The Bronx Defenders : Community Outreach : The Community Arts Exchange

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The Community Arts Exchange

Effective social change begins with children who believe in themselves

For the past 5 years, The Bronx Defenders’ Community Arts Exchange has worked with third graders at P.S. 29 to bring together visual arts and literature with the goal of increasing self-confidence and insight through creativity and exploration. Volunteers from The Bronx Defenders spend Wednesday afternoons reading, painting, and thinking outside the box with the young people at P.S. 29. The students gain an appreciation for literature and reading, while being challenged to critically examine the community in which they live, explore their own artistic abilities, and develop a network of relationships with adults who work in their community. The Community Arts Exchange gives each young person a sense of their community as an artistic space, instilling a sense of agency and ownership that positively impacts their self-esteem.

At the end of the program, the students celebrate their year of learning, reading, and creating by working together on a large mural with a native Bronx artist. This past year, students worked with Anibal Rodriguez, a Bronx native and working artist, to create a mural entitled “Dreams,” in which the young people painted visions of themselves as teenagers. As in previous years, the murals are placed outside the Bronx Defenders office, making it a part of the shared neighborhood culture and allowing the whole community to share in their children’s success.

A partial reading list for the 2005 program included:

"Cornrows" by Camille Yarborough
"Sweet Music In Harlem" by Debbie Taylor
"Tar Beach" by Faith Ringgold
"In My Family" by Carmen Lomas Garza

For more information, please contact Asiya Razvi, LMSW at (718) 838-7878 or at asiyar@bronxdefenders.org.

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