The Art-In-Action Experience

By Elizabeth Konopka

Healing through arts

“…AIDS is a killer disease, AIDS has no boundaries as it kills, AIDS has no color, creed or gender. A child loses her childhood and it is apparent, the world is in crisis. It seems like the darkest hour just before dawn. Low morals and low self esteem have conquered our world like a pain dwelling in ones soul. A teenage girl gets a baby and throws her in the trash, and becomes a prostitute to make cash. Women commit suicide not knowing there’s a life to live and dreams to fulfill...”

-Written by Zipho, a 15-year-old girl from Port Elizabeth, South Africa

While listening to Zipho’s poem during my poetry class I realized, first hand, that the children of Africa were suffering more than I had ever imagined. I found myself in Port Elizabeth, in the township of New Brighten, South Africa, listening to this young woman and recognizing no training or seminar could have prepared me for such a visceral encounter. When it came my turn to respond, I wondered how I, coming from such an extremely different lifestyle, could do justice to the pain she felt and the challenges she had experienced. I am a freelance artist, dance teacher and administrative director of a non-profit arts initiative; dance and dance teaching is something I understand. This, I thought, may be beyond giving my sympathy or my acknowledgement. She deserved my complete comprehension.

I was given the opportunity to travel to Port Elizabeth through the Art-in-Action Experience, which is a program that uses the arts as a communicative catalyst for teaching children everything from self-confidence to activism to HIV/AIDS education and awareness. Art-in-Action, where I have worked as Administrative Director for four years, seeks to break down barriers of racism, confront negative issues that affect the world’s diverse populations, increase awareness and empower the feelings of individualism within the children of the communities in which it works. Art-in-Action offers its participants artistic alternatives for channeling their energy and emotions instead of turning to drug abuse, violence or crime. The program offers a safe environment where the arts are used as a vehicle of self-exploration and expression. It teaches children the motivational skills to care for and love themselves and their community through their talents and achievements. The experience is offered free of charge to all the children who participate.

Every year, artists from Juilliard, New York University and the Broadway Community (to name a few) volunteer to serve as teachers, mentors and arts advocates to over 300 middle school and high school students in both Homestead, Florida, and Port Elizabeth. In its fourth year of existence, Art-in-Action aims to encompass a diverse and intensive curriculum of dance, drama, music, visual arts, poetry, playwriting and cinematography. The programs culminate in fully produced public performances created by the camp students and staff.

Art-in-Action and its South African host organization, Ubuntu Education Fund, work in Ibhayi, a cluster of township communities with a population of 400,000. These communities, located in Port Elizabeth, are known for their deep engagement in the struggle against Apartheid. Today, these townships remain haunted by the systemic impoverishment and destabilization of Apartheid and are still reeling from the devastation wreaked by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

While in South Africa, I was given the opportunity to teach creative writing, poetry and dance. During the workshops, it was obvious to me and the rest of the staff that many of the students involved were struggling with the severity of their circumstances, in part because they knew they most likely would not have the opportunity to go to college, visit a town outside their own or attend another Art-in-Action Experience because of challenges like poverty, discrimination and some their HIV-positive status. This is a pain felt by many in South Africa.

The United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS estimates that there are 5.5 million HIV-positive people in South Africa, a country with a population of 44 million. In addition, the Ubuntu Education Fund estimates that one in four high school girls is HIV-positive, with that number rising to one in three by age 20. In part, this is because 25% of girls in Ibayhi are either abused or raped before the age of 18, according to the Ubuntu Education Fund.

Listening again to Zipho’s poem, I remembered these statistics and I wondered how to best approach her poem both with her and the rest of the class. Before I had a chance to respond another student raised her hand and asked, “For the performance can we make a dance to Zipho’s poem?” Dance, as I said, is something to which I can relate.

As I helped the children create movement to Zipho’s poetry, I was able to physically and visually comprehend her story. Through dance, we could relate to one another, and, as a result, the movement changed the way the children connected with each other. The choreography gave the girls and boys the freedom and safety to truly express themselves: girls who never spoke to each other dance with one another, boys who were too embarrassed to dance joined the group because everyone was involved, and students who were from different schools developed close friendships.

Despite the poem’s theme of poverty and HIV, the collaboration helped to create something positive, something greater that the students will never forget. Creating the performance gave the students an eternal bond, something that is rare in their lives. The experience, though uncommon for these children, is a frequent occurrence during Art-in- Action programs. It is easy to assume that because of their lifestyles these children would be fragile, sorrowful and unsettled. This is not the case with the children of Homestead or South Africa. They have a deep connection with their history and are inherently a community of fighters, willing to strive for freedom, self expression and a deeper understanding of peace. A positive venue like Art-in-Action is all that is needed to complete their journeys into greatness.

As of May 2006, Art-in-Action officially merged with another non-profit organization, Artists Striving To End Poverty (A.S.T.E.P.), which is dedicated to mobilizing a global community of artists to create positive change for young people in need. Together, Art-in-Action and A.S.T.E.P. use a unique approach of combining art and artists in an effort to combat poverty on a worldwide level. With the support of private organizations and individuals — such as Broadway Cares/Equity.Fights AIDS, Paul Newman and The Newman’s Own Foundation and President Joseph Polisi and The Juilliard School of Performing Arts — A.S.T.E.P. and Art-in-Action can continue to endow these children with the skills to become a community of activists.

During the 2005-2006 school year, much of our efforts went into holding several small workshops in Florida and South Africa, which began one of Art-in-Action’s new initiatives, which hopes to eventually provide year-round artistic training in both locales. The 2005-2006 workshops reached over 150 students and covered not only training in the arts but also in-depth explorations of relationships to one’s community, focus groups on sexism and gender specific topics and introspective talks on the community leader inside all of us. Along with that initiative, Art-in- Action is trying to bring arts sections into existing middle school libraries in South Africa and is also building an all-girls orphanage/community center outside of Bangalore, India.

A.S.T.E.P. and Art-in-Action will always keep me busy, and more importantly, satisfied as an artist and community leader. Each day, this work reminds me that there is power in the arts and that with organizations like these, that power can change the world. Everything I’ve learned from dance — the discipline, the attention to detail, the awareness of others, the passion — and every challenge I faced through dance — body image, strength, stamina, artistic growth, embracing the unknown — is all represented in this work in one way or another. Like dance, this work leaves me open and sensitive to all types of anguish, which only strengthens my commitment to representing a greater good and helping these children find a sense of purpose by showing them I share in their pains, struggles, passions and love for the arts.

To get more information regarding Art-in-Action and A.S.T.E.P., please visit our web site, www.createsomethinggood.org.

Photo Captions (from top to bottom)

2004 Art-in-Action camp student Emily Padura participating in “Dancing with Paint,” a collaboration project between the Dance and Visual Art departments. Photo by Abby Gerdts.

Emily Padura, Woodlyn Love, Catalina Londono participate in improvisational work in dance class during the Art-in-Action 2004 camp in Homestead, FL. Photo by Abby Gerdts

Elizabeth Konopka and Lonwabo Mdingi at the 2005 Art-in-Action camp in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Photo by George Welik.  

The Art-in-Action Official Group Photo, Homestead, FL, 2004. The theme for the camp was “Opening Doors.” Photo by Abby Gerdts