3rd Youth P.A.C. Workshop

On March 25, 2010 Youth P.A.C. held their third workshop at the Pillsbury House. This week the youth were asked to write a poem about where they come from. Kurt Mattsen- who facilitated the workshop- read one of the poems he had written from the prompt, "I am from..."

Once the youth had written the poems a projection performance was set-up where the youth's performance of the poem was captured by the computer camera and projected on the wall. The youth individually read the poetry; resulting in a dual performance of projection and spoken poetry.

Poetry Written by Youth P.A.C.

"I am from swing sets which sway back and forth. People racing into the fields making a crunch noise every step"

"I am from people you like to read a lot because my mom everyday reads me a book."

"I am from the the pencil I first wrote with...

I am from the floor that I had my first step..."

"I am from the sounds I hear from my mom and dad every morning..."

"I am from my neighborhood in Chicago Ave. where it smells bad on some days and good when you want it to."

"I'm From"

2nd Workshop with Youth P.A.C.

On March 19, 2010 the 2nd Workshop of Youth P.A.C. was held at Pillsbury House. A hip-hop poetry/spoken word teaching artist Anton came and led a workshop with the youth inspiring them to write creatively about their community and neighborhood. Anton works within schools and a variety of arts organizations around the Twin Cities, and encourages youth to write creatively about their lives.

The workshop began with a few community-building exercises.

Afterwards Anton asked them to write down five places in their neighborhood that were important to them. After this, the youth were asked to pick on of those places and to describe five smells which they experience in that place. Out of the five smells they were asked to pick one, and then to write down five sounds which personified and described that smell.

Then the youth were asked to "grafitti" their poem on a large piece of white paper.

They were asked to write their chosen place in the neighborhood down on the paper, and then to describe that place through not only writing down the words, but working to write the words down in a style that described the feeling, texture and emotion of the word.

The "grafitti" poem resulted in a collaboratively created image that represented the community the youth experience everyday.

In reflection the youth were asked to interview each other about they new skills they had learned within the workshop, and what they learned about each other. They presented their interviews by telling about the other person they had interviewed. Some of the youth's answers were;

"learned how to draw grafitti"

"learned about new people"

" I learned that a lot of people love their homes"

"learned about poetry"

First Workshop with Youth P.A.C.

On March 12, 2010 Youth P.A.C. held their first creative workshop at the Pillsbury House. Approximately 9 youth attended and participated in ensemble-building activities, along with an activity involving projection asking them to reflect on their neighborhood and city.

A map of Minneapolis was projected on to a piece of white paper, and the youth were asked to identify their homes and their favorite landmarks and then to draw them on the white sheet of paper. The activity resulted in a collaboratively created map drawn through the perspective of the community present at the workshop.

Youth figuring out where the home is on the map.

The youth used the projected map to identify their homes, schools and favorite landmarks- like the lakes and parks.

The youth worked together as a group to find the major landmarks, streets and highways on the map.

In reflection the youth talked about how much they enjoyed the activity of creating their own map of the Twin Cities.

Pillsbury House and Full Cycle

Pillsbury House

Full Cycle Shop-Full Cycle is a free bike program which helps homeless and street dependent youth age 23 and under learn how to build and maintain their own free bikes. Full Cycle will be collaborating on the Youth P.A.C. project to help construct a mobile projection unit for the Central Area Neighborhood.

Full Cycle also sells a variety of bicycles that have been refurbished by interns.

Youth P.A.C.Collaborators and Funders

Youth P.A.C. is a collaboration between Pillsbury United Communities, the Full Cycle Shop at Pillsbury House and Minneapolis Art on Wheels, funded by Central Area Neighborhood Development Organization (CANDO) and Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA).

http://www.puc-mn.org/

http://minneapolisartonwheels.org/

http://www.candompls.org/

http://www.cura.umn.edu/

Youth P.A.C. (Projection Art Crew)

Youth P.A.C. (Projection Art Crew) is a mobile public art project involving youth and adults from Central neighborhood. Youth P.A.C.will bring together participants in Pillsbury House programs with neighborhood residents to work with Minneapolis Art on Wheels (MAW). A series of creative work sessions will lead to a participatory, nighttime, outdoors, public art event that utilizes traditional art making (puppetry, drawing, poetry), combined with advanced technology(live video collaging, large-scale video projection).