Finally: WJPK in Review

“Two hearts one dream, two hearts one story”

“The only mistake I can make is not to chase it.”

“Dreams that give us space”

What we created

These are a few quotes from the original songs, sketches, and poems from this year’s production of When Justice and Peace Kiss. This summer 10 adult artists and 25 high school youth came together to create 5 original songs, 3 dances, 2 monologues, 2 sketches, 2 spoken word pieces, 2 poems, and 4 paintings around the theme of our hopes and dreams. Throughout this program youth were able to express dreams that have been broken in the past, ways they have seen God fulfill their dreams, and dreams that they have for their future. All of the groups were really excited to perform in the different artistic mediums. The students gave themselves fully to the rehearsal process and even more to the performance. After four weeks of creating and rehearsing, we held a culminating performance at a local theater in which we invited family and the community to come see the work that we created. It was a wonderful night and many were impressed at the quality of art these students brought forth.

My Passions Come Alive

My role in the project was to lead the team of adult artists and teachers, write and perform my own monologue, and write and direct the theater sketch for the youth. The combination of these experiences really highlighted my passions and talents, making it a really life giving and joyful summer. The students that I worked with in the theatre group all had a common dream of wanting to graduate and make their parents proud. The sketch that we wrote was about one student’s struggle to graduate and people encouraging and discouraging him along the way. The students were very excited to learn their lines and were almost completely memorized after the first rehearsal. The one student that was a little hesitant on performing did a fabulous job and thanked me after the performance for pushing him to do it.

We had an amazing team of adult artists who were really dedicated to teaching the youth. It was wonderful to lead them as they discovered what it means to be a Christian that creates engaging art. It was great for me to care for and work with a team of peers who have similar passions to my own.

Although it was a challenge to plunge into the world of performing again, it was great to work out those acting muscles for myself. I loved the experience of creating a character that is very different from me but still able to express dreams that I have. I challenged myself with trying a New Jersey accent which turned out to be really fun. The monologue was about a women who cared about kid's stories and wanted the world to hear them through songs that she wrote.

What I am most passionate about is giving young people an outlet to express themselves artistically and have their voice be heard. This summer fully encapsulated that passion and desire for me.

One of the youth songs
Youth dance piece
The drama group
Part of a poetry sequence of the skit

Graduating!
My monologue

Unusual Sperheroes

Recently, I led a superhero themed theatre class. First we practiced how common superheroes would walk like Spiderman, Hulk, Batman, Iron Man. Then we imagined how some unheard of superheroes might walk like Toilet Man (who saves the world from clogged toilets), Recycle Woman, and Alarm Clock Man (who saves the world from late sleepers).

I then let them create their own superheroes and asked them to come up with a superhero name, a super power, and what they save the world from.

Here are the most memorable ones:

Swagga Man- he gives people swagga who don’t have any.

I forget what the name of the superhero was, but there super power was that every time they burped a tornado would happen.

Pretty Girl- Her super power was to bring makeup to girls to make them pretty. (Really! Where are these kids getting this from so young?)

Small moments that matter to a theatre teacher

Some time it’s just those little moments or one liners from my students that make all of problems and exhaustion worth it.

This summer I have had the opportunity to teach theatre classes in the day summer camp that I work at. One of the activities that I do is called “Name and Movement.” I usually do this activity at the beginning of the week when I have new students to help me learn their name. Everyone stands in a circle. One person says their name and a short movement, gesture, or action to go along with that movement. The entire class then repeats that name and movement. You go around the circle until everyone has had a chance to do the name and movement. I tell my shy students that if they can’t think of a movement, to just do a thumbs up or wave.

I had this one kindergarten girl who was not shy with group activities but anything she had to do individually, she would hide behind her hat. Name and Movement was a hard activity for her. The first week she wouldn’t do anything, say her name or do the movement. The next week I got her to just do a thumbs up and the class repeated the movement. The third week, I got her to barely whisper her name from underneath her hat. The fourth week, without hesitation she smiled, said her name with her head up, and gave a thumbs up gesture on her own. It may seem like a small accomplishment, but to me it was a big deal. I want theatre to be a place where kids feel free to express themselves even if it’s only their name and little action. It was so cool to see this student progress as finally felt safe enough to proudly say her name and not feel ashamed to have the class’s attention on her. I was so proud of her.

I'm Only One Voice in a Million

I made this on my Sabbath and few weeks ago. It was inspired by a Natasha Bedingfield song, "Strip Me." There is a line that says, "I'm only one voice in a million but you ain't taken that from me!"

It kind of looks like it should be in a nursery. That wasn't what I was intending, but its cute and was fun to paint.

WJPK updates to come soon.

Wed July 27th!!!

When Justice and Peace Kiss is an artistic fusion of original visual and performing art created by youth from South Los Angeles and artistic adult leaders. Centered around the theme of our hopes and dreams, it will be a night of self expression through music, dance, poetry, theatre, painting and more.

What I am most passionate about is giving students a venue and outlet to express themselves and for the world to hear their stories and thoughts.

This is a night where students voices are heard, talents are shown, dreams are honored, and stories are told.

Please join us for the culminating performance of When Justice and Peace Kiss on Wed, July 27th.

Our performance will be held at 24th Street Theater. The address is 1117 W. 24th St. Los Angeles, CA 90007.

We will have two performances, one at 5:00pm and another at 7:30pm.

Admission is free!

Cockroach Combat

Supplies needed for cockroach combat:

Metal kitchen ladle

Study shoes (for squishing)

RAID

Lots of paper towels

Garden gloves

Hot glue

Trash bags

mug

Our story today is story for bravery, heroines, battles and victory. It begins on a typical day in the kingdom of Los Angeles in the castle of JAM (Jennifer, Amanda, Megan). The brave and beautiful Jennifer was brushing her teeth in the bathroom when she caught out of the corner of eye, a rather peculiar sight. When she turned there before her on the wall sat the most enormous cockroach she had ever encountered. It was an orangy gold color stretching about 2 inches long and ½ and inch wide. The brave and beautiful Jennifer remained calm in the midst of encountering this vicious creature and slowly backed out of the bathroom. She called for her roommate the fair and fierce Megan. Megan came to see this enormous creature. They knew that they must devise a plan to defeat this enemy as they would not let him conquer their bathroom. Megan volunteered to lead the attack, and Jennifer would come as back up. Megan armed herself with a coffee mug to smash the creature against the wall. But he dodged her attack and scurried down the wall to the floor. Both maidens screamed out in fear of the beast’s movement. New armory was needed to defeat this beast. Jennifer armed herself with a metal kitchen ladle and Megan put on study tennis shoes to squash the beast. As he ran across the tile, brave and beautiful Jennifer leaped on his path striking him with the ladle. She struck him until his body cracked and crumpled, his guts oozed onto the bathroom tile. Although there was much screaming in the battle, they could rest easy knowing that their bathroom was safe from the beast.

But this was only a small battle and although they had possible assassinated the leader, there was still an army of smaller cockroaches living in the kitchen. They devised that they must strike when the troops were sleeping. Fair and fierce Megan and brave and beautiful Jennifer enlisted the help of another mighty warrior, the kind but killer Amanda. Jennifer and Amanda decided to do a deep cleaning of the kitchen in attempts to discover their hiding places and clean out their army base. The first site of this cleaning was the counter shelving unit. This shelving unit has holes to change the levels of the shelves, pictured below.

Jennifer and Amanda discovered that the younger cockroach warriors were turning these holes into their own little condos. The kind but killer Amanda invaded their homes by sticking q-tips through the holes and then putting hot gluing in so that they would not return. Mission #1 success.

The next attack site was under the stove and fridge. Jennifer was not only brave and beautiful but has the strength of a lion to move the fridge by herself. Hidden beneath the stove and fridg, was a cockroach grave site. It was sickening to discover. The fair but fierce Megan went in with Raid to gas out any sleeping survivors. Both maidens, armed with gardening gloves and lots of paper towels cleaned out the dead bodies. Mission #2 success.

Although even now a remnant remains, the strength of the cockroach army has been defeated by the Kind but Killer Amanda, Brave and Beautiful Jennifer, and Fair but Fierce Megan. And the King stands over the JAM castle to protect it.

When Justice and Peace Kiss Week 1

We just had our first night of “When Justice and Peace Kiss.” It went great!

Our theme for this year is “Our hopes and dreams.” We started off the night telling the story of Moses and Israelites crossing the Red Sea through a short skit. We then broke everyone off into smaller groups based off what type of art they were most interested in. We had a group for music, theatre, rap/poetry, visual art, and dance. In these groups we had them write reflections based on themes from the bible story. In the passage the Israelites were about to have their dreams come true; they were finally able to leave the oppression of the Egyptians and say goodbye to their life of slavery. But after leaving, Pharaoh changes his mind and sent his army after them. As the Israelites see the Egyptians army coming toward them, it seems as though all their dreams are crushed. We had the youth reflect on ways they have had dreams that were crushed or broken.

Thankfully the story does not end there. In the passage we see how God took this situation where it seemed that all hope was lost and revealed his power and love for the Israelites. He parted the Red Sea so that they could pass through and then sent the water back over the Egyptians, drowning them. He provided a miracle to save them. We had the youth reflect on ways that they have seen God come through for them or a dream that was fulfilled.

Then it was time to respond artistically. We had a bunch of images cut out from magazines and had them make collages that represent dreams for their family, career, community, and what kind of person they want to become.

Then we had them take pieces of broken garden pots and write downs dreams that they have had that have been broken. They put the broken pieces at the bottom of the cup and added soil and seeds. We encouraged them to think about what God can grow out of something that seems broken. How do we want God to take our broken dreams and grow something new this summer?

Lastly we had them give us ideas about what type of art they wanted to create this summer. I worked with the theater group. I will get to hear more about how the other groups went later this week.

It was a little bit difficult at first to get them to think about dreams that have been broken or fulfilled. They responded well to the collaging and seemed excited to make it. When it came time to come up with ideas for a theatre skit they actually had a lot of ideas which I wasn’t expecting. They came up with an idea for a story that that is very true to their experiences and relevant to their life.

If you were considering supporting this ministry and have not gotten a chance to yet, there is still time.

You can donate online at:

http://www.streetlampstudio.com/get-involved/donate/

Please choose Fundraiser for Megan Ibarra in the Dropdown menu