By Rachel Paras | Executive Director
(excerpted from our January 2010 eNewsletter)
"The Mirror is Your Lens" was the latest project of our Girl 2 Girl (G2G) Program, providing seven girls an exceptional opportunity to investigate works by women-of-color authors and playwrights (Elizabeth Wong, Chinaka Hodge, Ntozake Shange) and consider themes including racism, sexism, and poverty in relation to their own personal experiences. "The Mirror" participants expressed their thoughts in writing through poems and monologues and performed their work at a professional theater, thanks to our partnership with Intersection for the Arts.
Many G2G participants had never been to a theater performance before, much less performed on stage. It was an eye-opener for them to see the behind the scenes operations including lighting and sound, and to think about how they would use theater technology in their own production.
On December 12th,2009, against a slide show of images from their own lives, the girls presented their work on the Intersection for the Arts stage to the delight of proud family, friends, and Oasis staff. Post-performance, girls gladly answered questions from the audience about their work. The evening concluded with a reception and a graduation ceremony during which staff publicly spoke of the ways each girl had grown through the project and honored the beaming participants with certificates and flowers.
"The Mirror" project included a small, close-knit group of girls ranging from the sixth through eighth grades: new friendships were formed and older girls gained confidence through mentoring of their younger "sisters." Given the safe and encouraging setting that is inherent in all of Oasis' programming, these young women had the freedom to find out more about themselves and others, as creative people and leaders. One girl summed it up, "I've been through a lot in my life... ["The Mirror" project] ...reassured me I will be able to overcome challenges."
G2G will begin another session at International Studies Academy in spring 2010.
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