Programming Spotlight: Dance Africa

                                                            image credit: BAM website

Ms. Bespalova and Ms. Ikawa in collaboration with Ms. Fenster-Sparber Ms. Tamika and the NSD staff arranged a trip for Richmond Hill to go to BAM to see the 46th annual Dance Africa Festival.  

We were in good company with 2,000 people in the audience dancing in their seats and enjoying the show! This year’s production featured music and dance from Ghana entitled “Golden Ghana: Adinkra, Anase and Abusua.” During the introduction, we learned that the people of Ghana welcome visitors with the wonderful word “Akwaaba” which literally translates as welcome! The students also enjoyed call and response with the words “ago," and "ame” which were first uttered from the BAM stage by Baba Chuck Davis, the founding father of Dance Africa. “Ago” means "attention" and “ame” means "you have my attention."  Well, Dance Africa certainly grabbed our attention! --Lori Ikawa

Programming Spotlight: BAM's Word. Sound. Power. 2023

 On Wednesday, April 26th Belmont’s St. John’s group had front row seats for BAM’s annual celebration of poetry and hip-hop called Word. Sound. Power.

This year’s performance highlighted the griot as emcee with the ever-fresh artist-poet Baba Israel in that role.  Students’ favorites included  Dahlak Brathwaite, Helixx C. Armageddon, Silent Knight, and Pri the Honey Dark.  

Brilliant, heavy, inspiring, and hard-hitting,  and just when we  thought  the show couldn’t get any better it found new ways to amplify the messages we all needed to hear.

Even better yet, the following week, Jayson P. Smith visited with our students and led a creative writing workshop which brought us back to Armageddon's "James Baldwin."
A language-rich SEL-grounded experience indeed.--Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Duolingo

 

All Passages students -  secure, limited and non-secure -  now have access to Duolingo. The free application allows students to use their Passages Academy Google Classroom credentials to log in, sign up for one of the 40+ languages, and begin their journey to learning a new lingo.

Did I mention it’s all free and accessible through their chromebooks!  Big thank you to Mr. Garvey for making it happen.– Claudio Leon

Connections 2023: A free guide for formerly incarcerated people in New York City

 

This excellent and important guide entitled Connections has been around for a long time and this new edition is the best one yet.  It has wonderful artwork and opening narratives by the  powerful and brilliant voices of Grace Detrevarah, Kelley Harnett, and Terrence Coffie. 

 

If you, or those you work with are now incarcerated, or have been, this is the single most important guide to read.   And note if you’re reading this on a digital device, you can access Connections  here, free from the New York Public Library. 

 

The 400+ page guide provides  resources for dealing with Covid-19,  housing,  financial assistance, physical and mental health, addiction, legal and immigration issues,  veterans,   women’s and elder issues,  LGBTQI+ issues,  youth needs,  parents and caregivers’ needs, and very importantly offers resources to help with the job search.

 

Also included is a 2023 calendar, blank pages for notes, and an  index,  with artwork and quotes sprinkled throughout.  Hats off to editor Kate Heenan and the writers for this invaluable volume. Thank you to Sarah Ball and Ricci Yuhico for ensuring it reaches every site at Passages Academy.--Jessica Fenster-Sparber