morning's trees from our back window were delightfully lovely and standing there soaking up all that beauty really fed my soul.

Thank you, God.

 His artistry has no equal.

Later that day, I did the previously unthinkable and joined my crew for an hour or so of sledding on another nearby hill (not so "suicidal") that was better sized for Montgomery to enjoy the experience as well. When I say I joined them for sledding, that actually means I watched them sled from my picturing-taking post in front of the big tree at the foot of the hill (the one another mother leaving when we arrived warned me could make for a rough finish to a really fast not-so-well-controlled sled run). (I later dubbed this the hill's "pee tree" due to all the areas of suspicious looking yellow snow behind it!)

It was Gommy's first real sledding experience...

...turns out she LOVES sledding!

...she even enjoyed the wipe-outs!...

...and she and Johngideon, Josiah and Job just had a great time.

 

 

  

A little ramplet had been built midway down one run, so Craig beefed it up a bit and it provided a fun moment of airborne action on the way down the hill.

 It was fun, until a landing took out one of our disks!

This was perfect snowball and snowman snow, heavy, thick and wet...so we couldn't resist a bit of snowball fighting. Job is clearly the most skilled at this endeavor, so we ended up needing to have our team division be something like everyone else against Job!

No photos of the real fight because I was in the fray too! It was fun, but we sure missed our Maia.

Johngideon spent some time creating a new run down the hill just for fun. Gommy spent some time just lying in the snow saying "I'm tired," and so finally we all headed back to the van, cold and dripping wet, exhausted and exhilarated. We grabbed a couple of movies on the way home, and while I peeled off and hung all of our wet layers to dry, Job and Josie walked to our neighborhood restaurants to grab pizzas and Josiah's favorite: a meatball marinara sub. I called Johngideon in (can you believe he spent another half hour playing outside with neighbor friends after we got home from the hill!) and we all sat cozy under blankets in the den, devouring pizza and watching Despicable Me for the first time. Great movie, by the way...and a lot more reasonably priced at Redbox family pricing than family pricing at the theatres! :o) 

What a great day! This southern gal is actually grateful for interestedly accepting of our cold, snowy winters.

Thought I'd end the post with a bit of Job's tree art...this one is called "We're going sledding but I'm waiting for my southern-raised 'snover-cautious' mother to finish bundling up my younger siblings and that takes WAY too long!"

Take Care. Much Love.