Tag: HOPE Art

OJFA in Rainbows

The Rainbow Brigade || Lakansyel Squad … One of Project HOPE Art’s happiest afternoons in a long time. With just $20 worth of scrap fabric, 2 pairs of scissors, a flair for playing dress up, elaborate and inventive braiding skills, some portable lights – we wrapped the orphanage in rainbow braids.
Love Wins!

Our Art Director, Rachel Znerold started the Rainbow Braid idea in the States with various Musical Performers. We brought the idea to Haiti, on a small scale, in homage to the deep cultural history of African Braiding. Braiding hair was one of the few practices that slaves could hold onto and continue to openly practice in the New World.

We wanted to create a project that the girls at the orphanage could participate in with almost zero instruction and put their own flair and ideas into it. We wanted a whimsical, happy project. And we wanted to infuse solar lights into the project outcome as this orphanage does not have electricity and it gets dark at 5pm.

So here it is, the The Rainbow Brigade || Lakansyel Squad:

Braids are regarded as a cultural trait of the African people, and they can also be a fashion statement. The history of African tribes and the cultural significance of braiding is deep and long.

Africa is a large continent, which consists of innumerable tribes. The Massai and Zulu are among the primary tribes. Others include:

Afar
Anlo-Ewe
Amhara
Ashanti
Bakongo
Bambara
Bemba
Berber
Bobo
Bushmen
Chewa
Dogon
Fang
Fon
Fulani
Himba
Ibos
Kikuyu
Pygmies
Samburu
Senufo
Tuareg
Wolof
Yoruba

Tribal girls have varied cultures, and the hairstyles are unique and used to identify each tribe. Braid patterns or hairstyles indicate a person’s community, age, marital status, wealth, power, social position, and religion.

Elaborate patterns are done for special occasions like weddings, social ceremonies or war preparations. People belonging to a tribe can easily be identified by another tribe member with the help of a braid pattern or style.

Immense importance is given to the custom of braiding. The person who braids hair performs it as both a ritual and a social service. It is an art form taught by the senior female member of the family to her daughters and close friends. The person who braids well is considered an expert. The man or woman who braids does it as a social duty. No rewards are expected.

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Mesì Gueldy René et Deesse Aishar Delismond for helping ??

-The Rainbow Brigade || Lakansyel Squad

Thank You | Left Coast Power Yoga

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A big thank you to our friends at Left Coast Power Yoga who hosted a fundraiser for us on Saturday night. A special thanks to Andrew Abrass for donating a trumpet and trombone for our 2014/15 Music Class.

We made $460 in one magical evening. Hooray!
Project HOPE Art is excited to announce the RHYTHM & RECYCLING workshop this fall to kick off the Music + Art Lab at the Project HOPE Art Center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti!

Interested in donating Musical Instruments?
Click Here!

This November 2014, Bay Area artists Rachel Znerold and Melissa Schilling will travel to Haiti to collaborate with art teacher and musician Gueldy Rene on a week-long children’s music and art program —a multi-dimensional music, costuming and performance workshop, all inspired by and using recycled materials. Gueldy Rene will work with the students to learn the foundations of rhythm, beat, flow and connection, creating a musical composition with their motley array of recycled instruments (PVC Pipe Drums and 2Liter Bottle Horns), alongside donated ukeleles, guitars, kazoos, accordians, and traditional RaRa and Konpa instruments. Rachel Znerold, supported by other members of Project HOPE Art, plans to lead the students through a musical costume workshop, creating sound-making outfits and props out of recycled materials—imagine bottle-cap-string skirts jingling and plastic bag dresses swooshing, while all feet are tap-tapping to the beat of the musical accompaniment.

Haiti Five Years Later: Women on the Ground

For just $10 you can hear the powerful words of four incredible women.
Join us as we inspire, educate and present: Haiti!

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Tue, Dec 2 2014 – 6:30pm
Malya Villard-Appolon, Founder of KOFAVIV
Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis, Ph.D., Former Prime Minister of Haiti
Nicole Phillips, Esq., Attorney for the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti
Megan Coffee, M.D., Ph.D., Founder of Ti Kay Haiti

“Gason konn bouke, men pa fanm.”—in Kreyòl
“Women’s work never ends.”

On January 12, 2010, Haiti was hit by a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake, killing approximately 150,000 people and crippling the nation. The earthquake and its 52 aftershocks exacerbated longstanding challenges of housing, sanitation, health care and gender violence. Five years later, Haiti is still picking up the pieces, often with women leading the charge. Hear the incredible stories of women on the ground, from Dr. Megan Coffee who went to Haiti to treat earthquake victims and never left, establishing and running a tuberculosis clinic in Port-au-Prince, to Malya Villard, a victim of rape in Haiti who boldly founded and now runs KOFAVIV to uplift victims of sexual violence, despite threats against her life for doing so.
Tickets Here

Learn More about This Event on December 2nd, 2014:
CC Site: http://bit.ly/Haiti-info

Facebook: http://bit.ly/Haiti-fb

EventBrite: http://bit.ly/Haiti-EB

Rooz Cafe presents . . . The Industry Collaborative Show!

Join us for a Happy Hour Reception at Rooz Cafe.
1918 Park Blvd, Oakland CA 94606
Thursday, June 12th 6-10pm

Mimosas, Beer and Espresso await you along with the sounds of Brass Tax dj’s Ernie Trevino, Alex Mace and maybe a sneak attack by Denim Ding Dong (DDD)aaaand an ambient musical performance by local, Oakland duo Charlemagne Charmaine and William Korte.
(Catharsis for Cathedral, Brasil, Drifting House)

Featuring POP-UP PONCHOS by SuperSugarRayRay
and a pop-up jewelry show by Tidalware Jewelry (Sharla Pidd).

6-7:30 Charlemagne Charmaine and William Korte
7:30-10 Brass Tax

…About the Art Show…
Industry: an activity or domain in which a great deal of time or effort is expended a group show examining hard work in specific artistic genres and spheres of life

Martin Goicoechea: Women
Exploring the female form through a variety of mixed media methods including: acrylics, transfers, watercolor, ink, wood block and charcoal.
Contact: Martin.Goicochea@me.com

Melissa Schilling: Automobile Photography
The automotive industry in the United States began in the 1890s and, as a result of the size of the domestic market and the use of mass-production, rapidly evolved into the largest in the world. These photographs represent frozen in time moments in Havana, Cuba where many cars from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s permeate the roadways and garages.
It was such a thrill (on blueberry hill) to experience car travel the way my grandparents experienced it.
www.melissaschilling.com

Nick Huckleberry: Recycled Creations
Its overwhelming what is thrown out these days. A large busy metal shop may throw out bunches of pieces as general waste to them but gold to the artist. I have salvaged most of my materials, always trying to bring nature to the pieces by incorporating organic shapes. Bringing new life to old waste is a way of using energies of the old and introducing them to the new, creating a balanced harmony.
www.trueburningreality.com

Project HOPE Art: Cyanotype
Art in Haiti usually requires less materials and more creativity. For this project we needed only the sun, vegetables from our garden and a few chemicals.
Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. Engineers used the process well into the 20th century as a simple and low-cost process to produce copies of drawings, referred to as blueprints. The process uses two chemicals: ammonium iron(III) citrate and potassium ferricyanide.

Students in a Gardening Class in Port au Prince, Haiti created these cyanotype prints in February 2014. This was their very first time mixing chemicals and using their “design” eye to arrange kitchen utensils, fruits and vegetables on textured watercolor paper for 10 minutes under the brilliant Caribbean sun.
www.projecthopeart.org

Sarah Miller: Textile Photography
Laundry and People on the streets of Calcutta.
Contact: sarahmiller23@gmail.com

Sponsor a Student in 2014

Project HOPE Art is now fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas!

Our new Project HOPE Art Center is primed and ready to host countless children in an array of art classes. We need your help to keep funding alive!

Click Here to Give a Tax-Deductible Donation!

This Holiday Season you can give the gift of learning and development in the Third World to a family member or friend in the First World. Donate now and we will send the recipient of your choice a festive and cheerful e-card explaining the details of your very special gift to support art in Haiti!

Make a $50 Donation to cover lunches for one student for a semester.
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Make a $75 Donation to cover books, transportation and lunches for a student for a semester.
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Make a $100 Donation to support our new animal husbandry program in conjunction with our Art + Botany class.
(Yes this is the goat’s natural hair!)
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Make a $150 Donation to cover English lessons (including books, transportation and lunches) for an entire year for one student.
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You can also set up recurring payments to sponsor the Project HOPE Art Center all year round.

$1200 covers the costs of an entire arts education class for 12 students. Our arts classes create jobs for local Haitians, and all of this can be achieved with $100 monthly donations for one year.
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$600 covers the costs of seeds, clean water, nutritious compost and guest lecturers for our Art + Botany Lab class. All of this can be achieved with $50 monthly donations for one year.
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Just click this link, make your donation and we’ll be in touch to send a personalized e-card to the recipient of your choice.
All holiday donations must be in by December 20th for e-gift cards to arrive by Christmas! To help support HOPE Art and keep art alive for kids in Haiti, please consider making a tax-deductible donation. Your donation is incredibly appreciated.