Mentor (through hip hop performance)

COMMUNITY PARTNER

Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Phoenix

ABOUT THE INTERNSHIP

Duties

The intern will be working directly with participants in At Home in the Desert at the Boys and Girls club to create work, assist with off site tours, documentation of project, writing and all other activities during the weekly sessions. She will be on-site 3.5 hours a week plus tours, rehearsals, performances, and bi-weekly visits to help oversee the urban garden project. The project will take place a total of 13 weeks, culminating with a final performance in December. In addition to her work directly related to the participants, she will also be responsible for editing documentation, archiving journals and artistic projects created by participants. She will also assist in the artistic vision with choreography and lesson plans for each session.

Population served

Underserved youth in schools whose populations include students eligible for free and reduced lunch programs at almost double the national average through partnerships with The Boys and Girls Club of Metro Phoenix (14 students). All partners have or will be engaged in planning and implementation.

Community need/impact

This project explores the many points of connection between desert life and hip hop culture through collaboration between leading figures in hip hop/urban forms and members of the Boys and Girls Club of Phoenix. These artists, based in Los Angeles respectively, will partner with local D.J.s and underserved youth in the Boys and Girls club of Phoenix to create orginal music and movement through the lens of the desert. Specific metaphors to be explored include light, heat, space, and flow. Participants will relate these elements to desert adaptation/survival, the cultural development of new music forms and their personal experiences.

The Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (HIDA) at Arizona State University plans to partner nationally renowned visiting artists, ASU faculty, and Phoenix area underserved youth to create a series of original, meaningful, multi-disciplinary performance works to be showcased in Fall 2012. This collective entitled, "At Home In the Desert: Youth Engagement and Place" is a three inter-related performance project. In this comprehensive and innovative program connecting art, science, technology, culture and communities, young people examine our desert city and their experiences through an artistic lens and use collaborative, creative tools to find new ways of knowing and understanding their desert home.