STEM plus Arts = Learning Full STEAM ahead!

We frequently share stories about how students and families have been impacted by a Story Tapestries event, workshop or residency.  Another beautiful facet we love is working directly with teachers, community leaders and other professionals by supplying the tools and skills to build on the work we do with students.  Adults, like students, are often hesitant to engage initially but after a few warm up activities they are transformed as the sessions move forward.

Bomani Armah, a hip-hop songwriter and one of our collaborators, recently taught a Professional Development Workshop training all staff connected the YMCA Youth and Family Services (YFS), a community-based, comprehensive social services branch of the YMCA Metropolitan Washington. YMCA – YFS provides school and community-based prevention and early intervention services to at-risk and under-served children and families from across Montgomery County, MD. Most of the services they provide are free to the community.

This workshop with Bomani focused on creative writing through hip-hop and was an INCREDIBLE SUCCESS! The counselors were visibly eager to learn how to bring the tips and lessons from the class to their students. The workshop attendees wrote rhyming raps of their own lives and performed to music in front of each other. It was amazing to see everyone smiling and laughing as they succeeded with a new skill, you can see the beauty HERE.

We have additional workshops scheduled at this location and next time the students will be brought in to join the fun. We are really looking forward to observing teachers incorporate lessons from our workshops into their classrooms. The raps they wrote in the class were just the tip of the iceberg.

Like many other community centers or schools, wanted a continuous program that would build a solid foundation with their staff and students. Their Benchmarks Program, focused on Middle School age, goal is to catch the students at the point where they are starting to show they are not sure about education, as they are starting to lose their desire to learn and to reignite their love of learning. We were thrilled to be invited to provide an artist-in-residency in this program. An artist-in-residency program creates the opportunity for a child to participate in a 5-day program that provides a literacy boost that lasts a lifetime. Providing this opportunity costs only $40 (on average) to make a real and lasting difference in a student’s life.

Your support matters!! Thank you for giving!!

Families in DC got funky with the fun, fresh musical approach of Jamaal Collier at a local Washington D.C. School. During a Family Night event, Jamaal used music to engage participants in literacy development activities that had them laughing, clapping and having a ball. Jamaal was welcomed to an atmosphere that was alive with benevolent, rambunctious vitality and the family and community energy present only increased as the evening went on.

Family Night participants were eager with anticipation, excited to hear what the artist had to share with them. Jamaal’s performance addressed how music is all around us, the significance of the culture of Hip Hop and its history. He showed how we do many things with a rhythm and our own unique style, like rhyming. He performed a few original songs, some parodies of popular Rap songs and invited everyone in the audience to create music with him.

Children and adults alike were alert and enthusiastic to share and participate in the call-and-response time near the end. Sometimes when Jamaal would ask questions of the little ones, their parents were so engaged that they would forget he’d asked the kids to respond and blurt out the answer themselves in their excitement. Jamaal had a wonderful time sharing with everyone and left the school with a great sense of gratitude for the power music has to connect us to one another and to our personal histories.

We want more of these moments. Our goal is to increase our community impact by 25% in 2016.  Last year we reached 89,700 people and in 2016 we hope to reach 115,000. 

Thank you for helping us make precious evenings like the Family Night described above possible!

If you connect with this vision or know a friend who would please consider donating, please share this report with friends and family, or simply mention Story Tapestries in conversation.  Know that your voice is having an enormous impact!