Insights from Teaching Artists

Julia Newby
Teaching Artist with GRIC and CPS Project

Place: Vision, Voice is a community based project that develops multimedia pieces that explore the relationships between identity, culture, and family with teens in the Gila River Indian Community. Through poetry, artwork, dialogues, and stories, these adolescents give a voice to their own thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Stephani Woodson explains that one of this project's objectives is to provide an opportunity "for youth in the [Gila River Indian Community] to explore their sense of self and their sense of their world using multimedia methods of expression, ultimately enabling then to share their voices with the adults [in their community.]" This program is not intended to be over once the film is made; this piece is meant as a starting place to then open the lines of communication between the young people and adults in this community. The arts bring people together, to share experiences, express themselves, try new things, and work to create something uniquely their own.

The teens at Ira H. Hayes Memorial Applied Learning Center have been working on "A Window into Family" for the entire 2004-2004 school year. Through this collaborate process, they have explored different forms of expression, created a trusting and accepting environment for the class to openly and honestly express their individual voices, and learned the technical skills of operating a camera and editing film. The students took risks, made committed choices, and learned from their mistakes. A majority of the students participating in this project are returning P:VV students, while some are new additions to the group. The fact that many students came back to work on P:VV shows their connection and dedication to this project. Having this community -based experience infused into the regular trials and tribulations of the common day allows these young people an outlet for their creative energies and personal feelings. It provides them with the opportunity to be part of a group of respectful and accepting peers, without the judgement, uneasiness, or fear they may endure frequently in their school or social environments.

This is definitely a challenging program for many of these teens, on many different levels. Putting themselves out there, in front of their peers, with the fear that they might embarrass themselves or get teased is a concern of all adolescents. Trying to find your own voice, and the insecurities that go along with that process, is what being a teenager is all about. With this particular group of teens bigger issues, such as gangs and drug abuse, are also dealt with on a regular basis. At a time when they are not confident with their own voice or have not found that voice yet, and in a place where their voice gets suppressed by other influences at times, asking these teens to open themselves up on film is a huge request. Some of these students have experienced things I never could imagine having to deal with at my age, let alone in high school. This program provides a safe and open space where whatever they want to say is allowed and will be heard. Listening to what they have to say, or what they choose not to say, is essential in forming strong relationships between the students and the teachers. Without that bond, we cannot expect them to respond and react openly and honestly to what we are asking them to do. The process of creating "A Window Into Family" is an extremely personal and intimate process; we are asking them to share themselves with their peers, elders, family, and complete strangers. And beyond that, we are asking them to acknowledge their thoughts and feelings by speaking them out loud and making these thoughts "real." They are telling the story of who they are at this particular moment in their lives, how they view themselves and their world, and how they feel others view themselves and their world. They created poems to tell about their families and their homes, and these poems are so expressive and deep. It is sometimes easier to express personal and private thoughts and feelings in the form of a poem. I was amazed at what these poems revealed about their perceptions of the Reservation, their families, and how they fit within these places.

There are days the students just do not want to share anything with us, and they just sit in the classroom pretending like us teachers are not even in the room trying to work with them. There are other days when they are dealing with issues outside of school and they come in with negative energy, which gets turned onto us in sometimes hurtful and disrespectful manners. Then there are days when they want so badly to be with us and participate in the activities, but they want us to acknowledge them first; they want to know that we value them and want them in the classroom with us. But whatever the energy the group and each individual student comes to class with, it is our job to feel out that energy and try to the best of our abilities to work with them. Some days we are so productive, get amazing footage, and film wonderful poems and stories from the teens. There are also days when nothing "productive" in terms of the video gets accomplished, but a student opens up and confides in us, or takes comfort in us just being there with them, and in those cases our work is just as productive, on a different level. Many of these students come from families that love them very much, but sometimes as a teenager, it is important to have adult role models that are not family. We are adults that care tremendously for these students, and they know this. We listen to them, their concerns, wants, and needs, and they play an important part in our lives. And I think many of them know this, which is why they feel so comfortable and safe spending time with us.

Working as a large group can be difficult some days; this group has many different dynamics, and at times these dynamics do not work well with one another. Our time with the students in small groups or one-on-one are amazing, and they relax and open up and share so much with us. These are the moments when great work gets done; they stop hiding behind masks and let themselves be them-with all their beautiful qualities and vulnerabilities, and it is wonderful. Many of these teens put on tough and stern outward appearance when, in actuality, they are just insecure, unsure, silly kids. I love more than anything when we catch those truthful and honest moments-it really is so beautiful. I wish we had the opportunity to work more often with small groups, rather than once a week with the entire bunch. We are more productive, on various levels, with smaller groups; the quality of work is better, the level of participation is higher, and the benefits for all of us are greater. It's hard to only see them once a week, unless outside of class, and for a huge chunk of time-it's difficult for all of us to keep our focus and concentration for that long! Lately I have been going out to the Reservation during the week to work individually with some of the students on editing their material. It is so great to watch them create their film-how they want to represent themselves. They take such pride in their pieces, and everyone loves to share the finished work with the entire class. To see that sense of pride and accomplishment in these students' eyes is wonderful-that is what this program is all about. It would be so nice if we had more equipment for the students to work with, such as more Mac computers to edit on. Right now we have one Mac at the school, which is wonderful, but it means that only one student can edit at a time, and it takes about two hours to edit one minute of footage. The learning and devising process can be lengthy!

We invited the younger children from the elementary school over to interview them on their thoughts and feelings towards family and their homes. It was amazing how the teenagers stepped up when the younger children came. They acted as role models for these kids, presenting a good example in attitude and action. They were inviting, mature, responsible, and helpful. Observing this behavior, I would like to integrate the younger kids into the P:VV program. P:VV could work with the younger kids and the teens together, where the teens would act as teaching assistants in the classroom. It would be a new learning experience for the teens in the program, and would allow P:VV to expand in the community. These two groups working together could learn so much from each other.

I started working on P:VV just this past February. In the short time I have been involved in this project, I have experienced amazing things from these kids. I have developed trusting relationships with the kids and some of their family members, listened to their stories of their pasts and present, their hopes and fears, and learned how to use a camera and film claymation/animation with them. There have been good classes and bad classes, classes where I don't want to leave and classes where I leave trying to hold back hurtful tears. But regardless of what happens in class, I always leave wanting to come back. I am new to the group, and so I am just beginning to find my place in this ensemble. I am observing how this program affects these kids, and how it affects myself-it is a wonderful tool of communication between the Gila River Indian Community and the families within this community, and between each individual young adult involved and his/her thoughts and feelings given voice and, therefore, acknowledged. I think this program is effective, important, and necessary to these kids in this community. It allows them to find their strength, gain pride, and a sense of accomplishment; it creates a working safe environment for them to go to, with people who care for them there; it allows them to use their creative energies in various forms, giving tools of expression for their voice to filter through.