A Flowering Tree
Phase One: The Tenderloin After-School Program
Over 200 young people from local public schools attend the Tenderloin After-School Program. The vision is to provide a safe place for the young people of the Tenderloin to work on homework, play games, and/or to take part in more organized classes in sports, etc.
Music has yet to play an integral part in these activities.
Looking closely at the make-up and interests of the participants, we put together a series of monthly percussion workshops from different parts of the world —
• Djembe (Ghana)
• Street percussion (Oakland)
• Quitiplas (Venezuela)
• Samba (Brazil)
• Tabla (India)
• Cumbia (Colombia)
• Taiko (Japan)
These workshops are HANDS ON! and culminate in the performance of a short piece that they will be recorded for the participants.
Maintaining this program year after year is an important goal. We feel, however that it should evolve based on various musical passions demonstrated by the participants and the desire to keep musical instrument in the hands of kids as much and long as possible.
2008-09 Dates:
November 21: Tacuma King, West African percussionist with Crosspulse.
December 12: Jim Santi Owen, street percussion.
January 16: Jackeline Rago with Venezuelan Music Project.
February 13: Celia Malheiros, Brazilian Samba percussion.
March 13: Kelly Takunda Orphan, Colombian Cumbia.
April 24: Robin Sukhadia, Indian Tabla.
May 22: Janet Koike, Japanese Taiko.
2008-09 Funding
Grant proposed to and recieved from Project Ahimsa (www.projectahimsa.org): $1,500
Grant proposed by A Flowering Tree and received from the TRA Family Fund: $2,000
Proposal for 2009-10
The workshops were a great success and we are working hard to continue them during the 2009-10 school year. We will maintain the monthly schedule, but expand the program by including one more activity during the week of the workshop. We experimented with this model for the Samba workshop in February, 2009 and the response was tremendous.
Monday—Carnaval mask-making workshop
Thursday—Capoeira martial arts/dance instruction
Friday—Samba percussion workshop
A series of events surrounding Taiko drumming could be:
Monday—Making Sushi
Friday—Taiko drumming
Funding need for 2009-10
The budget for the percussion workshop is $400
The budget for the second workshops is $200
Additional needs (transportation, materials) are $100
Seven percussion workshops @ $400 each Total |
$2,800 $4,900 |
We will also seek to expand this program to other After-School Organizations in the Bay Area.
A final grant report will be submitted after the conclusion of the BeatCrazy series, approximately in June 2010. The report will provide a narrative account of the overall series, along with the music recordings, photos, and video documentation from individual workshops.
