Our english class will run from August, 2012 through April, 2013, on Saturdays at the Project HOPE Art Center. The class is structured for girls and will be taught by a woman instructor from the English in Mind Institute.
Together, we are creating an opportunity for girls of different neighborhoods, backgrounds, education levels and ages to come together and learn a skill that will help them mature into smart young ladies.
The young ladies in the class range across five neighborhoods and span educational, income and resource levels. They are 11 to 22 years old. All incredibly motivated to learn english.
Support this Girls Only English Class with a tax-deductible donation, here.
The Project Hope Art photo program will last for 16 weeks and started on Sunday 28 April in PHA Center at Haiti Communitere in Haiti. 12 participants were registered, 10 were present.
By Romel Jean-Pierre: Week 1:
The first assignment in class was to capture motion. Here students participate in an upcycled materials Can Race.
The course started with an introduction from the students for them to get to know each other, then we started with the first topic of the course: an historical introduction of photography, starting with the invention of photography through the invention of cinema to the current technology with digital camera. The participants then learned how to use a digital camera: how to shoot a moving body, and basic techniques to adjust the light and framing. Then each students had the opportunity to practice their new skills later that day by photographing a fun tin can recycled car race which was happening at Haiti Communitere and also to photo-document a ecological tours of the resource center.
Week 2:
The second class started by a short reminder of photography basics including principles of framing and lighting. The students then auto-analyzed the pictures they took during the precedent week’s class and were able to understand the importance of a good lighting and framing for a good picture.
On that day we had the chance to have the visit of an art therapist from San Francisco: Nathalie Brochstein. Despite the language barierre, she has been able to connect and communicate with the participant to the photography class, bellow you can find a report she wrote:
Session Summary.
Expressive Arts Session #1
Exercise 1 – Guess the emotion
Description;The group is split into pairs. One member of each pair moves to the side and is given the name of an emotion. Their partner then tries to guess what emotion they are expressing.
Goal;Identify emotions and warm up for movement based self expression.
Observations;Important to notice what emotions are move difficult to express than others.
This was followed by a check in where each member expresses the emotion they are current feeling
.* Good idea to start each session with an emotional check in so we know what the member brings with them and express it to the group.
Exercise 2 – Freeze movement with music
Description;The group is instructed to walk around as music is played. When the music stops they freeze and look at each other.
Goal;Moving to music is an excellent way to free up movement, warm up and helps the individual get comfortable moving within the group.
Observations;The location was too hot to continue this exercise long. Interesting to note that the group tended to join and physically connect. Important to note which group members move more easily in front of others, what movements they choose to express and repeat. What pace music they are freer with and what pace makes them uncomfortable. Important to note placement of members in the group. Who is in the center and who moves away. Interesting to try this again with local music that has more bass/rythm.
Exercise 3 – Pass the Movement
Description;The group stands in a circle and we pass movements to each other.
Goal;This exercise is aimed at moving and expressing ourselves in front of each other. This allows an individual to be seen and express themselves to the entire group.
Observations; Observe who passes to whom, how the movement is received and given. Size of movements and symbolism.
Exercise 4 – Situations Description
;The group then acted out situations in pairs and then as a group.Goal;This is builds the individuals courage to express themselves in front of a group and dive into understanding of situations and emotions.Observations;What situations were comfortable to them and how they played them. Here full stories began to unfold.
* Interesting to note that the role of the policeman was immediately to arrest someone.The session ended with a check in where each member expresses the emotion they think they will be feeling this evening.)
Nathalie Brochstein
In conclusion we can say it was a therapeutic day!
A bientot!!
Week -3
For the third course, Nathalie Brochstein, our art therapist started the program with exercises that help children to externalize. We then started the photography class by reviewing the pictures taken during the last session. Practical exercises to further accentuating the different plans and the various shots and the story telling. During the day the children were not only able to learn photography but they could thrive with the art therapy session, which helps them to be more creative and the discharge of stress in their daily lives. Thank you to Nathalie Brochstein for lending us a hand.
Nathalie’s report:
We had a wonderful session today.After the photo lesson I spent one hour with the children.
The first exercise was a check in. The group was divided into 3 pairs.
In each pair one child would explain how they are feeling to their partner and their partner would act out the feeling to the group.
Objective:This is used as a warm up and to check in and see how each person is doing. It also helps us identify and associate facial expressions and body language with internal emotions.
The second exercise is called inside/outside
Each person took a piece of paper and folded it in thirds.On the outside they drew how they would like to be seen in the world. On the inside they drew how they see themselves. Their internal feelings and how they see themselves.After 20 minutes of drawing each participant presented to the group.The drawings were powerful all members participated.
Objective:Assist in identifing emotions, how they want to be seen and how that effects them as individuals. Also a good exercise for presenting in front of others.
Week -4
All the students were excited to spend Flag day (one of the major national holiday) day) studying with us. After a quick therapeutic session, we worked on the storytelling and practiced with the cameras on different point of views. Each students wrote a short description of how they planned to use the camera during the week. We are really excited to see the result next week!
Week-5STORYTELLING part one .
For this class the student was have to: (Decide on a story to tell with photos, showing the class or something that happens at their house every day. Choose the best 10 photos and write a 2-3 sentence caption for each photo. they have to finish with a succinct story showing something simple that happens in their home. )
For this class everyone was on time *as usual and with a smile,we began by hearing each student talking about their week, and their prospective for the next weeks. it was really amazing to see how they were unpatient to come to class every Saturday to learn more of photography, but for me the most amazing how they are hunting to learn something new that they not able to receive at their school. * for those who goes to school.
Week-6 Storytelling Part two
For the part 2 of the storytelling the student was have to:(Read a newspaper. Find a news article that interests them. Shoot a photograph that could replace the original image accompanying the news story in the newspaper. Bring the photo and the newspaper to class.) But unfortunatly most of them are not a level to read and understand really well an article in a news paper 🙁 , so i was have to read and explain some article for them during the class and ask them take a photo who can better accompanying the article . And to be more effective i was invited the Belgian journalist Virginie Lejeune from lavenir.net , to explain them how to choose the photo to complete an article
As usual the class was so well..
Week-7 Revision
For this class we made revision on storytelling,various kind of shooting photos. we make photoshoot for everyone and it’s was so fun
Each trip to Haiti, we tote along five foot Literacy posters showcasing memorable childrens books in English, Kreyol and French. After reading stories with children of all ages we settle into an art activity.
For Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham, it was easy to incorporate our beloved Moringa Powder into the eggs and cover everything in a rainbow cloud of vivacity.
Big love, as always, to Aimee Gaines and Sarah Boll for making this program chug along the train trucks to our final destination — even when we’re short on coal, man power and solid foundational tracks.
Thank you Liz Ancker for taking one for the team and sporting rainbow dyed hands for a week at a time 😉
We need YOU! Donate books ideas, art supplies and best of all: cold, hard ca$h by clicking here: http://projecthopeart.org/fundraising-and-philanthropy/
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Staggering Illiteracy Rates in Haiti:
Frighteningly low literacy rates continue to be one of the biggest obstacles in Haiti’s struggle against poverty and stagnation. While Haiti’s Constitution guarantees free public education for all citizens, the government has been unable to fulfill this obligation. In fact, the average Haitian attends fewer than five years of school total, and only 20% of the population attends school after the 6th grade. As a result, many children never learn to read and write, and Haiti’s literacy rate hovers at only 55%, as compared to 99% in the United States and 90% for other Caribbean nations. (sources: World Bank and Library of Congress literacy statistics)
Renegade Storytelling Project:
In response to these illiteracy rates, Project HOPE Art created an Art & Literacy project to promote interest in stories using some of the world’s most beloved children’s books as our tool.
Our Renegade Storytelling Project kicked off in April of 2012 at the OJFA orphanage and the Centre d’Education et de Formattion des Jeunes in Port-Au-Prince, featuring Maurice Sendak’s classic Where The Wild Things Are.
We used a combination of story hours, art projects, and giant story posters to tell the tales and capture imaginations.
The girls began pummeling garlic and parsley in three separate batches, in wooden mortar and pestles on New Year’s Eve.
Twenty girls strong were all participating in a task associated with the famous Haitian Winter Squash Soup known as Soup Joumou or Freedom Soup.
To make enough soup for 40 people the girls would cut, chop, pound, puree and stir into the wee hours of the night. Then a shift of girls would go to sleep and a new round of girls from the OJFA girls empowerment center would arise and take up the baton, in this case a long wooden spoon.
Sometime around noon on New Year’s Day everyone sat down to a giant bowl of soup.
As we ate, I wondered where this delicious soup came from and why everyone was eating it. Up and down alleys, streets and boulevards you could see Haitians hunched over eating soup. Delicious soup.
“The soup was considered superior,” Marie Romelus says. “The slave – they were considered as lower class. So when we get our independence, we were free to have a soup.” – NPR Article, Belly Full of Soup
After more digging, someone at Atis Rezistans mentioned Claire Heureuse.
After careful digging, I read her inspirational story.
New Year’s Day marks each anniversary of Haiti’s independence from the French and the birth of the world’s first black independent nation. To celebrate independence, Marie-Claire Heureuse Felicite, the wife of revolutionary leader Jean-Jacque Dessalines, proclaimed that on this day no Haitian should go without a bowl of pumpkin soup (Soup Joumou). A colorful and delicious item on every Haitian New Year menu.
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Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité (1758 – 8 August 1858) was the Empress of Haiti as the spouse of Jean-Jacques Dessalines. During the siege of Jacmel in 1800, she made herself a name for her work for the wounded and starving. She managed to convince Dessalines, who was one of the parties besieging the city, to allow some roads to the city to be opened, so that the wounded in the city could receive help. She led a procession of women and children with food, clothes and medicine back to the city, and then arranged for the food to be cooked on the streets.
On 21 October 1801, she married Jean-Jacques Dessalines. She was described as kind, merciful and natural, with an elegant and cordial manner. She legitimized the children produced by Dessalines’ adulterous affairs. She was a contrast to her husband in her tolerance and support and by showing indiscriminate kindness to people of all colors. She was a great opponent of Dessalines’ policy toward the white French people of Haiti; she saw to the needs of the prisoners, and she did not hesitate, despite her husband’s anger, to save many of them from the 1804 Haiti Massacre arranged by her husband. She is reported to have fallen to her knees before him to beg him to spare their lives and is said to have hidden one of them, Descourtilz, under her own bed to save him. She was made Empress of Haiti in 1804 upon the creation of the monarchy of Haiti, and crowned with her husband at the Church of Champ-de-Mars on 8 October 1804. She kept the status for two years.
After the deposition and death of her Dessalines in 1806, she denied the offer from Henry Christophe to move in with his family. As a widow, she was styled Princess Dowager on 17 October 1806. As the property of her late husband was confiscated, she lived in poverty in Saint-Marc until August 1843, when she was granted a pension 1,200 gourdes.
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So it was Claire Heureuse who took to leading women into the streets to cook food out in the open, to be shared with all.
Soup Joumou is a mildly spicy soup native to Haitian cuisine, although variations of it can be found throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
This savory pumpkin soup is served in Haiti on January 1, the anniversary of Haiti’s liberation from France. It is said that the soup was once a delicacy reserved for white masters but forbidden to the slaves who cooked it. After Independence, Haitians took to eating it to celebrate the world’s first and only successful slave revolution resulting in an independent nation.
The soup is based on winter squash. The squash slices are simmered in a saucepan along with pieces of beef, potato, plaintains and vegetables such as parsley, carrots,green cabbage,celery and onions. The squash is puréed, usually in a food processor, with water and the purée is returned to the saucepan, where salt and seasoning along with garlic and other herbs and spices are added. Thin pasta such as vermicelli and macaroni and a small amount of butter or oil is sometimes also put in. The soup is always served hot and is usually accompanied with a sliced bread with which to dip in the soup.
Soup Joumou Recipe
Beef marinate made by crushing 4 garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon thyme 1/4 teaspoon pepper, shallot and 2 sliced scallions and 2 teaspoons of salt
1-pound piece of beef stew meat
10 cups water (add more later if necessary to make soup less thick)
1 whole scotch bonnet pepper with stem
2 pounds pumpkin (or winter squash / butternut), peeled and chopped
2 carrots peeled and sliced
2 stalks celery sliced lengthwise and cut into pieces
5 parsley sprigs
1 large onion cubed
2 medium turnips peeled and cubed
2 medium potatoes peeled and cubed
1 pound cabbage sliced fine and chopped
1/4 pound vermicelli or other thin pasta, broken into shorter lengths
2 limes juiced
1/4 can tomato paste (for browning meat)
1/2 cup or 1 can tomato sauce
1 low sodium beef bouillon cube (if you’d like more flavor)
Directions
1.In a medium pot, cook pumpkin over medium heat in 6 cups water for 30 minutes. Purée pumpkin in the water.
While the pumpkin is cooking, clean meat with lime, rinse with hot water and drain. Marinate meat with meat rub. Rub the meat with the spice paste-scallions, onion, thyme, garlic, shallot, , green pepper, salt and black pepper ground together. (For an enhanced flavor, you can marinate the meat from 1 hour up to one day in advance.)
2. In stockpot, add the meat with the oil and tomato paste and brown by adding small amounts of water to caremelize the meat. Cook covered over medium heat for 20 minutes. Add 3 cups water and puréed pumpkin and bring to a boil.
3. Add the cabbage, carrots, celery, onion, turnips, tomato sauce, potato and parsley to the soup, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour with a whole scotch bonnet on top. (The whole scotch bonnet is for flavoring not to make the soup “hot”. Remember to find and remove the pepper as you stir the soup and remove it before it bursts)
6. Add the spaghetti broken in to short pieces and cook until soft and tender.
7. Taste and add a minimal ammount of salt, black pepper or hot pepper to taste.
8. Turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let sit until ready to serve.
To celebrate we made a Wordle Word Art of the most popular words used to describe our Art Projects!
Thank you so much to our generous donors, supporters, cheerleaders, volunteers and friends who made this project possible.
We thank you somuch for allowing to feel joy and spread that around for more people to enjoy.
