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| | | Students from PS 161 performing a fire dance at SummerStage
| © JENNIFER TAYLOR
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Photos from SummerStage
Postcard from the Road: New York Area Concerts
On June 7, we celebrated our Silk Road Connect pilot program students
and teachers by performing with them at SummerStage in Central Park,
with some very special guests, including Tony Award-winning actor and
clown Bill Irwin and Grammy-winning vocalist Bobby McFerrin, among other
remarkable artists. Our Silk Road Connect students were new to performing, but they developed their own dances, songs and stories to share with a public audience what they learned this year.
We hope you'll take a look at our Postcard from the Road for photos from "Night at the Caravanserai: Tales of
Wonder."
We couldn't be prouder of these sixth graders and their teachers. Throughout this year they demonstrated again and again their willingness to work together, to try new things, to take risks. In the process they shared with us some of the remarkable moments of learning they experienced.
This year, these New York City public-school students and teachers worked with a fiber artist to dye cloth with indigo (an important commodity along the historical Silk Road); drew intricate Middle Eastern designs under the guidance of visual artist Kevork Mourad (who created amazing live animation at the performance); and learned melodies and rhythms with musicians who introduced them to the oud, the sheng, the tabla, and Western string instruments. Through these experiences, museum visits and a host of other creative explorations, they learned about the ancient Silk Road trade routes that connected Asia and the Mediterranean world, and the journeys of people, goods and ideas along them.
They also examined larger questions: What happens when different cultures meet? How is my life connected to the ancient past and to the lives of people living today in distant places? How do different cultures tell their stories through the arts? How can I communicate what I know through performance? Their performances at SummerStage as part of "Night at the Caravanserai" demonstrated their deep, personal engagement with these investigations. What advice did the students have for their peers who might do something like this in the future? Darleny, a sixth grader from PS 161 in Harlem, summed it up: "I would tell them to work very hard because all that work will pay off and you guys will succeed."
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