Happy Black History Month!

Happy Black History Month! This year’s Culture Keepers theme is Chocolate Cities. The students at Northwestern High School, Suitland High School, and Dr. Henry A. Wise, Jr. High School are working on some amazing artwork that will be exhibited at the Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural Center. The opening reception and panel discussion for their exhibition will be June 1st at 6pm to 9pm.

We have a special bonus this year! All of the Culture Keepers will be participating in a youth-led conference at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center on June 3rd at 10pm to 5pm. Support our youth and register today!



Northwestern students working on a film to be included in the Culture Keepers museum exhibition as well as the youth conference. 



Teaching Artist Nzingha Shaw begins a discussion on Media Privatization and Defining Self-Narratives.



Wise student works on visual art following a discussion led by Teaching Artist Maleke Glee. 

Art Workshop with German Artist: Paula Doepfner

Culture Keepers exhibit at the Goethe Institute in collaboration with Paula Doepfner's solo show: Take it Right Back

Paula Doepfner workshop with students and Culture Keepers after school program

For you I have been absent in the spring (c) Paula Doepfner, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Tanja

The Goethe Institute facilitated a workshop  Culture Keepers!  Every year we engage youth in current social and political issues through the arts. The program has an international focus and a specific emphasis on the the global African diaspora and has received funding from the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to conduct international youth exchanges.

Workshop participants worked with materials such as water, paper, plants, pigments, etc. to address questions related to materials, processes, aesthetics – as well as the social construction notions of the environment, nature, the city, and beauty. Questions posed in workshop: What are natural materials? What are "urban" materials, is there a difference? Who has access to which materials? How are access and representation of materials historically, socially and politically relevant? Who has ownership of "nature," "the environment," "space"? Why? How is the nature of used and perceived global cultural differences? Who uses nature and what are the effects of these terms (e.g. climate change)? What is violence - on a personal (i.e. pain, sadness, anger), on a local level (i.e. physical violence), on a global level (i.e. environmental violence)? What is resilience? Can we express universal narratives of violence, resilience, or beauty through objects?

CULTURE KEEPERS ART EXHIBITION

Culture Keepers Quilt

 

About PGAAMCC Culture Keepers:   The Prince George’s African American Museum & Cultural Center is proud to present Culture Keepers, an arts and cultural after-school program at Northwestern and Suitland High Schools.  The focus of the Culture Keepers program is to expose high school  students to Prince George’s County African American history, culture, and art.  Major projects produced by Culture Keepers are innovative community arts and history research projects, that includes public murals and cross- cultural collaborations. 

Currently, Culture Keepers is held at CVPA, Suitland High School in District Heights and Northwestern High School, VPA in Hyattsville, Maryland. 

About Art Project: At War with Ourselves: The Battle of and for the Black Face Boy: PGAAMCC’s Culture Keepers at CVPA, Suitland High School and Northwestern High School, VPA, collaborated with the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center to create  art work in conjunction with the Center’s At War with Ourselves: The Battle of and for the Black Face Boy poetry project. Culture Keepers worked with PGAAMCC educators and artists to research the historical content of the poem and later create art based on their research. 

The video art and quilt interprets the poem  The Battle of and for the Black Face by Nikky Finney. The poem expresses the African American male experience in the U.S.

The poem also explores the African American presence in the Civil War and offers a focused and uncensored gaze at what tore our nation apart; racially and culturally, past and present.  

Project Title: At War with Ourselves: The Battle of and for the Black Face Boy Public Art Project

Art Projects:

1. Video Art Installation

2. Mixed Media Quilt

Culture Keepers, Suitland High School:

Students-
Kennedy Kirksey
Bryanna Rather
Mary Lane
Kenetia Pinkett

Karima Winter
Naima Shaw
Janelle Hobbs

Yasmin Eubanks 

Culture Keepers, Northwestern High School:

Students-

Angeline Kline

Georges Ngayap Hatcheu

Summer Judd

Destiny Porter-Stephans

Mabel Perez

Program Teacher Liaisons:

Maria Salanda

Roxanne France-Woods

Jamea Richmond-Edwards

Teaching Artists

Shaymar Higgs

Paul Grant

Chanel Compton

Scholar-In-Residence:

Arvenita Washington-Cherry, Ph.D

Culture Keepers Quilt

Quilting at Northwestern!  Culture Keepers at Northwestern High School are creating the quilt inspired by the poem "At War with Ourselves: The Battle of and for the Black Face Boy" in collaboration with the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland. 

How do you spend your Saturday?

How do you spend your Saturday?  Most people go shopping, catch up on Reality T.V., hang out with friends, or all of the above.  Now, that sounds like a fun Saturday, but in Culture Keepers we like to dedicate some weekends to looking at art, learning, exploring, and...hanging out with friends! The Culture Keepers Saturday Field Trip was awesome! On Saturday November 15th, Culture Keepers students and coordinators from CVPA Suitland High School and Northwestern VPA, who were able to attend, went on a arts & cultural field day to museums and had a blast!

We visited the National Museum of African Art exhibit "Conversations: African and African American Artwork in Dialogue".  It was so exciting to see traditional and contemporary African and African American artworks together exploring themes in family & community, resistance & social justice, and spirituality. 

We also visited the Hirshhorn Museum’s multimedia exhibit, "Days of Endless Time" and historical and cultural exhibitions at the National Museum of the American Indian.  

Special thanks to the amazing and dedicated staff of PGCPS and contributors of the Culture Keepers program: Maria Saldana, Jamea Richmond-Edwards and Roxanne Francewoods.  

Also to the Culture Keepers teaching artist, Shaymar Higgs.

Culture Keepers-From Poetry to Public Art

Poetry and Art!

Every Year Culture Keepers produces public art that interprets African American history.  This Year (2014-2015) Culture Keepers at Suitland High School and Northwestern High School will create public art to interpret the poem "At War with Ourselves: The Battle of and for the Black Face Boy" by Nikky Finney.  This project is in partnership with the The Clarice Center Performing Arts Center-University of Maryland.

Special Thanks to our Teacher Liaisons: Jamea Richmond Edwards (Northwestern High School, VPA) Maria Saldana (CVPA, Suitland High School).  

About Poem:
A series of performances commissioned by The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and Center Stage will highlight the poem At War with Ourselves: The Battle of and for the Black Face by Nikky Finney, which expresses the African American male experience in the U.S. The poem also explores the African American presence in the Civil War and offers a focused and uncensored gaze at what tore our nation apart, racially and culturally, past and present.  

About Public Art: 
Culture Keepers at CVPA, Suitland High School and Northwestern High School, VPA are collaborating with the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, to interpret the poem ""At War with Ourselves: The Battle of and for the Black Face Boy" by Nikky Finney.

Weekly Workshops:
Before any major art project, we must do our research! Before we begin making the public art, we research the subject matter through History & Culture workshops and Arts Workshops.  

HISTORY & CULTURE WORKSHOPS
First Steps are for students to learn the historical context of the poem.  Students take part in weekly workshops exploring the African American presence in the civil war, slavery in the United States, and so much more.

Suitland High School: Naima and Tailyn are paired up in a discussion about their interpretation of the poem "At War with Ourselves: The Battle of and for the Black Face Boy"

ARTS WORKSHOPS 
PGAAMCC Teaching artists works with students monthly to introduce new art techniques that can be applied to final Public Art piece.  

Northwestern High School: Students research African Textiles and create their own textile pattern

Shaymar Higgs, PGAAMCC Teaching Artist, is conducting a Fabric Dying Demonstration for Students.