Art

Actors’ Gang brings social studies lessons to life

WAVE NEWSPAPERS — After studying Mesopotamia for six weeks, Natalie Gualtieri’s sixth grade social studies class stepped out of the classrooms and onto the proverbial stage when the Actors’ Gang visited Culver City Middle School recently.

Published

5 years ago

January 6, 2019

Oakland Post

By Wave Staff

CULVER CITY — After studying Mesopotamia for six weeks, Natalie Gualtieri’s sixth grade social studies class stepped out of the classrooms and onto the proverbial stage when the Actors’ Gang visited Culver City Middle School recently.

Four company members from the Actors’ Gang, who work as teaching artists with the group’s Education Department, integrated themselves into the Culver City Middle School unit on Mesopotamia.

As class began, the Actors’ Gang instructors introduced themselves, Adam, Luis, Emily and Paulette, and established some agreements. After leading the students through some tried and true theater warm-up exercises, the Gang launched into the subject matter.

“You be the teachers,” they said to the students. “Pretend we know nothing about Mesopotamia. Educate us.”

The students called out four main subjects: The Standard of Ur, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Hammurabi’s Code, Mesopotamian Empires. While those are colorful names on paper, they really came to life when the Actors’ Gang got involved and prompted the students to fill in more details about each subject: “polytheism,” “Superman,” “an eye for an eye,” “early technology.”

After the students clued in the instructors with more details on Mesopotamian history, they broke up into four groups to create living tableaus about each subject. One instructor guided each group to write, cast and rehearse a vignette about their subject — on the spot. Then each group presented their tableau to their fellow classmates, who acted as audience members and critics.

The students who were in the audience made observations about their classmates and the material they were being taught. Between the students teaching, acting, watching and providing feedback, Mesopotamian history was imprinted and reinforced with them students in ways that go beyond what they can learn from books.

“When studying history we forget that they were real people with real emotions,” Adam Jefferis, the Actors’ Gang associate director of education, told the students. “Can you imagine what it was like to live during this time?”

Gualtieri beamed with excitement during the class.

“The kids love it,” she said. “They are just ecstatic. I have one student who really comes to life so much more than in the regular classroom. I bet these students are going to do well on their tests next week.”

Sixth grader Makenzie McCullen praised the experience.

“Working with the Actors’ Gang helped me remember the material, because we were learning it in such a fun and interesting way. This made me feel interested in the story.”

The Actors’ Gang is part of Culver City Unified School District’s Front & Center Theatre Collaborative, which provides theater arts curriculum. The collaborative is a unique partnership that brings together teaching artists from professional theater groups with local funding partners to create an unparalleled collective impact — the highest concentration of theater arts programming per student in any Los Angeles County school district.

As one of the collaborative’s six arts partners, the Actors’ Gang Education Department provides free after-school programs to all five elementary schools and Culver City Middle School, and in-school programs at Culver City Middle School, Culver City High School and Culver Park High School.

Through this program, The Actors’ Gang works with every sixth grade student at Culver City Middle School, including the Spanish immersion students who are taught in Spanish. Each class receives two visits per year from the Actors’ Gang.

So, how did Gualtieri’s class do on their test?

“The kids did a great job!” Gualtieri said. “Better, in general, than the first two units on geography and early man. I do attribute it to the Actors’ Gang, and having the students act out the different concepts and elements of Mesopotamia. They did especially well with Hammurabi’s Code of Laws.

“Almost all students answered the questions on that section of the test correctly. Aside from all this, they did a wonderful job participating with the Actors’ Gang, and were truly inspired.”

The Actors’ Gang will be back in the spring to bring another period of history to life with the sixth grade, this time in Ancient Greece.

This article originally appeared in Wave Newspapers.

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Art

Marin County: A Snapshot of California’s Black History Is on Display

The Marin County Office of Education, located at 1111 Las Gallinas Ave in San Rafael, will host the extraordinary exhibit, “The Legacy of Marin City: A California Black History Story (1942-1960),” from Feb. 1 to May 31, 2024. The interactive, historical, and immersive exhibit featuring memorabilia from Black shipyard workers who migrated from the South to the West Coast to work at the Marinship shipyard will provide an enriching experience for students and school staff. Community organizations will also be invited to tour the exhibit.

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

Early photo of Marin City in the exhibit showing the first department store, barber shop, and liquor store. (Photo by Godfrey Lee)

By Post Staff

The interactive, historical, and immersive exhibit featuring memorabilia from Black shipyard workers who migrated from the South to the West Coast to work at the Marinship shipyard will provide an enriching experience for students and school staff. Community organizations will also be invited to tour the exhibit.

All will have the opportunity to visit and be guided by its curator Felecia Gaston.

The exhibit will include photographs, articles and artifacts about the Black experience in Marin City from 1942 to 1960 from the Felecia Gaston Collection, the Anne T. Kent California Room Collection, The Ruth Marion and Pirkle Jones Collection, The Bancroft Library, and the Daniel Ruark Collection.

It also features contemporary original artwork by Chuck D of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group Public Enemy, clay sculptures by San Francisco-based artist Kaytea Petro, and art pieces made by Marin City youth in collaboration with Lynn Sondag, Associate Professor of Art at Dominican University of California.

The exhibit explores how Marin City residents endured housing inequities over the years and captures the history of plans to remove Black residents from the area after World War II. Throughout, it embodies the spirit of survival and endurance that emboldened the people who made Marin City home.

Felecia Gaston is the author of the commemorative book, ‘A Brand New Start…This is Home: The Story of World War II Marinship and the Legacy of Marin City.’ Thanks to the generous contribution of benefactors, a set of Felecia’s book will be placed in every public elementary, middle, and high school library in Marin.

In addition, educators and librarians at each school will have the opportunity to engage with Felecia in a review of best practices for utilizing the valuable primary sources within the book.

“Our goal is to provide students with the opportunity to learn from these significant and historical contributions to Marin County, California, and the United States,” said John Carroll, Marin County Superintendent of Schools.

“By engaging with Felecia’s book and then visiting the exhibit, students will be able to further connect their knowledge and gain a deeper understanding of this significant historical period,” Carroll continued.

Felecia Gaston adds, “The Marin County Office of Education’s decision to bring the Marin City Historical Traveling Exhibit and publication, ‘A Brand New Start…This is Home’ to young students is intentional and plays a substantial role in the educational world. It is imperative that our community knows the contributions of Marin City Black residents to Marin County. Our youth are best placed to lead this transformation.”

The Marin County Office of Education will host an Open House Reception of the exhibit’s debut on Feb. 1 from 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.. All school staff, educators, librarians, and community members are encouraged to attend to preview the exhibit and connect with Felecia Gaston. To contact Gaston, email MarinCityLegacy@marinschools.org

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Activism

Alternative Outcome to Slayings by Police Explored in One-Man Play

BLACK MEN EVERYWHERE! is the explosive new one man play written, directed, and performed by Jinho “Piper” Ferreira. Set against the backdrop of a presidential election, the play explores how political and cultural leaders wield the myth of the dangerous Black man to manipulate the masses for personal gain. Piper penned the follow-up to his ground-breaking solo play, “Cops and Robbers,” after an impromptu cross-country Black history tour.

Published

2 months ago

February 16, 2024

Oakland Post

BLACK MEN EVERYWHERE! is the explosive new one man play written, directed, and performed by Jinho “Piper” Ferreira.

Special to The Post

What would happen if police officers who have gotten off for killing unarmed Black people started turning up dead?

Piper penned the follow-up to his ground-breaking solo play, “Cops and Robbers,” after an impromptu cross-country Black history tour.

“My wife and I had been talking about it for years,” Ferreira said. They had taken their three children to Brazil several times and West Africa but had yet to explore their history as Black people in this country. “It was Juneteenth last year and I realized we had a few weeks to make it happen, so we just jumped in the car and left” Piper said.

Three weeks later the family had seen everything from the African American Museum of History and Culture in Wash., D.C., to the phenomenally preserved Whitney Plantation in Louisiana. They’d stood outside of the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., and paid their respects at the Africa Town cemetery – where the passengers of the Clotilda (the last known U.S. slave ship to smuggle captured Africans into this country) were buried near Mobile, Ala.

“We had the kids keep a journal of the trip and my wife and I took notes, but once we got back home, I knew I had to make the pen move,” he said.

Ferreira plays 21 characters in the 60-minute emotional roller coaster ride; personalities we all know. While brilliantly weaving in themes of revolution, treachery, and revenge, “Black Men Everywhere!” is surprisingly — more than anything else — a love story.

“I wrote the play for Black men and everyone who loves us,” Ferreira said. “The play is narrated by a sistah and performed in front of the deeply spiritual artwork of Nedra T. Williams, an Oakland priestess of Olokun. It’s called ‘Black Men Everywhere!’ but we don’t exist without the Black woman.”

For tickets, please go to: http://tinyurl.com/5dm3mhra

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Art

City of Stockton Seeks Applications for Public Art Murals

The City of Stockton Arts Commission (SAC) has announced the opportunity for artist(s) and/or artist teams to apply to design and paint original artwork on City-owned property through a Public Art Mural Program. The deadline for applications is Friday, March 8, 2024, at 5 p.m. Applications and additional information are available online at www.stocktonca.gov/publicart.

Published

3 months ago

January 24, 2024

Oakland Post

The Public Art Mural Program incentivizes mural installations by providing city funding and the means of curating the City’s collection of murals.

City of Stockton

The deadline for applications is Friday, March 8, 2024, at 5 p.m. Applications and additional information are available online at www.stocktonca.gov/publicart.

The Public Art Mural Program incentivizes mural installations by providing city funding and the means of curating the City’s collection of murals.

This program has $50,000 in available funds for artist(s) and is also available for those who have already identified funds and would like to complete a mural project on city-owned property. Applications will be reviewed on a competitive basis and selected by the SAC.

To learn more about the Stockton Arts Commission (SAC) or qualifications and eligibility for Public Art Mural Program, please visit www.stocktonca.gov/publicart or call the Community Services Department at (209) 937-8206.