“Phew,
what a night” I said to myself as I got into bed. “This will be a
night to remember,” I said following asleep.
The
first Chapter of this “project”, I guess for me, first started
when our class went to the Neilson Creative Centre to make artwork. I
never even knew we were part of something bigger until much later.
The next thing I know, Ina comes in and we talked about human rights.
This, at the time, made absolutely no sense. I wondered to myself the
whole period what we were doing. Later that day I asked my teacher
and he said that we were part of this project with Arts Smarts, and
we were going to create a dramatic presentation. This soon faded from
my memory, and I kind of wondered whether this was just one of those
things that teachers plan on doing, but never ended up doing. At this
time we also started blogging, but I thought nothing of it, I just
thought that we were doing it as part of our L.A. Unit. This time
period was shrouded in confusion, constantly wondering what was going
on. After a few months of nothing happening, one Integrated Arts
class, we made poems, about human rights, she told us that some
people would be speaking, and others preforming. I, of course, signed
up for preforming. I'd much rather move, then talk. This was the
start of the second chapter.
We
were put into groups, assigned with creating a dance like
presentation with one of the poems a group made up. The poem that we
got, to me personally is really strong and speaks a very vibrant
message about what life is like in other countries. I try to imagine
living in a country where if you are a certain religion, culture,
skin colour, other, you will not get a fair trial. I think this is
really sad and something should be done to stop it. The poem went
like this:
I
declare.... Everyone has the right to a fair and public trial.
Accused
of a crime I didn't do
Just
standing there when the guns went pew
Walked
down the aisle in an orange jumpsuit
Had
to follow orders of they'd shoot
All
I needed was a chance
Decided
guilty at a glance
They
can't play fair if only they knew
I
was accused of a crime I didn't do
At
first, coming up with a dance was EXTREMELY challenging. It was easy
to think of dance moves to do for the different lines, but all the
moves were way to literal and it made the whole thing look really
bad. So we kept on taking stuff away, and adding things, until after
one hour, we only had one line. Our group felt really discouraged
when we only had one line, when some other groups had it almost
completely done. But we kept on working at it and soon it all came
together amazingly. I would say that the main thing I learned from
this is that is that whenever you are stuck or need help, broaden
your horizon, and think outside of the box. This allowed me, and my
group to think about things we never would have thought of if we were
thinking black and white. My group was also really amazing. They were
Tien, Abdul, and Tashifa. They were all really nice, supportive, and
all of them offered insightful comments and observations making out
presentation that much better. They were really fun! Onto chapter 3.
After
our class was all practised up, we got together with the other
classes and practised. This was my least favourite part of the
process, and I am sorry to admit, but it was BORING. A) I sat there,
stood there, for who knows how long. B) I was not even allowed to
turn around for one practice run to see the other groups. In the
practising we got to know exact positions, movement, and what will be
happening in the real thing. Its good we had someone directing us,
because if no one did, it would be madness.
In
Chapter 6 we are at the Neilson Creative Centre, ready for our
presentation. With Pizza and cookies in our stomachs (I am sure a
whole lot more in Mingwei's), our energy let out by running, rolling
and fooling around outside, (it kind of looked like everyone was
high) we were ready to do our best in the presentation. I know it is
really strange, but I was not nervous about the presentation at all.
I was very relaxed, totally ready, not stressed at all. I think what
made it this way are two things. 1) The number of times we practised
(a whole lot). 2) The fact that there was not a lot of people there,
something that I am actually surprised about. I definitely expected
more people. I will admit that I did get a little nervous during the
presentation, especially right when I was about to do my dance. But
other than a little jitters, I was fine. I think one of the coolest
parts of the evening was when Andrea Thompson presented her spoken
word. When she presented there was such authority in her voice that
it was kind of like “Wow.” You definitely want to listen. The
spoken word really inspired me and spoke to me personally saying “You
can make something like this.” Here is a quote from my mom
regarding the spoken word, I also feel the same way.
“The poet was fantastic, her spoken word was creative, informative, and engaging. She connected with the students well and encouraged you and empowered you to keep on writing” - Cheryl Guinness
Even
though her spoken word was amazing, I probably will not write spoken
words in my spare time, nor keep a journal or find a writing group.
Doing that is just not my thing, not something I really enjoy. I was
really hoping to do a spoken word unit in DDM class, but our class
voted Shakespeare, which I guess can still be fun. Overall the
presentation was really great, really strong and powerful. I think it
was a cool opportunity to get together, with some class mates and
make a dance, something that I don't get to do often but would like
to. I left the Art Centre that evening thinking “After all that,
its finally done.”
Chapter
7 = feedback. I think that the process and the opportunity to
participate in the project was really cool and I am glad to be a part
of it. Though the one thing that really bothers me is the fact that
the student body (me) was not informed about most of the project. I
really did not even know we were part of a project until 3 months
ago, maybe less. Also, North Kipling won an award!! Since when, and
what for. I guarantee you that no students, besides those involved in
the project, know that NK won an award. I think that it would be
smart, and a good idea to inform the student body that we won an
award, and what for. I also really did not understand the purpose of
this project, why we did it, and for what? I think for next time, the
participants should be more informed about the project so that they
know more about what they are doing. Heh, maybe something amazing
would come out of being informed.
Overall though the process and being part of a project was really cool and I think it would be something I would like to do again.
And
so ends my 4th
and final blog. Thanks to all, especially my teacher, Mr. Cornell for
putting up with my long posts. I have OWD (Overnecessary Writing
Disorder) making my friend (Abdul) and my posts really long. This
blogging process has been fun, most of the time. And I am said to say
goodbye. :-(
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