Introduction as a Sunrise
By Jen Miller
Friends of Guest House, Spoken Word class, June 1, 2022
More Fun Fridays at Casa Chirilagua!
What do you get when you mix our art teacher Sharmila with dozens of elementary school kids from Casa Chirilagua? Why, puppets and sculptures and imagination, oh my! So much to share here! Where to start? Let’s start with Alberto Giacometti, one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century whose work was particularly influenced by Cubism and Surrealism styles. Giacometti was best known for the bronze sculptures of tall, thin human figures, made between 1945 to 1960. Sharmila introduced him to the Casa Chirilagua kids, gave them some pipe cleaners (tall and thin, get it?) and off they went! We just had to share the octopus video, and we love how proud she was of her creation. And the earrings, of course. One must be properly accessorized.
Puppets were on the docket the second week! It’s amazing what kids can create with paper bags, crayons, glue, and a free imagination. Love the blue eyeshadow and eyelashes on the puppet below!
I Like to Sleep!
March 11, 2022 – The kiddies at Casa Chirilagua were a little sleepy yesterday during our “Fun Friday” time with them, so they wrote a song about sleep. Why not? Meet them where they are, right? They sung to the tune of “I like to Eat Apples and Bananas” and you have to admit, it doesn’t get much more adorable. Actually, only one of the three groups of kiddies was sleepy. The other kids learned “Shake the Papaya Down.” and sang “We Don’t Talk about Bruno” (aren’t we all singing that?) Our older kids also learned how to draw treble clef and bass clef. Shoutout to our highly professional and fast-thinking singing teacher, Bharati Soman, who knew just what to do with this sleepy little crowd!
Lights! Camera! Action!
Acting is an art unto its own, and so many life skills come from it. First, just getting over the terror of performing in front of an audience – even if the audience is your classmates – brings a new confidence. Our 7-time Emmy winning Mike Baker, a professional actor and producer (and so much more!) coached the best performances from our Friends of Guest House clients in January 2022. He showed them the tricks of the trade – breath, pacing, key word emphasis. Listen to our newest potential Oscar winner here.
Write Here, Write Now!
March 10, 2022 – Sometimes magic happens when you put paper to pen. Our partner Together We Bake knows that more than anyone, and we love being part of their training program! In fact, they were the first organization we reached out to as a potential partner when Heard began in 2017 (their fabulous chocolate chips cookies may have had something to do with it)! Every semester they include a writing class into their training program and we were happy to help! Today our Heard professor Betsy Allen (yes, Betsy is a professor at George Mason University, holds a master’s degree in creative fiction) led us through a journaling class. Armed with the new notebooks that we always provide, we wrote about what we learned last year, our goals for this year, and what our ideal career would be five years from now (mine is running Heard). It’s amazing what comes out of your brain and onto a blank page. I had a major “aha” moment and once again realized that writing really is cheaper than therapy.
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