The Last Stand

On Wednesday, April 17, 2013, Mrs. Walton’s and Mrs. Oursulik’s grade seven classes, along with Mr. Cornell’s seven and eight class went to the Neilson Creative Art Center to perform a collective poetic, and dance  piece on the theme of human rights.  This performance was the culminating task to the Creativity Rocks program, in which these three classes participated.  A video of the performance will be available on the art center’s site sometime this month.

Now, you might be wondering what exactly this Creativity Rocks program is so I will elaborate.  The Creativity Rocks program was a multi-layered program based around the arts, and creativity.  It was funded by the Youth Take Charge Program, and North Kipling was one of the 14 schools selected to be part of it, and the only one in Ontario.  Each group was given a different theme, and ours was human rights.  The program started with all three classes individually going to the Neilson Arts Creative Center were they went through a session where we created two different art pieces (see my first blog for details).  After that, we followed up on those art pieces with blogs commenting about the first section.  After this, we also commented on two of our classmate’s blogs (see my 2^nd and 3^rd blogs).  That was followed up by commenting on two pictures of students from other classes (see my 4^th and 5^th blogs).  That concluded the first visual section of the program.  When I think back about it, it was almost like a separate thing because what happened there didn’t get carried over to the next section.

A few months after we finished the first half of the program, we re-visited it in March.  This time, we were told about the upcoming performance, and our task.  We found out that we had to create a presentation on human rights.  At first we thought that it was only our class, but later found out that the three classes would create one big performance. For now, we focused on our part.  The first thing we did was get into small groups and created two-stanza poems on one line we chose from the Declaration of Human Rights.  After that, we combined them into one big poem about human rights, titled “We Declare.”  From there, we had to create interpretative movements for our sections.  We chose who would speak and who would move.  After we had created our small group part, we practiced as a class.  We then found out we would be presenting with all three classes, and we all wondered how.  A week before our presentation, we practiced with the other two classes.  We were amazed at how well Mrs. Walton had coordinated it to make it look like it was all one thing from the very start.  A special thank you to her; it would not have been possible without her.  Now that we had come up with the presentation, there was only one thing left…PRESNTING!

On Wednesday, April 17, we arrived at the Neilson Creative Art Center and ran through the performance.  The speakers also got to work with a poet named Andrea Thompson (I was a mover so I didn’t).  About an hour later, the show started.  It started off with a few speakers including a sponsor representative, the Milkweed Collective (specifically Austin and Ina), two city counsellors, slam poet Andrea Thompson, and a few other people.  Then it came time for our performance.  It is very hard to explain so that you can properly visualize it when reading so I recommend watching the video instead.  After we performed, Andrea Thompson also told us what she thought about our performance and shared a piece she had written when she was smaller.  It was about human rights and it was pretty cool because it was jazz and rap combined.          

When I look back at the presentation, I think about a different way it represents human rights.  When it comes to human rights, we always hear that every person can make a difference and when we come together we are strong.  In our performance, it was similar.  All of us worked on it and did a little bit.  There were three classes and about five groups in each and about six people in each group, so when you think about it, there were a lot of people, meaning it was a big presentation.  However, to us it didn’t feel that way.  Each one of us did a small part but when there were so many together, it was something bigger, yet it didn’t require that much effort on all of us.  This is the same for Human rights, if we each do a small bit, we don’t feel a burden, but when that small bit comes together, it is something bigger.

During the week we were in the art center, something else special was going on too.  The center was having its first ever, student-only gallery!  All the artwork in the gallery was created by g.1-8 students who participated in the visual art aspect of the program.  There were about 300 something pieces of art created and about 60 in the gallery.  Most of the art in the gallery was created by students from our school.  Most North Kipling students had their work on.  As for the other pieces which didn’t go up, they were being projected on a slide show so everyone had the opportunity to show their work.  My work wasn’t in the gallery. 

Two days after the performance, Mrs. Oursulik had taped our class’s part and showed it to us.  When I was first doing my movements, I was thinking I was pretty okay, but when I saw the video, it all changed.  When you see yourself from the third perspective, you can finally find out what your work is really like; and I realized that I wasn’t as good as I thought (I didn’t think I was good to begin with).  In fact, I think I was one of the worst.  I wish I could have seen myself like that before so I could have fixed my flaws.  The next time I present something similar, I will probably film myself so I know what I am really like.  (Mostly, I was much choppier between movements and moving faster than I thought I was going).

Overall, the program was really good and I would recommend it to other people. It was both fun, and educational.  One thing I did not however understand was the linkage between the visual art section and the performance because they didn’t seem similar.  Secondly, in the beginning, we weren’t exactly told, what exactly the program was.  We were extremely lost until pretty much two or three days before the performance, which I think wasn’t the best thing.  I would have preferred to understand the steps of the program, which would have enhanced the program.  Overall, it was a great experience which I would recommend to others.  I would like to end with two poems (I didn’t make them).  The first is pretty straight forward, while the second is pretty deep (I like the second one more).

To be Creative, by Milliande ---

To be Creative
is to unleash the fire within
that at first simmers slowly
biding its time
until it can contain itself no more

To be Creative
is to watch the fire carefully
guarding its flame
until the day
when the roar is needs to be heard

To be Creative
is to listen to the call of the fire
and release the fear
that it is strangled by
and surrender to joyfully watch it dance 

A poem about Creativity, by Sam Walter Foss (1895)

One day through the primeval wood
A calf walked home as good calves should;
But made a trail all bent askew,
A crooked trail as all calves do.

Since then three hundred years have fled,
And I infer the calf is dead.
But still he left behind his trail,
And thereby hangs my moral tale.
The trail was taken up next day
By a lone dog that passed that way;
And then a wise bellwether sheep
Pursued the trail o'er hill and glade
Through those old woods a path was made.

And many men wound in and out
And dodged and turned and bent about
And uttered words of righteous wrath
Because 'twas such a crooked path;
But still they followed -- do not laugh --
The first migration of that calf,
And through this winding woody-way stalked
Because he wobbled when he walked.

This forest path became a lane
That bent and turned and turned again;
This crooked lane became a road,
Where many a poor horse with his load
toiled on beneath the burning sun,
And traveled some three miles in one.
And thus a century and a half
They trod the footsteps of that calf.

The years passed on in swiftness fleet,
The road became a village street;
And thus, before we were aware,
A city's crowded thoroughfare.
And soon the central street was this
Of a renowned metropolis;
And men two centuries and a half
Trod in the footsteps of that calf.

Each day a hundred thousand rout
Followed this zigzag calf about
And o'er his crooked journey went
The traffic of a continent.

A hundred thousand men were led
By one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way,
And lost one hundred years a day;
For thus such reverence is lent
To well-established precedent.

-----Abdul