Posts Tagged ‘rural’

Big Vision in A Small Town Keep Dreams Alive!

Posted on March 18th, 2010

March Madness!

The month of March finds Eth-Noh-Tec on tour throughout the Midwest with the first stop in Kansas City followed by engagements in Indianapolis, Indiana; Cincinnati, Ohio; Columbia Missouri, and off to the Sunshine State to attend the Story Camp in Orlando, Florida.  Robert’s solo show started off in advance of the duet performing in over 35 shows in 25 schools and libraries.  New on the stage are several new folk tales: “Tiger’s Whisker” (Korean), “How the Tiger Got His Stripes” (Vietnam), and “Double Trouble” (India).

Ever Hear of Ligonier, IN?

Over the 28 years of performing throughout the U.S. we’ve traveled to countless communities and met many an unsung heroes and heroines, people who have committed their life to bringing multicultural awareness and education to populations (both rural, suburban, and inner city) that might not otherwise get this kind of exposure.  Once in awhile, a small town like Ligonier IN appears on our radar screen, and one such heroine, like Margarita White and her organization “Celebrating Diversity Program” (CDP) emerges with glowing reviews.

Great News Going on in Small Towns!

This rural community took me a good 2 hours to drive North of Indianapolis.  When I arrived at the location of my first show at the morning I was greeted by the full bright smile on the brown skin face of Margarita White. Latina by ethnicity, home grown bicultural girl, raised in this predominantly white farm town amidst cornfields and grain silos.  Margarita works for Celebrating Diversity Program, an agency born of the Noble County Communty Foundation and whose mission is ”To celebrate Diversity by offering and supporting culturally related programs and services that enrich the lives of residents of Noble County.”

Diversity, a Dream Come True

Through this mission and with the vision of creating ”A community that discourages prejudice and fear by encouraging language and communication skills, fostering economic well-being and inspiring education, lifelong learning and community involvement.” Margarita and an enthusiastic core of volunteers run such programs such as the Girl Power Program, translation and interpretation services for the Latino community, cultural competence workshops, scholarships, an Ethnic festival… AND bring artists like Eth-Noh-Tec (Me!) unto the stages in schools before hundreds of school students.

Friendly Volunteers!

Julie Bells (seen in the green next to Margarita White) who volunteers for CDP, between shows, gave me a personal guided tour through their sweet town.  She pointed out that, now after moving here twenty years ago, she really appreciates the caring and community spirit of this quiet town.  Then Julie asked….

“Would you like to meet the Mayor?”

After brief introductions to Chief of Police, Bryan Shearer and the Mayor of Ligonier, Patricia Fisel- I asked for an photo moment.  Mayor Fisel commented, “I have a daughter living out in the San Francisco area”… just so you know mayor, anytime you want to stop in at the Eth-Noh-Tec Studio in SF… our welcome mat is rolled out for you!  (same for you Chief Shearer!)

When we walked into the local restaurant Dan’s Restaurant I was welcomed in, sat down and treated to a great lunch- afterwhich the chef himself, “Dan” came out to greet me (Dan, the only Ethiopian, probably in the whole county): “Next time you come make sure you come on a Friday night. That’s Ethiopian Food Night.  I start making my Injera (Ethiopian sour doughed crepe) early in the morning!”

Here’s to Small Town USA, like Lignonier IN and the good spirit of Americans, who celebrate diversity and who care about creating communities that work for all people! To find out more about Celebrating Diversity visit: http://www.noblecounty.org/CDP/index.html

Posted via email from Eth-Noh-Tec

Filed as: At the Moment, Tours  
 

Nov 6: We’re In Kanchipuram

Posted on November 28th, 2008

Our fifth day in India we moved on to a smaller city, Kanchipuram where we would be taking our storytelling exploration into the realm of more dramatic styles of storytelling: Kattaikkuttu.  This terminology created through the work of performer Rajagopal and Hannah deBruin is derived from a street theater storytelling called Therookuttu, traditionally used to dramatize excerpts from such epics as the Ramayana and Mahabharat.

The Kattaikkuttu Gurukulam, or Kattaikkuttu Youth Theatre School, provides a group of thirty rural, underprivileged children the possibility to combine traditional, in-depth training in the Kattaikkuttu theatre with basic education. The school encourages its students to explore their own artistic and intellectual abilities and to turn them into professional skills. This is the first time that girls participate in professional Kattaikkuttu training. The Kattaikuttu Gurukulam or “Youth Theatre School” was started in 2002 by Rajagopal, trained Kattaikuttu performer himself, and his wife — Dutch Indologist, Hannah M.de Bruin — believing that children born into the koothu tradition must be encouraged to stay on, with the promise of being able to make a living. The Sangam found many children of performers wrenched out of their households and trade by poverty, forced into child labour, and decided to bring them back into the fold and throw in formal education also.

The boarding school offers rural, underprivileged children in-depth training in Kattaikuttu, introduction to other theatre forms (martial arts, puppetry, story writing, contemporary dance), in addition to instruction in regular subjects as prescribed by the State Government. However, it allows for extrapolations and even encourages the students to be critical, creative and think out of the box.

The American storytellers were able to spend a day-and-a-half with the master artists and students as they not only shared their artistry, but hospitality with their wonderful lunch, engaging “hands on” workshops, and allowing us to share our storytelling with their youth.

Filed as: Tours