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The Amazing Junk Jam

Are you ready to jam? Environmental sustainability and social responsibility take center stage in The Junk Jam Band’s high-energy educational program featuring found objects and homemade instruments. Everyone gets involved, as students create and layer sounds, using looping technology to create songs. Learning that junk can be used in so many ways has never been […]

Mad Dog & Me: Bullying and the Power of Kindness

This entertaining mix of world tales and personal stories addresses the universal experience of standing up for yourself in the face of adversity and bullying. Through fables, myths, and stories from his own life growing up in a rough neighborhood, award-winning storyteller and educator Dr. David Gonzalez offers insights and strategies for cultivating compassionate relationships […]

Arabiqa with Karim Nagi

Karim Nagi is a native Egyptian and performs on multiple percussion and string instruments from around the Arab world. He describes the history of each instrument, shares how they are made, and writes out the names in Arabic script. In the program, Karim involves the virtual audience with rhythmic clapping, word pronunciation, line dancing, and […]

A Little Potato and Hard to Peel

This is a universal story about a not so ordinary life. In this warm, smart, and engaging autobiographical program, David Harrell delivers a hilarious and insightful look at living with a disability. Through his journey we all learn to not let the challenges or circumstances of our lives peel away the core of our humanity. […]

Kwanzaa Tales

In her interactive performance, TAHIRA, shares the seven principles (Nguzo Saba) of Kwanzaa. She does this through storytelling and music. Kwanzaa is an African American and pan-African holiday which celebrates family, community and culture. The central cultural values of Kwanzaa are: Unity, Self-Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose, Creativity, and Faith. These values […]

Beats, Rhymes, and Life

This energetic and engaging exploration of percussion and poetry introduces students to how rhythms and spoken word can awaken their inner artists. Students connect to both verbal and non-verbal ways to express themselves while learning to develop their own unique voices—one word, one beat at a time. Topics covered by Poetry Meets Percussion include the following: […]

Using Art Explorations to Reach All Students

In this professional learning program with visual artist Molly Gaston Johnson, teachers will learn how to use basic elements and principles of design as a means of communicating ideas. Through designing their own artworks in a series of exercises that build from simple and quick, to more intentionally social-emotionally driven, and then curriculum-driven, participants will […]

Stories of Africa

In Stories of Africa, students take a journey through the African Diaspora via story. From the villages of Africa to the urban streets of America, TAHIRA teaches students the origin and purpose of stories in the African experience. Each student has an opportunity to select a story; make their own adaptations; and perform the story. […]

Creating Puppets

Students learn the ancient art of puppet-making and performance as they create their own puppets to perform original or traditional stories. Zach Green guides students in crafting shadow, rod or hand puppets. Creating Puppets is an ideal workshop to integrate visual arts with theatrical performance. Schools can choose to work with the artist for a single day to […]