In response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, DreamYard, a New York City arts education organization based since 1994 in the Bronx, New York, was invited by Mississippi Whole Schools Director Judi Holifield to conduct two-day intensive workshops at three Mississippi high schools: Ocean Springs High School and Bay St. Louis High School, both located in hard hit Gulf Coast areas and Laurel High School, an under resourced school in an inland federal disaster area.
The goal of the workshops was to help young people identify their own power to help their communities rebuild in the wake of the disaster.
The project has been funded by The Mississippi Arts Commission,the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation and individual funders.
Poetry Kite Workshops
Groups of twenty to thirty students at each high school have been working in two-day intensive theater, poetry writing and kite-building workshops with DreamYard artists Zach Rockhill and Vivian Williams-Kurutz. The DreamYard artists have team-taught and collaborated closely with teachers from each of the three schools involved in the program, Ocean Springs High School, Laurel High School and Bay St. Louis High School.
The seven-day program, which culminated on Thursday, November 17, 20005 on the beach at Bay St. Louis, celebrates not only courage and community renewal, but also the power of collaboration and the possibilities inherent in bringing together young people from different communities.
Contact: Judi Holifield, Mississippi Whole Schools Initiative 601-577-1553
Takema Robinson, DreamYard Program Director in Mississippi- 646-320-6158
Tim Lord, Co-Executive Director, DreamYard- 646-326-6085
Post - Katrina Arts Partnership
DreamYard and Mississippi Whole Schools Initiative
team up to empower students to help their communiities rebuild in the wake of the hurricane.
Photos and video by Bill & Sally Edwards
